Could The Book of Boba Fett Bring Back a Major Character from The Mandalorian? | Den of Geek

But we also know Grogu became one of Luke’s first students. What we don’t know for sure is when Luke officially opened his Jedi Academy, which first officially shows up in the comics around 19 ABY. Of course, we know tragedy awaits this academy at the hands of Luke’s own nephew, Ben Solo, who was born in 5 ABY and began his Jedi training with Luke around 15 ABY, six years after Grogu. We don’t see Grogu in any of Ben’s comic book adventures with Luke, which suggests the little Baby Yoda probably wasn’t present when Ben turned to the dark side and destroyed his uncle’s hidden Jedi Temple. Yes, we’re relieved too.

The Luke or Luuke Theory

There’s also another, rather more far-fetched fan theory that a) explains why Grogu isn’t at Luke’s academy later, and b) paves the way for Din to get his adopted son back for good. What if the person who rescued Grogu on the Imperial cruiser isn’t Luke Skywalker at all? What if Din unknowingly entrusted Grogu’s care to an evil dark side clone of Luke?

We have to go back to the now non-canon Legends continuity to explain this one. You see, in the 9 ABY of the old timeline, Luke was cloned by an insane dark Jedi named Joruus C’baoth, who was himself a clone of a Prequel era Jedi Master. Joruus hoped to train this Luke clone as his dark side apprentice as part of his plan to take over the Imperial remnant for himself. The humorously named “Luuke” appeared in the generally well-regarded novel The Last Command, the third and final book in Timothy Zahn’s formative Thrawn trilogy.

So why is this far-out theory so captivating? Well, The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett executive producers Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni have used elements from this book trilogy before. The most obvious callback is the reference to Grand Admiral Thrawn himself in The Mandalorian season 2 episode “The Jedi,” in which it’s revealed that Ahsoka Tano is hunting the Imperial villain. First brought back into canon in the animated series Rebels by Filoni, Thrawn has long been speculated to be the big bad of not only the Ahsoka live-action series coming to Disney+ but the big bad of The Mandalorian era shows as a whole, with the Imperial commander pulling all of the strings across all of the series. Lucasfilm has even announced a big crossover event for these shows, which could chronicle the final battle with Thrawn.

There are also canon stories that could be setting up a clone Luke twist. In The Last Command, we learn Luuke was cloned from the genetic material extracted from Luke’s severed hand, and we know Lucasfilm has long been interested in bringing back the hand for the Disney era — J.J. Abrams once considered using the severed appendage as a plot point in The Force Awakens, for example. The hand finally made a reappearance in last year’s canon comic book Darth Vader #11. The issue reveals that it was recovered by Emperor Palpatine, who then took it to the hidden Sith temple on Exegol for an unknown purpose. Coincidentally, this temple is also where Palpatine is developing the clone technology needed for his eventual return in The Rise of Skywalker. After the Emperor’s first death, could Thrawn have taken the hand and figured out a way to clone Luke? (Of course, this would contradict how Palpatine struggled to make a Force-sensitive clone vessel for himself.)

But how likely is the Luuke twist to happen on Disney+? Luke’s appearance in The Mandalorian seems like it was intended to be a moment of hope and recognition, not a setup for a “gotcha” later. While Disney has been happy to include book characters in the shows, even obscure ones like Cobb Vanth, Luuke is definitely on the pulpier end of the spectrum. Revealing the Dark Trooper-wrecking Luke wasn’t Luke at all would also likely draw the ire of some fans who felt they’d finally received the version of the Jedi hero they’d always wanted to see after the Original Trilogy. It’s discourse Disney would probably like to avoid after The Last Jedi…