Preview images for the upcoming Star Wars comic event War of the Bounty Hunters hint that when Boba Fett has Han Solo in custody, the smuggler’s condition while frozen in carbonite is not as stable as fans were led to believe. The new comic written by Charles Soule with art by Steve McNiven promises to fill in the missing gap between Boba Fett’s departure from Cloud City at the end of The Empire Strikes back and his delivery of Han, frozen immobile in carbonite, to Jabba’s palace seen at the beginning of Return of the Jedi.
First appearing in The Empire Strikes Back as one of many background bounty hunters (and with only four lines to boot), Boba Fett has only grown in popularity since the film’s release. Even his unceremonious and undignified death in Return of the Jedi (he has no lines in that one) wasn’t enough to stop the fans from speculating about his backstory – and buying his merchandise. Thus, Fett makes appearances in Attack of the Clones, the animated Clone Wars TV show, the Disney+ exclusive The Mandalorian, and the upcoming Book of Boba Fett, premiering on Disney+ in December 2021. War of the Bounty Hunters will show Boba as he delivers Han Solo to Jabba, but it wouldn’t be a Star Wars story without the best-laid plans of mice and men (and bounty hunters) going out the airlock.
Preview images from War of the Bounty Hunters show Boba Fett leaning over the block of carbonite and closely examining the captured smuggler within. Quite worryingly, he spots small discolorations on Solo’s frozen palms and matching spots all over his face. This is a potential sign that Han Solo is not in “perfect hibernation” as Lando Calrissian reports in Empire. Fett is seen conferring with an unknown Besalisk worker, also carefully examining the carbonite block. In the Star Wars universe, ancient spacers used to freeze themselves in carbonite before the days of faster-than-light travel, but this process was not flawless and the travelers usually suffered from extensive hibernation sickness. Indeed, C3PO (ever the pessimistic protocol droid) wonders out loud if Solo would even survive the freezing process.
Charles Soule reveals in an interview that Boba Fett loses Han Solo’s body between films, and wishes to tell that story within the comic. “Something had to happen in between that intervening time between Empire and Jedi.” One galactic year passes between films (368 days), which would leave plenty of time for Fett to lose and recover Han’s body. Additionally, in War, Fett will have to contend with the criminal organization Black Sun, Jabba’s lackeys and other obstacles along the way.
The discolorations on Han Solo’s hands lends itself to another possibility: that Solo could be thawed out of the carbonite block during the events of the comic. Hibernation sickness can occasionally lead to memory loss, so Han Solo might not remember his time outside the block before being recovered by Boba Fett and potentially being re-frozen again. It certainly wouldn’t be the first retcon in Star Wars canon, and it could even give him a scene or two with everyone’s favorite Mandalorian bounty hunter when War of the Bounty Hunters arrives this May.
