The Mandalorian: Boba Fett will be in the second season, but should he be?

It’s official: Fan-favorite Boba Fett will make an appearance in The Mandalorian’s second season. The thing is … do we really need him to?

Back when The Mandalorian was first announced, Star Wars fans made all types of assumptions about Boba Fett’s involvement in the Disney+ series. Would the show focus on this fan-favorite character, or would he at least make an appearance? Since The Mandalorian follows a character from the same background as the bounty hunter, it seemed like a no-brainer that he’d at least make a cameo.

Yet the first season of The Mandalorian came and went without any appearance from Boba Fett — and despite any initial disappointment from fans, the series was a hit regardless. Between Mando, Baby Yoda, and Cara Dune, the show gave us plenty of new favorites to root for and obsess over. But that hasn’t diminished the love of Boba Fett, and it seems those who wish to see the bounty hunter onscreen once more will get to after all.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Temuera Morrison has been cast as Boba Fett in the upcoming season of the series. This isn’t Morrison’s first venture into the Star Wars universe, either — he actually played Boba Fett’s father, Jango Fett, in Attack of the Clones. 

Still, one has to wonder that Boba Fett would show up during this timeline at all. For one, his fall into the sarlacc pit back in Return of the Jedi suggested the character was dead and gone well before Mando’s discovery of Baby Yoda in The Mandalorian‘s series premiere.

This wouldn’t be the first time the franchise resurrected a character who seemed to have perished (ahem, Emperor Palpatine), but bringing back seemingly deceased characters does beg the question of what death even means in the Star Wars universe. By continuously returning characters from the dead, the franchise lessens stakes and emotional impact of losing them in the first place.

There’s also the fact that The Mandalorian has already proven it doesn’t need character cameos or major connections to the Skywalker Saga in order to succeed. It’s okay — and one might even say admirable — for this series to be its own entity in the galaxy. It doesn’t need to stand on what’s come before, and it may even benefit from not doing so.

Still, if Boba Fett has to be in the second season of The Mandalorian, fans couldn’t ask for a better actor to portray the character. Given that the series has been so successful, we can also hope that the character’s inclusion will be handled well — and not just turn into a cheap way of attracting more fans through a storyline that doesn’t make sense.

We’ll have to wait until the second season arrives to better understand Boba Fett’s role in the upcoming episodes — and whether it’s done well or not. The Mandalorian season two is set to arrive during the latter half of the year, though with COVID-19-related production delays, that’s subject to change.

Are you happy to hear that Boba Fett will be in The Mandalorian season two? Tell us why or why not in the comments below.