Timothy Olyphant is ALSO playing Boba Fett in The Mandalorian?

The Mandalorian season 2 is shaping up to be one big galactic parade of famous Star Wars characters. We’ve got:

• Rosario Dawson as Star Wars: The Clone Wars favorite Ahsoka Tano
• Star Wars Rebels characters Sabine Wren and Rex are also rumored to be in the mix
• Battlestar Galactica veteran Katee Sackhoff is playing Clone Wars/Rebels character Bo-Katan, a Mandalorian who helped Ahsoka free the planet Mandalore from Maul’s iron grip
• Temuera Morrison, who played Jango Fett in the Star Wars prequels, is returning as Jango’s son Boba Fett, last seen being eaten by a sarlaac monster in Return of the Jedi

And then there’s Timothy Olyphant, who we learned joined the cast just last week in an unnamed role. Now the plot thickens, as Slashfilm report that Olyphant was wearing Boba Fett’s armor on set.

So are Olyphant and Morrison both playing the famous bounty hunter? And isn’t he dead anyway? What gives?

The answer to that question could lie within the pages of the novel Star Wars: Aftermath by author Chuck Wendig. The book is the first in a line of stories that act as run-ups to the first movie in the sequel series, Star Wars: The Force Awakens. In Aftermath, we learn of a character named Cobb Vanth, a former slave who buys Boba Fett’s iconic green Mandalorian armor and weaponry from some Jawas on Tatooine. Vanth then uses the armor and weapons to become a lawman in the Tatooine settlement of Freetown, where he encounters and defeats crime syndicates who are trying to take control of the planet in the wake of Jaba the Hutt’s death.

So just because Olyphant is wearing Boba Fett’s armor doesn’t necessarily mean he’s Boba Fett. He could be playing Cobb Vanth. Vanth could also be the person who showed up at the end of the season 1 episode “The Gunslinger.” Who saw a shadowy figure who seemed to wearing Fett’s trademark clinking spurs approach the body of Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen), but appearances can be deceiving.

If Olyphant is indeed playing Vanth, then it’s a return to his roots of playing gun-slinging lawmen on Justified and Deadwood.

I wonder how Boba Fett will feel about someone else wearing his armor. And how did he lose it? Maybe Fett is dead, and we’ll just see Morrison playing him in a flashback. And if Vanth isn’t a Mandalorian, but rather bought Boba Fett’s armor rather than earning it, perhaps lead character Din Djarrin (Pedro Pascal) will be tasked with getting it back. We learned how seriously Mandalorians took their weapons and armor in the first season.

Or — and this is when we venture into tinfoil hat territory — maybe Morrison isn’t playing Boba Fett at all, but just someone who looks like him. There have been rumors that, in addition to all the other Star Wars legacy characters coming on board for The Mandalorian’s second season, that clone commander Rex — another character from Rebels — may be there as well.

Rex was a member of the Republic’s clone army, the one that turned on the Jedi after Palpatine issued Order 66 in Revenge of the Sith.  Ahsoka helped Rex lose the mind control chip that would have forced him to do that. Like all clone troopers, Rex was created using Jango Fett’s DNA, so it would make sense for Morrison to play him.

Whatever the second season has in store, I’m sure it will be exciting. The Mandalorian season 2 debuts this October.

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