According to Hollywood Reporter, Temuera Morrison will be returning to the Star Wars universe to play bounty hunter Boba Fett in The Mandalorian season two.
Morrison previously played the role of Jango Fett in 2002’s Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones. Jango was the “original host” for the genetic material that was used to create the clone armies of the Clone Wars. However, the clone troopers were not exact copies of Jango: they were genetically modified to be more docile and to age at an accelerated rate. While Jango did not survive the events of Attack of the Clones, his clone, Boba, did.
In exchange for the use of his DNA, the Kamino cloner scientists provided Jango with Boba, an unaltered clone. Boba has previously been seen on-screen as a child in Attack of the Clones and in several episodes of The Clone Wars (played each time by Daniel Logan) and as an adult in both Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back and Episode VI – Return of the Jedi (where he was played by Jeremy Bulloch and originally voiced by Jason Wingreen, until the 2004 DVD version changed his voice to Morrison’s).
Boba was last seen on Tatooine, tumbling into the jaws of the Sarlaac, a creature that purportedly digests its prey over the course of several centuries. However, since The Mandalorian is set several years after the events of Return of the Jedi, it seems as though Boba somehow managed to escape such a fate (a topic touched upon in the Beat’s Mandalorian season one roundtable).
The Mandalorian is scheduled to return to Disney+ in October, and Morrison is one of several titillating casting tidbits that have recently surfaced regarding the show’s upcoming sophomore season.
If you’re looking for something to watch in the meantime, consider Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian, an eight-episode behind-the-scenes documentary series about the making of the first season. It’s hosted by showrunner Jon Favreau and is currently streaming on Disney+, with a new episode about how The Mandalorian honors the legacy of Star Wars released today.