Summary

• Cad Bane may have survived his duel with Boba Fett, according to Hondo Ohnaka’s suspicions.
• Along with Hondo’s suspicion, there is some evidence that Bane survived. His death has never been explicitly confirmed, and his blinking chest rig might be a sign he made it off Tatooine.
• Cad Bane could reappear in a wide variety of Star Wars stories, most likely in an upcoming spinoff of The Mandalorian.

Bounty hunters have always played a big role in Star Wars, and it seems the franchise is now set to bring one notorious gun for hire back from the dead. There are dozens of bounty hunters in Star Wars, and they’ve been incredibly important throughout the Star Wars timeline. Many of the best bounty hunters in Star Wars earned that title because of how long they were around. Bounty hunting is an extremely dangerous profession, and only the most fearsome warriors could survive for very long. Even the best eventually meet their end, though, and they usually meet it quite violently.

Though most bounty hunters eventually find themselves at the wrong end of a blaster, that isn’t always the end for them. Star Wars is no stranger to resurrecting characters, and it now seems the franchise is set to add another entry to the list of Star Wars characters who have been resurrected. That character could very well be one of the most notorious and ruthlessly effective bounty hunters in the entire galaxy, and his return could be just on the horizon.

Hondo Ohnaka Thinks Cad Bane May Have Survived After All

Hondo Ohnaka, the morally ambiguous Weequay pirate in both Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels, seems to think Cad Bane is still alive. Bane supposedly died in the finale of The Book of Boba Fett after his duel with the titular bounty hunter turned daimyo of Mos Espa. Though Boba stabbed Bane through the chest with his gaffi stick, Hondo had his reservations on declaring the Duros bounty hunter dead. In Marc Sumerak’s “Star Wars: The Secrets of the Bounty Hunters,” Hondo believed Bane’s death could have been grossly exaggerated.

“If reports are to be believed, this job may have been Cad Bane’s last. Then again, perhaps his rumored demise was simply an elaborate ruse to give me a false sense of security. After all, Cad Bane has been known to hide in the shadows as he seeks out the galaxy’s greatest targets.”

Cad Bane Could Return In Star Wars Once Again

Though Hondo isn’t exactly the most reliable source of information – he was a prolific liar and swindler – there’s some evidence to support the idea that Bane survived. After he was stabbed by Boba, Bane’s chest rig began to blink with a red light. That may have been an indication that some sort of life support system switched on, or it could have been a distress call he sent out to his droid sidekick, Todo 360, or one of his other allies. Cad Bane also rarely walked into any situation without a plan, and he almost surely thought about the possibility of Boba beating him.

Bane’s resurrection also wouldn’t be unprecedented. There are several unaired story arcs for The Clone Wars that were scrapped after the show was first canceled, including one about Cad Bane’s mentorship of Boba Fett. That arc would have revealed that Boba and Bane had a shootout, with both bounty hunters shooting the other in the head. That deleted story arc wasn’t completely canon, but since it was the only explanation of Bane’s fate, he was presumed dead. Star Wars: The Bad Batch, however, resurrected Bane and proved he survived long after his first duel with Boba, and it could conceivably be done again.

On top of the pre-existing evidence of Bane’s survival, the simple fact that an official Star Wars book refused to confirm whether Bane was dead seems to imply that he isn’t. If there weren’t plans to use Cad Bane again, Lucasfilm would likely have simply confirmed that he died in The Book of Boba Fett. There’s also plenty of opportunities for Bane to reappear: he’s already been introduced to the “Mandoverse,” and he could become a useful secondary antagonist to its spinoffs or even The Mandalorian & Grogu. While it’s not yet confirmed, it seems very likely that Star Wars isn’t yet done with Cad Bane.

Purchase Marc Sumerak’s “Star Wars: The Secrets of the Bounty Hunters” on Amazon