One of the neat things about Jon Favreau’s Disney+ sensation The Mandalorian was the way it resisted the urge—as very few Star Wars projects have—to jam a bunch of established characters into the mix to get people to give it a shot. Barring the existence of an IG-88 droid, a spit-roasted Salacious Crumb, and the tenuous link to canon that is Baby Yoda, the series was mostly confident to let new characters take the stage, rather than trying to find a way to shoehorn in an appearance from a (very dead by this point) Darth Vader. (It’s the rare Star Wars series that offers more cameos from Comedy Bang Bang alums than it does Jedi or Sith.)
Now, though, it sounds like the series is gearing up for the one big Star Wars cameo it could reasonably be expected to trot out: Mando’s fellow bounty hunter, Boba Fett. Per The Hollywood Reporter, Favreau and his team have just hired Temuera Morrison to appear in the show’s second season, presumably to play the big bad Boba himself. Morrison has actually played a couple different characters in the Star Wars universe over the years, on account of clones, but he’s most prominent for playing Jango Fett, the Mandalorian whose DNA was used as the basis for both the original clone troopers who debuted in Attack Of The Clones, as well as his “son.” (He’s also voiced Boba Fett in a couple of video games.)
Of course, given that The Mandalorian takes place in between Return Of The Jedi and The Force Awakens, Boba Fett is supposed to be dead while Pedro Pascal is out there playing interstellar babysitter. But that’s never been much of a problem for Star Wars writers, who’ve never been shy about finding ways to drag everyone’s favorite armored badass out of the Sarlacc pit. (Shout-out to all you Dengar heads who used to re-read Tales Of The Bounty Hunters every year!) What’s more interesting is how the two men will end up interacting: Mando, as an adopted Mandalorian, and Boba as a clone of one, will presumably have some interesting views on their semi-shared culture. Also, they’ll probably try to shoot each other; this is a Western, after all.
The second season of The Mandalorian is currently scheduled to show up on Disney+ this October, although that’s obviously subject to the usual slate of lockdown-related caveats at the moment.