Why Did Boba Fett Kill Bib Fortuna?

The Book of Boba Fett is now out on Disney Plus, and fans can finally return to Tatooine to see how Boba Fett’s been doing since the post credits of The Mandalorian season finale. When we last left the bounty hunter, he and Fennec Shand had just taken over Jabba the Hutt’s palace after killing Jabba’s former right hand man, Bib Fortuna. Die hard Star Wars fans, may understand Boba’s strategic move, but let’s take a look at why the infamous bounty hunter offed Jabba’s lackey.

Warning: The following article contains spoilers for The Book of Boba Fett season 2.

Who is Jabba The Hutt?

Jabba the Hutt was one of the galaxy’s most powerful gangsters, with far-reaching influence in both politics and the criminal underworld in the original Star Wars trilogy. Before famed Millennium Falcon pilot Han Solo joined Luke Skywalker on his quest to defeat the Empire, he did a few odd jobs for Jabba — smuggling spice and whatnot. 

It was actually on a smuggling run for Jabba that Solo was boarded by Imperial forces and was forced to jettison the cargo into space. At first, Jabba was a good sport about it (as good as any underground criminal underboss could be) and gave Solo time to pay back for the lost supply. But when Solo never did, Jabba became irritated and placed a bounty on his head. 

In the Empire Strikes Back, Jabba then employs Boba Fett to capture or kill Solo. However, as Solo is zipping around the galaxy with Luke Skywalker and Lando Calrissian, the Empire get to him first. After being handed over to Darth Vader, Solo gets frozen in a slab of carbonite and is turned over to Boba Fett to honor Jabba’s bounty. Boba Fett then returns to Tatooine to deliver Solo to Hutt, who plans to drop Solo in a Sarlacc pit. 

Unfortunately, things don’t go as planned after Solo is freed from his carbonite prison and is rescued by Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker. During the skirmish, Boba Fett’s jetpack malfunctioned, slamming Fett into the side of the sail barge, and causing him to roll right into the sarlacc’s mouth.

For decades, many Star Wars fans assumed that Boba Fett had perished after the Empire Strikes back. So it was certainly a shock when Boba reappeared in The Mandalorian, which is set after the events of Return of The Jedi. 

Thanks to the first episode of The Book of Boba Fett, we finally got an answer as to how that escape occurred.  Apparently, Boba was alive inside the Sarlacc the entire time and when he came to inside the Sarlacc, he found a half-digested Stormtrooper with a working oxygenated helmet. After grabbing some oxygen from the Storm Trooper, Boba Fett then uses his flamethrower to bust out of the Sarlacc’s stomach.

Afterward, it seems that Boba had already decided to return to Tatooine with the intention of killing Jabba. 

Of course, Jabba had been dead for a long time, so Boba focuses on the next best thing, Jabba’s former second in command and current crime boss in power, Bib Fortuna. 

But why all of the hostility? What made Boba Fett angry enough to take out his frustrations on Jabba’s legacy?

Why Boba Fett killed Bib Fortuna

Shortly after the main events of “The Rescue,” in The Mandalorian, Boba returned to Tatooine, specifically Jabba the Hutt’s Palace in the Dune Sea. After Fennec killed the guards, Boba walked into the building where he encountered Fortuna sitting on the throne and killed him immediately.

As a bounty hunter, Boba Fett is no stranger to killing, but even casual fans noticed his disposal of Fortuna felt a little more personal.  The comic book Star Wars: War of the Bounty Hunters #1 gives us a pretty good picture as to what happened between Fortuna and Boba Fett. 

The events in the comic tells a different story of Boba Fett’s capture of Han Solo and only slightly conflicts with events of The Empire Strikes Back. Regardless, the comic is seen as canon, so ultimately, it is also a part of Boba Fett’s story. 

In the comic’s first issue, Fett had acquired Han Solo’s body entrapped in carbonite and was en route to Jabba the Hutt’s Palace when the carbonite began failing. 

Though he was able to find a doctor to restore the carbonite, Solo was stolen while Fett was away from the clinic. After discovering Solo’s kidnapping, Fett returned to his ship and was confronted by the bounty hunters Zuckuss and 4-LOM. After quicklydisposeing of them, Fett took 4-LOM’s droid head to his ship where he finds that Jabba the Hutt had placed a bounty on his own head.

However, when Fett returned to Tatooine to confront Jabba, he was greeted at the gates by Bib Fortuna and a pair of Gamorrean guards. After being threatened at gunpoint, Fortuna informs Fett that Jabba had placed a bounty on his head because he took too long to bring Solo and received word that another party had come into possession of the carbonite slab. Fett demanded to speak with Jabba but was informed that Jabba was discussing an invitation received from Crimson Dawn with the other Hutts. Angered by the new information, Fett demanded to see the invitation, promising to kill anyone who stood in his way. 

Let’s absorb this for a second. Instead of just canceling the contract after finding out that Solo had been stolen from Boba Fett, Jabba puts a bounty on Fett as a punishment and then heads off to discuss other matters like he was waiting on pizza delivery. So not only did Boba Fett get his prize taken from him, his employer was now looking to eliminate him for something that wasn’t technically his fault. It makes sense that Boba would have a bit of a grudge against Jabba.

But since he couldn’t hash it out with Jabba himself, his only option was to take his frustrations out on Jabba’s second-in-command. However, both Fett and Jabba were present at the Sarlacc pit, and not once did he confront Jabba about the misunderstanding; which is why the events in Star Wars: War of the Bounty Hunters #1 are a bit of contradiction to their relationship in The Empire Strikes Back.

Regardless, as we all know, Fett wasn’t able to take his revenge on Jabba since he got devoured by the Sarlacc, and by the time he had escaped, Jabba had been dead for quite some time. Now that the Empire had fallen, Fett only had his past to think about, and apparently Jabba’s betrayal was still fresh in his mind. Set on revenge, Boba set out to kill Jabba, only to find Fortuna in Jabba’s seat. 

Boba clearly had not forgotten how Fortuna and Jabba treated him when his own bounty was stolen. He also knew how close Jabba and Fortuna were, so it’s highly likely that he would have blamed Fortuna just as much as Jabba for the bounty placed on his head. And after the events of Star Wars: War of the Bounty Hunters #1, he had more than enough motivation to eliminate Fortuna. Unfortunately for Fortuna, he was just another casualty that just so happened to get caught between a blaster to the face and Jabba’s throne.