If you are reading this story, you have likely already seen the first episode of The Mandalorian's second season, or you want to know what happened. So, then it goes without saying, what you will read below will contain spoilers--perhaps even the biggest spoiler in the show's short history.
The premiere played out like many of the first season's episodes which acted more or less like standalone episodes with little to do with the overall narrative of the bounty hunter Mandalorian--real name Din Djarin, but commonly referred to as Mando--on the run with his adorable sidekick, an infant green alien species that the pop culture world calls Baby Yoda, but Disney+ insistently claims is known as The Child. Everything about the episode seems like a side story on the ultimate journey to bring The Child to his own people, from Mando seeking help on Tatooine from a fellow Mandalorian for said mission to the episode's title--"The Marshal."
But there is Oh, So Much More. First, the Marshal in question meets up with Mando in a cantina in an off-the-grid village on Tatooine wearing some very familiar-looking armor. Not only is the Marshall wearing Mandalorian armor, he is wearing armor that looks identical to the suit worn by the O.G. Mandalorian bounty hunter that caught the imagination of all the slightly children who loved the first Star Wars trilogy. Yes, we're talking about Boba Fett here. Only, the Marshal soon removes the helmet, and we all know that revealing your face is a big no-no to Mandalorians. Then, given considering all that we know of Fett's background, we know this slender gentleman (played by Deadwood's Timothy Olyphant) with a nice coif of silver hair and a twang to his voice is not our Boba. Mando realizes this, too, and a shoot-out looks imminent.
As it turns out, the Marshal traded some precious crystals for the armor from some Jawas. He found it useful in protecting the people of the village from invaders, including from Tusken Raiders. What he really needs help protecting the village from, though, is a Krayt dragon--an enormous sand worm-looking monster that lives in a cave nearby and could decimate the settlement at any time.
Long story short, Mando agrees to help the Marshal in exchange for Boba's armor, and they kill the Krayt with the help of an uneasy alliance between the villagers and the Tusken Raiders. After nearly an hour, it seems like the credits are going to roll on a premiere episode that was big on action but a wee bit disappointing when considering the expectations for the start of the new season.
But wait: a mysterious figure is spying on the group from the horizon. Could this be the same person who appeared briefly in Episode 5 of Season 1? For anyone needing a refresher, Mando was on Tatooine during that episode, met up with another (though non-Mandalorian) bounty hunter for a job to take out the assassin Fennec Shand. Things didn't go as planned, and the other bounty hunter and Fennec both end up dying. We then caught a glimpse of someone kneeling next to Fennec's corpse.
This time, though, we get a better look at the shadowy person. He turns around just before the scene cuts to credits, and the character is played by Temuera Morrison, who played Jango Fett in Attack of the Clones and Commander Cody in Revenge of the Sith.
What does this mean? One possibility is that he is the Boba Fett. Star Wars fans will remember Fett seemingly met his demise in Return of the Jedi after falling into the pit of a creature called a Sarlacc...on the planet Tatooine. We later learned when the prequel trilogy arrived onscreen many years later, Boba was an exact clone made from Jango Fett, who was regarded by the Republic as the best bounty hunter in the galaxy. Thus, Boba would age to look exactly like Jango.
But perhaps he is Commander Cody, also a clone of Jango? He could also be Captain Rex from The Clone Wars and Rebels, or any number of other survivors of the former Republic clone solder fleet made from Jango's DNA. But would the show really toy with fans that much? After all, when word of the show was first announced, nearly everyone believed The Mandalorian titular character would turn out to be Boba Fett. Even Pedro Pascal, the actor who plays Mando, has said in interviews that he thought it would be revealed he was Boba. (That fact alone is a testament to the secrecy under which the show is made.)
There is a possibility that the casting of Morrison and the presence of what is ostensibly Boba's old armor could be the biggest red herrings in television history, and there is no link to Jango at all. But that seems unlikely, given he is on Tatooine, the last known location of Fett.
But even if he is Boba, other questions arise. How long has he been following Mando and why? Does he plan on collecting a bounty on him? Is he just observing a fellow Mandalorian? Does he want his armor back, or has he chosen to live anonymously in the desert? Does he even live in the desert?
All fans can do for now is speculate. One thing is known, though: A single glimpse of this stranger just changed the entire series.
