Every time Boba Fett has escaped the Sarlacc Pit

In Return of the Jedi, during the fight over the Sarlacc Pit, Boba Fett is killed when his jetpack is hit and he ends up falling into the pit. The rather simple death of the character suggests that the creators had no idea that Boba Fett would go on to become one of the most popular fan-favorite characters in the entire franchise, despite the character drawing attention from his very first appearance in The Star Wars Holiday Special. Because of the popularity of Boba Fett, Star Wars had been trying to figure out how to get him out of there.

Here are currently all the ways Boba Fett has survived the Sarlacc Pit.

Marvel’s Star Wars comic book #81

Boba Fett’s first escape from the Sarlacc Pit happened just a year after he fell into the pit in the first place. In 1984, a year after the release of Return of the Jedi, the Marvel comic series told a story where Boba Fett saved himself by using his jetpack to fly out of the pit. However, the ordeal left him with amnesia, wandering the desert where he was found by a group of Jawas who thought he was a droid. Boba Fett meets Han Solo and Leia Organa, though he doesn’t recognize them initially. The story ends with Boba Fett realizing who they are and attacking them in a series of events that result in Fett falling back into the Sarlacc Pit.

Dark Empire #4

The next time Boba Fett would appear after escaping from the Sarlacc Pit was in the 1992 issue Dark Empire #4. Appearing in issue #4, Boba Fett confronts Han Solo, who is seeking to save Luke Skywalker. There is very little explanation offered, only Boba Fett briefly mentioning that the Sarlacc found him to be “indigestible” as to the reason why he was able to escape. Fortunately, future installments in Star Wars Legends would explore this missing escape.

Tales from Jabba’s Palace

A few years after Boba Fett’s return in Dark Empire, we would finally get the details on how he actually managed to pull off the escape. In 1995, an anthology of short stories titled Tales from Jabba’s Palace was published, where each short story focused on a different character from the Palace. One of the stories, titled “A Barve Like That: The Tale of Boba Fett,” told the story of Fett’s escape. In the story, we learn that Boba Fett could somewhat communicate telepathically with the Sarlacc as he’s being digested. Because of the psychic communication, Boba Fett tricked the Sarlacc into grabbing his jetpack, which exploded inside the Sarlacc. The explosion resulted in the tentacles releasing Boba Fett, and then a few bombs later, Fett escaped, badly injured but alive.

The Book of Boba Fett

While Disney’s purchase of Lucasfilm resulted in all of the expanded universe becoming Star Wars Legends, plenty of elements of the expanded universe gradually worked their way back into the official canon. Of course, Boba Fett surviving the Sarlacc Pit had to be one of the things that was eventually brought back. Boba Fett made his first post-Return of the Jedi appearance in the second season of The Mandalorian in multiple episodes. However, it wouldn’t be until the spinoff show, The Book of Boba Fett, that we eventually got the full details of how he had managed to escape. Attacking the inside of the Sarlacc with his flamethrower and then punching his way out of the pit sometime after the battle was over, Boba Fett managed to crawl up out of the Sarlacc. It would seem that he disliked the experience enough that he would return later in the show to kill the creature once and for all, this time with the help of his spaceship.

Parks and Recreation

For a fun non-Star Wars entry that has become so intertwined with pop culture, we turn to the fifth season of the sitcom Parks and Recreation. Patton Oswalt appeared as a guest star on one episode as a character that attempted to filibuster a town hall meeting. The script had nothing written, and Oswalt was told to improvise a filibuster until “cut” was called. Oswalt said that he assumed “cut” would be called after ten seconds or so. Instead, he created an eight-minute improvised filibuster detailing a proposed plot synopsis of the then-upcoming Star Wars film, The Force Awakens. While only a few seconds of the filibuster made it into the episode, the entire, unedited filibuster was uploaded online and went viral. Part of the improvised story included Boba Fett crawling out of the Sarlacc pit, told in vivid detail. In fact, the scene that Oswalt describes is so similar to what we would eventually get to see in The Book of Boba Fett that videos have been uploaded, comparing the two versions of the story side by side.