Warning: Spoilers ahead for Star Wars: The Bad Batch episode 8, "Reunion."
Star Wars has finally used a concept that was meant for the legendary Boba Fett in The Clone Wars animated series. Thanks to Star Wars: The Bad Batch which serves as an epilogue series to Clone Wars, Clone Force 99's Hunter found himself in a duel with none other than Cad Bane, the galaxy's most legendary bounty hunter of the era. However, this duel was actually meant for the son of Jango Fett, as was seen in an unfinished episode of The Clone Wars.
In Star Wars: The Bad Batch episode 8, "Reunion," Clone Force 99 is still on the junkyard planet Bracca when they're attacked by their former squadmate Crosshair, who's now leading elite stormtroopers to terminate them on the Empire's orders. However, while they do manage to escape Crosshair's sights, the episode ends with the return of Cad Bane, the Clone Wars' most infamous bounty hunter who's been hired by the Kaminoans to bring them the young clone Omega alive. However, Hunter wasn't about to let Omega go without a fight, which led to an impressive gunslinger showdown.
However, this showdown, in particular, is noteworthy as it relates to Cad Bane's unfinished story in The Clone Wars animated series. Prior to Disney making a seventh season on Disney+, Clone Wars had a collection of storyboarded and pre-rendered scenes for episodes that were never released. This included episodes about what would have been Bane's final arc, seeing him metaphorically passing the torch to Boba Fett as the galaxy's next legendary hunter. Furthermore, the way Bane and Fett's time together ended would have been with an extremely similar gunslinger's showdown as seen in this new episode of Bad Batch. In the one pre-rendered clip that was released, Boba Fett is shot in the helmet by Cad Bane, which would have explained where its most pronounced dent came from. Now, it seems as though The Bad Batch is seemingly honoring that unfinished episode, seeing Hunter taking the place of Fett and getting shot by Bane before he collects his bounty.
With Cad Bane getting another shot at having his story concluded in The Bad Batch, it will be interesting to see how the series leaves him. Will he deliver his bounty and leave with an ambiguous fate as Clone Wars was forced to do, or will Hunter get a rematch in the rescue attempt that will inevitably happen? It's even possible this is how Bane will meet his demise. While Fett obviously survived his shot to the helmet, he simultaneously shot Bane with the implication that he would have defeated him for good, so perhaps Clone Force 99 will be the bounty hunter's new and canonical end.
Now that Bane is back in action in The Bad Batch along with Fennec Shand having also been hired by the Kaminoans, it's certainly possible that young Boba Fett could likewise make an appearance, allowing even more concepts from his and Bane's Clone Wars arc to finally be used. In any case, simply seeing Cad Bane's return to Star Wars is exciting enough as The Bad Batch continues with new episodes on Disney+ every Friday.