Star Wars: Why did Jango Fett die?

In the original Star Wars trilogy, Lucasfilm gave us one of the best characters in early Star Wars history: Boba Fett. And when Lucasfilm decided to rewind the clock back on the Star Wars saga with the prequel trilogy, they deepened the lore of Boba Fett as we knew him by introducing his father into the mix, Jango Fett.

As we found out, underneath that armor, Boba Fett was no ordinary human. In fact, he was a clone copy of his “father,” Jango. And Boba Fett was not just the only Fett clone. There were hundreds upon thousands of them being used to fight for the Grand Army of the Republic during the Clone Wars!

In the moments that we did see Jango Fett in Attack of the Clones, a bounty hunter just like his son, he was hired to work for the Separatists. And we saw him working with bounty hunter Zam Wesell in an attempt to assassinate Padme Amidala. Once Obi-Wan caught onto Jango’s trail and tracked him down on Kamino, the two sparred as Jango failed to disclose any information about what was going on.

Eventually, Jango led Obi-Wan right into his doom as they both flew to Geonosis, where Count Dooku would be. And later, Obi-Wan — as well as Anakin and Padme, who had arrived for help — had been captured by the hunter.

Jango Fett’s death: Why he died

Though a skilled bounty hunter, and a famed one at that, Jango would soon meet his match. Dooku had Obi-Wan, Anakin and Padme chained up in a gladiator-style battle arena, where the sinister Separatist leader unleashed a horde of beasts on the heroes. Both Dooku, Jango and even young Boba Fett watched as the battle ensued, and it looked like the three heroes were almost helpless.

But soon enough, help came. Mace Windu arrived behind Dooku and declared, “this party’s over.” Then, it was revealed that many other Jedi had come to save the group, and the real fight was on. While on the battlefield, Mace and Jango came eye-to-eye. A beast came trampling through, almost getting the best of Jango, but his luck would run dry soon after.

Mace, with his lightsaber in hand, promptly went up to the bounty hunter and cut his head clean off — both Dooku and Boba watching in sheer horror as it happened. And there’s no surviving the type of wound like that, guaranteeing he met his end. (Well, Maul would say differently. But as it stands now, Jango is officially dead.)

So, as we know, that marked the end of Jango Fett. He did not purposely sacrifice himself for the Separatists’ cause. And, if he had it his way, we’re sure it was Mace who Jango would have preferred dead. (Mace would meet his end in the next movie anyway.) But he put up a fight on their behalf, fighting until he no longer could.

Quickly after his defeat, Boba went out to mourn his father — grabbing the helmet he wore, symbolizing he would make his return as a bigger, even better bounty hunter than his father.

We learned a bit more about Jango Fett when Boba mentioned his father’s Mandalorian heritage in The Mandalorian, and hopefully, we’ll get to hear more about him when Boba Fett returns in The Book of Boba Fett later this year.