Solo: A Star Wars Story might not be the beloved franchise’s best effort, but it’s certainly packed to the brim full of easter eggs, references and callbacks to various films, books, TV shows and more from that galaxy far, far away. And as those who were paying attention will probably know, this includes one fun nod towards The Empire Strikes Back.
If you’ll recall, after Beckett brings Han and Chewie onto his team to help out with his big coaxium heist on the planet Vandor, his partner Val isn’t very happy with his choice. She doesn’t have faith that the job will go as planned and tells him they should’ve gone to more professional criminals for help – and one of those she mentions is none other than Bossk.
Of course, Bossk was one of the six bounty hunters that Darth Vader sent out to hunt down the Millennium Falcon back in Empire Strikes Back. He didn’t do an amazing job of that, truth be told, but Star Wars spinoff media has fleshed out the character quite a bit and made clear why he’s considered one of the fiercest creatures in the galaxy. In particular, The Clone Wars TV series revealed that Bossk was one of the bounty hunters that trained Boba Fett.
While the character himself doesn’t show up in Solo: A Star Wars Story, there is an interest behind the scenes in bringing him back to the big screen – perhaps in a Solo sequel. Co-writer Jon Kasdan was chatting with Screen Rant recently when he said the following:
“I think that if there’s ever another one of these, you’re going to have to either kill me or Bossk will be in it.”
Given how Ron Howard’s Anthology pic is performing at the moment, there might not be a follow-up. But even if that’s the case, there’s still hope for the beloved bounty hunter. As we mentioned before, he also has ties to Boba Fett, who we know’s getting his own film. So it’s entirely possible he could show up there instead.
Either way, Bossk’s name-check in Solo: A Star Wars Story is certainly a fun nod for fans to pick up on and has us hopeful that we may see him again one day.