Star Wars: The Untold Truth Of Jango Fett

Anyone who has seen the second of George Lucas' Star Wars prequels, Attack of the Clones, will most likely remember the bounty hunter character Jango Fett, who served as the template for the Republic's Clone Army and is the father of future bounty hunter Boba Fett. Jango arguably accomplished more in Attack of the Clones than his son accomplished throughout the entirety of the Original Trilogy, but he was still brutally decapitated by the Jedi Knight known as Mace Windu during the Battle of Geonosis. After the battle moved to another location, Boba cradled his father's helmet and swore vengeance against Windu, as he would later take up Jango's Mandalorian armor and become the most feared bounty hunter in the galaxy.

When Disney bought Star Wars in 2012, much of Jango's backstory was no longer considered canon and was relegated to the non-canonical Legends continuity. Fortunately for Fett fans, season 2 of the Disney+ series The Mandalorian dropped some major reveals about his canon origins that are sure to make Legends fans giddy. We're here to explore the engaging history of Jango Fett, from the legacy he left behind to the elements of his Legends backstory that are slowly but surely coming back to canon.

2017's Star Wars Helmet Collection 28 already confirmed that Concord Dawn is still Jango Fett's homeworld in canon, as is the case in Legends. This planet, along with the three moons that surround it, is part of the Concord Dawn sector within the Mandalore sector and, during one of its many wars, had a third of its mass blasted out as asteroid-sized debris in its planetary orbit.

In an episode from season 2 of the CG-animated series Star Wars Rebels ("The Protector of Concord Dawn"), Captain Hera Syndalla and her Phoenix Squadron try to request safe passage for the Rebels from Fenn Rau and his Mandalorian Protectors, an ancient group of Mandalorian warriors who served as royal guards for the ruler of Mandalore and controlled the Concord Dawn system. But the Protectors are already allied with the Empire and attack the rebel fleet as a result. Fortunately, Rau allows the Rebellion safe passage through Concord Dawn near the end of the episode after Kanan Jarrus and Sabine Wren capture him from his base on Concord Dawn's third moon.

The season 3 episode "Imperial Supercommandos" sees Rau, Wren, and Ezra Bridger travel to that base only to discover that it has been devastated by Clan Saxon, a group of Mandalorians who swore allegiance to the Empire. After they escape, Rau finally decides to ally with the Rebellion and do right by his fallen brothers.

If the name Jaster Mereel sounds familiar, then that's because it was the name that author Daniel Keys Moran gave to Boba Fett in his 1996 novella "The Last One Standing: The Tale of Boba Fett." After Lucas changed Boba's origin in Star Wars Episode II – Attack of the Clones, Haden Blackman introduced Mereel as the mentor of Jango Fett in his 2002 comic book miniseries Jango Fett: Open Seasons 1.

This comic reveals that Mereel was born on the agricultural world of Concord Dawn and served as one of its Journeyman Protectors until he was exiled for killing a corrupt superior officer. Sometime later, Mereel joined the Mandalorian creed and would eventually become its leader, the Mand'alor. While Mereel sought to reform the Mandalorian people into honorable mercenaries, an amoral member named Tor Viszla formed a splinter group called Death Watch and led a coup against Mereel and his "True Mandalorians" in an attempt to return the Mandalorians to their barbaric roots of raiding and conquering.

In 58 BBY (before the Battle of Yavin), Mereel returned to Concord Dawn with his brothers-in-arms and took refuge on the farm of Jango Fett's father, who succeeded Mereel as the planet's Journeyman Protector. Unfortunately, Death Watch found out and executed Jango's parents, but he helped Mereel and his men escape the burning farm and subsequently ambush their enemies at a nearby town. Shortly after this battle, Jaster took the orphaned Jango under his protection and raised him as one of his own.

Jango would continue to fight alongside the True Mandalorians well into his teenage years. He was given his first mission as a squad commander in 52 BBY when the Korda Defense Force hired the True Mandalorians to rescue a training squad that was pinned by a group of hostile natives on the planet Korda Six. What Mereel and his men did not realize, however, was that they were walking into a trap set by Death Watch, who were long thought to have died off sometime after the Battle of Concord Dawn. After Viszla killed Mereel, Jango became the new Mand'alor and led the remaining True Mandalorians until a group of Jedi killed most of them on the planet Galidraan in 44 BBY.

Jango was the only Mandalorian to survive this bloody battle and was sold into slavery by Galidraan's governor, who was secretly working for Death Watch, but he escaped bondage and would eventually seek revenge against Viszla.

A flashback from the 2019 Marvel comic Age of Republic – Jango Fett 1 shows Jango meeting Darth Tyrannus (more commonly known as Count Dooku) on the Moons of Bogden about becoming the genetic template for the Republic's Clone Army. Jango accepted this offer in exchange for a sizable fee and an unaltered clone that he would raise as a son. Even though Jango provided the genetic template and oversaw the training of the clones, he tells a Kaminoan in a subsequent flashback that he felt they were not his achievement.

The Legends version of this story plays out in the last issue of Jango Fett: Open Seasons 1 and it's mostly the same, aside from one key difference: Jango recognized Dooku as one of the Jedi who survived the Battle of Galidraan. Their meet-up in Age of Republic–Jango Fett 1, however, portrays Jango and Dooku as not knowing each other previously.

While Star Wars fans have long held the belief that Jango and Boba are indeed Mandalorian, an episode from the second season of the GC-animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars called "The Mandalorian Plot," which cemented Death Watch as a part of canon, raised many questions among fans. Near the beginning of the episode, Obi-Wan Kenobi arrives on Mandalore's capital of Sundari to find out if they are secretly plotting against the Republic. Prime Minister Almec tells Kenobi that Mandalore's violent past is behind them and that all of their warriors have been exiled to the nearby moon of Concordia. Kenobi then tells Almec that he recently encountered a man who wore Mandalorian armor named Jango Fett, to which Almec responds, "Jango Fett was a common bounty hunter. How he acquired that armor is beyond me."

In a season 2 featurette called "Creating Mandalore," Filoni explains that this idea came directly from George Lucas, who wanted to differentiate the Mandalorian people of the show into a standardized military. Then again, Almec turned out to be a corrupt politician who sided with Maul and his Death Watch followers, so what does that say about him?

In The Clone Wars episode "Death Trap," Boba poses as a clone cadet on the Republic vessel Endurance that Windu was onboard. While touring the ship, Boba slips away from the group and places a laser tripwire bomb in Windu's quarters. When a clone trooper sets off the bomb instead, Boba is instructed to sabotage the ship and send it crashing towards the planet Vanqor. 

The subsequent episode, "R2 Comes Home," shows Windu and Anakin Skywalker examining the wreckage for survivors when they come across Jango's helmet. Skywalker picks up the helmet and accidentally sets off a bomb inside, but he and Windu survive the explosion and later escape with the help of R2.

The arc's final episode, "Lethal Takedown," illustrates Plo Koon and Ahsoka Tano trying to apprehend Boba and fellow bounty hunter Aurra Sing on the planet Florrum since they are holding two clones hostage. A fight breaks out and Sing leaves Boba behind. After Boba refuses to disclose the hostage's location to Plo Koon, the pirate Hondo Ohnaka convinces him, saying that it is what his father would have done. Sing tries to escape in Jango's ship, Slave I, but Ahsoka clings onto the hull and slices off one of its stabilizers, which causes it to crash. Hondo briefly took ownership of the repaired Slave I, as seen in the season 5 episode "A Necessary Bond," before Boba took it back near the end of the Clone Wars.

In The Mandalorian episode "Chapter 14: The Tragedy," Boba Fett, who has somehow survived the events of Return of the Jedi and is five years older now, shows Mando the chain code on his father's armor. Mando sees that Jango was a foundling, and Boba mentions that he fought in one of the Mandalorian Civil Wars, so Mando determines that the armor is rightfully Boba's.

Shortly after this episode released, a Reddit user translated everything in the chain code from Mando'a to English, and here is what it says (from left to right): "Foundling, Took into the Year the..., Concord Dawn, Master Jast, Father Fett, Boba Fett." "Took into the Year the..." and "Concord Dawn" could refer to the event that blasted out a third of its mass. "Master Jast," on the other hand, is an reference to Jango's adoptive father Jaster Mereel. Moreover, the Mandalorian Civil War that Jango supposedly fought in may be the one that was portrayed in Jango Fett: Open Seasons 1. Hopefully, all the answers will be revealed soon enough.