Will Cad Bane from The Clone Wars cameo in Star Wars Rebels?

During the “Animated Origins and Unexpected Fates” panel at Star Wars Celebration Orlando, Dave Filoni hinted that we will see The Clone Wars original character Cad Bane again in the near future.

Star Wars Rebels may see the return of yet another The Clone Wars original character.

During the “Animated Origins and Unexpected Fates” panel at Star Wars Celebration Orlando, Rebels executive producer Dave Filoni screened an early animatics sequence of an unreleased The Clone Wars episode. The short clip showed a young Boba Fett and the notorious bounty hunter Cad Bane engaged in a shootout.

In the clip, Boba Fett and Cad Bane are on a mission together. But their relationship takes a turn for the worse when Bane wants to kill some innocent villagers. Fett, surprisingly, wants to leave the villagers alone. The disagreement leads to him and Bane shooting it out in a town square. Both bounty hunters shoot the other, and Bane’s blaster bolt makes the iconic dent in Fett’s helmet. But we don’t see how badly Fett was hurt; more importantly, though, we don’t see if Bane survived.

After the clip was over, Filoni made a quip about Bane’s “unfinished fate”:

"“If we had a little more time, we’d tell you what happened to Ahsoka and Cad Bane,” Filoni joked at the end of the hour."

Concept art of Cad Bane shared at

Star Wars

Celebration Orlando. Image Credit: Lucasfilm

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It is significant for Bane’s future that Filoni chose to highlight the bounty hunter during the “Animated Origins and Unexpected Fates” panel. The other characters Filoni talked about were Captain Rex, Darth Maul and Ahsoka Tano, all of whom appeared in The Clone Wars and again later in Star Wars Rebels. Basically, Filoni and Lucasfilm Story Group member Pablo Hidalgo discussed how they developed these characters for animation and where their stories ended up. But as Filoni said, Bane’s story was never resolved on-screen. So it sounds like Filoni is gearing up to bring him back in Rebels‘ fourth and final season.

I would love to see Cad Bane on-screen again. Not only is he visually interesting with his wide-brimmed hat and red glowing Duros eyes, he also walks the walk of a bounty hunter. He is a dangerous foe with an attitude and would be a great sparring partner for the Rebels crew.

What do you think, Dork Siders? Do you want to see Cad Bane in Star Wars Rebels before the series ends?