Should We Expect Cad Bane To Show Up In Boba Fett Series?
Star Wars: The Clone Wars introduced us to another legendary bounty hunter. Cad Bane was known for his characteristic gunslinger (or rather “blasterslinger”) look. He was always seen wielding a pair of blaster pistols and wearing the wide-brimmed hat. After the death of Jango Fett on Geonosis, he rose to become one of the leading bounty hunters in the galaxy.
Bane was not your ordinary run-of-the-mill bounty hunter. There was a reason why many were willing to pay his exuberant price. Simply, he got the job done. It did not matter to him what his employers’ motivations were. He had no qualms carrying out assignments of questionable morality, whether they came from a Sith with ulterior motives, or a Hutt with a financial stake in a certain outcome.
Possessing no special powers of his own, he was one of the few non-Force users who was able to fight toe-to-toe against a Jedi, relying only on his wits and a few tricks up his sleeves. His gauntlets were equipped with stun charges that allowed him to incapacitate a Jedi in a hand-to-hand brawl. His boots were equipped with customized jetpack thrusters, allowing him to match a Jedi’s Force speed and Force leap. He had cybernetic breathing tubes embedded in his cheekbones so that he would not succumb to a Force choke.
Bane managed to use a lightsaber (albeit very briefly) against Obi-Wan Kenobi.
During the Clone Wars, he was one of the major thorns in the side of the Jedi and the Republic in addition to the Separatists and Count Dooku. He infiltrated the heavily guarded Jedi Temple and succeeded in stealing one of their precious holocrons for Darth Sidious. He raided the Republic Executive Building and held a few senators hostage in exchange for the release of Ziro the Hutt (uncle of the infamous Jabba the Hutt) from Republic custody. More famously, he was involved in the plot to kidnap then Supreme Chancellor Palpatine.
We saw in season 4 of Star Wars: The Clone Wars that Cad Bane and Boba Fett were both imprisoned in the Central Detention Center on Coruscant. They eventually worked together to help Moralo Eval (and also Obi-Wan Kenobi disguised as Rako Hardeen) escape. Naturally, Bane would come to mentor the young bounty hunter. After all, Bane had known Jango Fett. At the Animated Origins and Unexpected Fates panel at Star Wars Celebration Orlando 2017, Dave Filoni (director of Star Wars: The Clone Wars and executive producer of Star Wars Rebels and The Mandalorian) revealed that The Clone Wars was originally going to have a four-episode arc that would have focused on the relationship between the two. They were to team up together on Tatooine to rescue a child who was kidnapped by the Tusken Raiders. Even though Star Wars: The Clone Wars was cancelled before this arc was developed, Filoni showed a clip of Cad Bane and Boba Fett in a western style stand-off duel.
While the scene was not fully animated, it was fully voiced by Daniel Logan and Corey Burton. Surely Filoni would not let this go to waste. The Mandalorian made us cheer over the appearances of Ahsoka Tano, Bo-Katan Kryze, and none other than Boba Fett. With Filoni being involved with future projects like The Book of Boba Fett, Ahsoka, Rangers of the New Republic, The Bad Batch, and season 3 of The Mandalorian, there is a very high probability that we will get to see Cad Bane again.
As Inside the Magic pointed out, a major plot point in The Mandalorian was the kidnapping of the young Force-sensitive Grogu. You may remember that, in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Darth Sidious hired Cad Bane on a similar mission to kidnap Force-sensitive children. Even though Grogu is currently safe with Master Luke Skywalker, we could see Cad Bane returning again for a similar mission. We could see Din Djarin contacting Boba Fett for assistance (due to their previous relationship with Grogu). Hence, Cad Bane and Boba Fett would meet again.
"Kidnapping innocent children? Seems like a small-time crime for the likes of you." ―Cad Bane to Darth Sidious
