The Story Of How Boba Fett Got That Dent In His Helmet

There are many mysteries, both big and small, across the Star Wars universe. One of the smallest must be "how did Boba Fett get his the dent in his helmet?" This year at Star Wars Celebration in Orlando, we may have finally gotten an answer to this pressing Boba Fett dent mystery.

During Thursday afternoon's Dave Filoni: Animated Origins and Unexpected Fates panel, the executive producer of Star Wars Rebels premiered an unfinished story reel from the final season of The Clone Wars animated series that never made it to air. The footage showed a roughly animated sequence featuring young Boba Fett in full costume (voiced by Daniel Logan from the prequels) coming face-to-face with Cad Bane.

The confrontation is played much like a classic Western stand-off, with both of the bounty hunters squaring off, hands near their blasters. They both grab the guns at the same time and shoot. We see Boba Fett fall to the ground, his helmet thrown off his head. And on that classic helmet, we see a smoking blast mark. Apparently, that touch, the smoke, was a note from the creator himself, George Lucas.

Dave Filoni joked about the fate of Cad Bane. It is assumed that the blast reflected off of Fett's helmet and killed Bane, but Filoni said he would let Cad's fate remain a mystery for now.

But is this newly revealed clip now part of the Star Wars galaxy canon? The Clone Wars animated series is considered canon and some of the untold stories from the unaired last season have also been canonized. We really don't know for sure, though. For now, this is the closest we have to a canonized answer to the Boba Fett dent question. Here's the clip in question:

Fett's dent was previously explained in the Star Wars expanded universe, which has since been reclassified as " Legends." In that earlier story, the Enemy of the Empire comic book series, Fett got the dent in a confrontation with Darth Vader. Darth Vader deflected blaster fire with his lightsaber, and it bounced back to hit Boba Fett in the helmet, creating the dent.

When it comes to the movies, fans have long-theorized that Boba Fett inherited his father Jango Fett's helmet, and repainted it for his needs. During Attack of the Clones, Jango seemed to suffer similar helmet damage in his fight with Obi-Wan Kenobi. In reality, the costume designer apparently messed up creating the helmet mold, and had a bubble pop, creating a flat spot in the finished helmet design. They decided to run with it and make it look like damage.