After months of speculation, the closing moments of The Mandalorian‘s season 2 premiere confirmed that the legendary Boba Fett had indeed survived his trip into the Sarlacc pit in Return of the Jedi, with Temuera Morrison looking like he definitely had a score to settle as he watched Mando and Baby Yoda speed off into the distance with his armor in tow.
To the disappointment of many fans, however, the second episode didn’t pick up on that dangling plot thread, and instead saw the title hero and his little green sidekick head off Tatooine entirely. “The Passenger” did open in standard Mandalorian fashion, though, by having the bounty hunter handily dispatch a group of bandits that wrecked his mode of transportation and had their sights set on robbing him blind.
Now, a new theory claims that the rogues may have been hired by Boba Fett himself, who appears to have focused on reclaiming his armor that ended up in the hands of Cobb Vanth by any means necessary. After all, having escaped from the Sarlacc pit and generally looking much worse for wear, there’s every chance that Boba isn’t strong enough to take on Mando without assistance, especially when he doesn’t have his usual weaponry on hand.
As ScreenRant explains:
The trap seems to be set in a similar location, and Mando is still zipping at high speed across the sands of Tatooine, so the beginning of season 2’s second episode could seemingly be picking up right where the premiere left off. If that’s the case, the bandits could actually be working for Boba Fett with the intent of retrieving his armor from Mando. The fact that a group of random bandits are not only confronting Mando but are actually anticipating his arrival clearly shows that there’s more going on here than a simple robbery. Considering where the season 2 premiere left off, it could well be that Boba Fett is intent on getting his armor back and recruited some hired hands to assist him.
The Mandalorian takes place roughly five years after Return of the Jedi, and so far, we don’t know how long Fett has been aimlessly wandering the sands of Tatooine after surviving certain doom. The bandits in “The Passenger” seemed to know that Mando was coming from a long way off, though, and Boba could yet make more attempts to get his armor back until he winds up face to face with Din Djarin himself in a later episode.
