The krayt dragon introduced in The Mandalorian season 2 could explain how Boba Fett survived Return of the Jedi. The second season of The Mandalorian picks up where the first left off, with Mando on a quest to return Baby Yoda to his own kind. He's taken a rather circuitous route to accomplishing this, however, first seeking out more Mandalorians in the hopes they can tell him about the Jedi.
The journey took Mando to Tatooine, where he'd heard reports of a marshal in Mandalorian armor. Unfortunately this turned out to be something of a dead end, because it was actually Marshal Cobb Vanth, played by Timothy Olyphant. Vanth claimed to have acquired his armor from a group of Jawas, and he subsequently used it to drive slavers like the Mining Guild out of Mos Pelgo. Viewers immediately recognized the armor as belonging to Boba Fett, and a final scene revealed the man himself is still out there in the desert sands of Tatooine, played by Temuera Morrison.
It's unclear what Boba Fett has been doing all these years, given he doesn't seem to have ever tried to reclaim his armor. But how did Boba Fett survive his apparent death in Return of the Jedi, when he was consumed by the sarlacc? Surprisingly, The Mandalorian season 2 may have already dropped a major clue.
Popular Theories on How Boba Fett Escapes
While the sarlacc is carnivorous, it's important to remember it doesn't seem to chew its prey. Rather, it swallows them whole, and then digests them for food over a lengthy period of time; in Return of the Jedi, Jabba the Hutt claimed his prisoners would "find a new definition of pain and suffering" as they were "slowly digested over a thousand years." Luke, Han and Leia escaped this fate, with Boba Fett consumed by the sarlacc instead. However, according to Chuck Wendig's Aftermath trilogy, the sarlacc died shortly after. That was how a group of Jawas came to acquire Boba Fett's armor; they scouted the sarlacc's body, retrieving precious items from it, including the suit that eventually found its way to Cobb Vanth.
The Aftermath novels suggested the sarlacc died because of the explosion of Jabba's sail barge, with the vessel crashing upon it and mortally wounding it. If this is the case, it's possible an exhausted and critically wounded Boba Fett dragged himself out of the creature, and - for unknown reasons - dumped his armor. One popular theory suggests the Jawas actually stripped his wounded body, taking what they could sell and leaving the bounty hunter to die in the desert sun. Another idea is that Boba Fett wanted a fresh start, and took advantage of his near-death experience to get just that.
But even Wendig's Aftermath trilogy doesn't feature any first-person accounts of the sarlacc's death, meaning there were no witnesses to its demise. While the sail barge wounded the creature, it's possible Boba Fett himself finished it off, perhaps by detonating explosives inside its stomach - the same trick Din Djarin used on a krayt dragon in The Mandalorian season 2 premiere. Supporting this, note that Cobb Vanth's jetpack was still functional; assuming this hadn't been repaired, Boba Fett could have killed the sarlacc and then flown away. This theory has the attraction of turning Boba Fett into an active player in the story, the one who killed the sarlacc, but it doesn't explain why Boba Fett subsequently dumped his armor.
The Krayt Dragon Ate A Sarlacc
There is, however, another alternative. The Mandalorian season 2 revealed a little more about Tatooine's ecosystem, featuring a krayt dragon, the desert world's apex predator. According to Star Wars lore, there are two species of krayt: the canyon krayt and the greater krayt. This was an example of the latter, a massive behemoth that seems to be almost as territorial as the sarlacc, albeit more predatory. Curiously, it had established itself in an abandoned sarlacc pit, a revelation that surprised the Marshal. He insisted he's lived on Tatooine all his life, and there is no such thing as an abandoned sarlacc pit. "There is if you eat the sarlacc," Mando pointed out in response. Apparently this greater krayt was so ferocious it had dared to take on a sarlacc, and had triumphed. After all, in Star Wars, there's always a bigger fish out there.
Theory: The Krayt Dragon Saved Boba Fett From The Sarlacc
Naturally, this raises the possibility the krayt dragon actually attacked and killed the same sarlacc seen in Return of the Jedi - and, consequently, saved Boba Fett. This may seem a little coincidental, but it's worth remembering the Marshal had never heard of an abandoned sarlacc pit before. That suggests it's actually quite unusual for even a greater krayt to prey upon a sarlacc. The most likely scenario is that the greater krayt attacked a sarlacc that was already wounded and, therefore, unable to defend itself.
In this scenario, the krayt dragon finished the sarlacc off before it had really begun to digest Boba Fett, and the bounty hunter himself then escaped - albeit most likely not unscathed. The krayt would have been busy feasting on the sarlacc for quite some time, meaning it may not even have noticed Boba Fett getting away, and the Jawas then risked everything in slipping into the sarlacc pit to obtain what they could.
It's true the landscape around the sarlacc pit in Return of the Jedi and The Mandalorian looked very different, but that's not too significant of a problem. Desert landscapes are pretty dynamic, with the wind building and stripping dunes at incredible speed. There's absolutely no reason to assume any area of Tatooine should look the same after even just a few years.
The Krayt Dragon Explains Why Boba Fett Lost His Armor
This theory would certainly help account for why Boba Fett lost his armor. If he escaped of his own accord, say by detonating explosives inside the sarlacc and blasting his way out, then it's difficult to understand why he would dump his armor. If he had no such agency, on the other hand - if he simply survived by dumb luck, but was badly injured and took time to recover - then he would have initially had no control over what happened next. It's possible the Jawas simply stripped him, but it could also be that he was forced to trade his precious beskar armor for medical treatment. Whatever the case, Boba Fett - the bounty hunter feared across the galaxy - no longer had control over what happened to him. And, given he never retrieved his armor from Cobb Vanth, he subsequently appears to have found his peace with that.
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It remains to be seen whether the sarlacc pit in The Mandalorian season 2's premiere is the same as the one featured in Return of the Jedi. The possibility certainly can't be discounted, though, which means the krayt dragon - the ferocious beast finally killed by Din Djarin - could be the key to explaining Boba Fett's survival. No doubt it won't be long before viewers learn the truth.