Chapter 2 of The Book of Boba Fett introduced viewers to a cadre of new characters both in the modern day Mos Espa and in the flashback during Boba Fett’s time with the Tusken Raiders.
One of the more eye-catching characters (aside from two rather giant twins) was a dark-furred wookiee “gladiator” who was hired to intimidate Boba Fett into relinquishing his title of Daimyo to the cousins of Jabba the Hutt.
That wookiee may only be a cool-looking addition to the cast of The Book of Boba Fett to more casual fans, but the hardcore, comic book-loving sect of the Star Wars fanbase was excited to see a long-time comic book character on screen in live action for the first time. In fact, that wookiee has played a pretty important role in the Star Wars universe.
The gladiator wookiee is none other than Black Krrsantan, a character who was first introduced in the Darth Vader #1 issue in 2015. He has since made appearances in various other Star Wars comics such as Doctor Aphra, Bounty Hunters 1, and the 2015 run of the Star Wars comic series.
Black Krrsantan is a disgraced wookiee who left his home planet of Kashyyyk and became a gladiator under the Xonti Brothers.
Krrsantan has come face-to-face with some prominent Star Wars characters during the last six years. He was hired as a bounty hunter by Jabba the Hutt to hunt down Obi-Wan Kenobi on Tatooine, where Kenobi gave Krrsantan his scars on his face with a lightsaber attack in self defense. Krrsantan was later hired by Darth Vader at the behest of Jabba, and Vader used Krrsantan to find and capture an agent of the Emperor. Later, Krrsantan was hired by Doctor Aphra to help pull off a heist against the Empire, and Vader later hired Krrsantan to hunt down Aphra (though Krrsantan ended up teaming up with Aphra in the end).
He’s even had run-ins with Chewbacca, Han Solo, and C-3PO. In fact, Krrsantan has even met Boba Fett before, so the two know who each other are by the time we see them in Chapter 2 of The Book of Boba Fett.
When Vader hired Krrsantan initially, Jabba offered up either Krrsantan or Boba Fett as his two most prized bounty hunters. So Boba Fett is very familiar with who Krrsantan is, and he likely has a lot of respect for him from his bounty hunting days. It also explains why Jabba’s cousins would know who Krrsantan is and why they would employ him for their services.
Black Krrsantan’s introduction in The Book of Boba Fett is likely setting up some sort of fight between the gladiator wookiee and the grizzled former bounty hunter, or maybe there will be a team up between the two in the future.
Regardless, it was nice to see another nod to the Star Wars comics in a live action show.