Warning: This contains spoilers from The Mandalorian Chapter 5: The Gunslinger. If you have not seen the episode, go watch it and come back. We’ll wait right here.
The latest bombshell to come out of Disney Plus’s The Mandalorian happened at the conclusion of Chapter 5. The episode, titled The Gunslinger, had a Marvel MCU-like stinger for its final scene. An unidentified person approached the apparently dead body of Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen).
Naturally, this sparked a ton of speculation by fans. Several theories exist, but obviously there can be only one (no Highlander pun intended). Is it a new character? Or could it be somebody who’s already established in Star Wars continuity? All we know is the individual wore a long cloak or jacket, a pistol holster, heavy boots, and had a spur-like jingling noise when he walked.
Here are who I think the five most likely candidates could be, excluding any new characters we haven’t seen before.
- Fennec Shand: Yes, we saw her get blasted, but she was said to be a dangerous assassin. One doesn’t have that kind of reputation without doing anything to earn it. Faking one’s own death would certainly qualify. Perhaps it wasn’t the real Shand that was killed. It could have been a clone or some other kind of lookalike. The precedence for this is already established in Star Wars. Namely, when Queen Amidala had a decoy pose as herself so she could join Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi during The Phantom Menace. But to be fair, if it was Shand, there wouldn’t need to be any mysterious tease from a storytelling standpoint. The final shot could have simply been her face. This alone would spark controversy over how she could be alive and dead at the same time.
- The Client: Werner Herzog’s character hasn’t had his name revealed yet. Obviously he too would be tracking Mando like so many other hunters and assassins.
- Greef Karga: When we last saw Greef, he was shot by Mando. However, we clearly saw that he clearly survived thanks to a plate of bescar in his jacket. He wouldn’t be the head of a bounty hunter guild without being a darn good hunter himself.
- Boba Fett: He seems to be the runaway favorite among many fans. In the Legends canon, Fett escaped the Sarlacc Pit and continued life as a bounty hunter. This did not happen in the current canon established by Disney. The only thing we know is in Chuck Wendig’s novel Aftermath somebody found Fett’s armor sometime after Return Of The Jedi. That said if it was Fett, where was the armor? One would think the very first thing Boba Fett would do upon escaping certain doom would be to find or rebuild his armor. It wouldn’t make much sense in my opinion for him to spend years without his armor. I know there was the “spur sound” when he walked, but it’s silly to think only one man in the entire galaxy would walk around sounding like that. Plus, Fett hadn’t been known to carry blaster pistols. He usually sported a sawed-off rifle.
That brings us to one more possibility, Cad Bane. Bane was introduced during the Clone Wars series, which writer-director Dave Filoni worked on extensively. He has all of the features the mysterious hunter had.
Long coat? Check. Blaster holster? Check. Heavy boots? Check. While not shown in the shot, he’s even worn spur-like jetboots as well.
Of course, it’s very possible that this is a new character we haven’t seen before. Introducing new characters in mysterious ways is a common trope. While I won’t be disappointed or upset if it isn’t Bane, I would certainly be ecstatic because he is one of my favorite characters to come out of Clone Wars.
Do you have any theories as to who this new mystery person could be? Sound off below!