How Did Boba Fett Survive The Sarlacc Pit? Here's What Happened After Return Of The Jedi
When everyone's favorite "Star Wars" bounty hunter, Boba Fett, made his long-awaited return in "The Mandalorian" season 2, the series gave no overt explanation for how he survived the almighty Sarlacc. The Sarlacc was the toothy creature, nested in a sandpit, that swallowed up Boba Fett on the desert planet of Tatooine in "Return of the Jedi." The fact that it lives in the so-called "Dune Sea" on Tatooine just goes to show how indebted "Star Wars" is to Frank Herbert's "Dune" and its sandworms, among other things.
In December 2021, Fett is set to headline his own Disney+ series, "The Book of Boba Fett," which will reportedly employ flashbacks. So it's possible that we may get one of those showing his daring escape from the Sarlacc.
In the meantime, there are certain hints we can gather about how Fett made his way out of the pit. Some of these come from current "Star Wars" continuity and others come from the old Expanded Universe, which Disney rebranded as non-canonical Legends after its purchase of LucasFilm.
The Jawa Connection
In "The Mandalorian," Timothy Olyphant's character, Cobb Vanth, is initially in possession of Boba Fett's armor. Movieweb notes that Cobb Vanth plays a part in the "Star Wars" canon novel, "Aftermath: Life Debt," by Chuck Wendig. There, he buys a suit of Mandalorian armor from some Jawas, the small hooded aliens with glowing eyes, first seen scavenging droids in the original "Star Wars" movie back in 1977. (They're known for exclaiming, "Uttini!")
"Aftermath: Life Debt" also explains that the explosion of Jabba the Hutt's sail barge left a gaping wound in the Sarlacc's stomach. The Jawas were able to salvage the armor out of this hole and it seems likely that Fett might have also used it to escape.
There's a precedent in "Star Wars" Legends for Fett linking up with the Jawas, as far back as December 1983, the year "Return of the Jedi" hit theaters. That's when Marvel Comics published "Star Wars" #81, an issue titled "Jawas of Doom." In it, rather than being "slowly digested over a thousand years" by the Sarlacc, Fett gets spit out with amnesia. The Jawas mistake him for a droid because of his armor and throw him in their Sandcrawler.
Again, this story is no longer canonical in the Disney era of "Star Wars," but the new movies and TV shows still draw from the old Legends sometimes. A revived Boba Fett appeared in other Legends over the years, most notably the Dark Horse comic series "Dark Empire" and the anthology book "Tales from Jabba's Palace." Tying the Jawas to his escape from the Sarlacc, however, would be a way to return the character to his earliest post-"Return of the Jedi" roots.
Hopefully, we'll know the official answer to how Fett survived after "The Book of Boba Fett" lands on Disney+ in December 2021.