Boba Fett's backstory in The Mandalorian changes prequels canon in 1 major way

In The Clone Wars, Obi-Wan learns Jango Fett wasn't really a Mandalorian. But what The Mandalorian presupposes is, maybe he was?

In Chapter 14, "The Tragedy," the backstory of both Boba Fett and Jango Fett is altered slightly to finally reconcile the current canon status of the Fett family within what we now know about Mandalorian culture. For years, fans had assumed that despite wearing Mandalorian armor, Jango Fett and Boba Fett were not Mandalorians. But now, it turns out that's not true. A new piece of information, straight from Boba Fett himself, seems to set the record straight. And it turns out Jango and Din Djarin actually have a lot in common.

But what about this Mandalorian Civil War? And aren't there more than one of those? Here's how the retcon of Jango Fett's backstory changes The Clone Wars and the Star Wars prequels, and how this revelation impacts the future of Din Djarin and Grogu in the rest of The Mandalorian. Spoilers ahead for Chapter 14, "The Tragedy."

What was the Mandalorian Civil War?

In "The Tragedy," Boba Fett tells Mando that his father, Jango Fett, fought in "The Mandalorian Civil War." Even if you've watched all of The Clone Wars, this might be slightly confusing, since there's at least one low-key Mandalorian Civil War depicted on-screen after Jango Fett died.

In Season 2 of The Clone Wars, starting with the episode "The Mandalore Plot," we get the beginnings of a storyline in which a coup led by Death Watch incites fighting between factions within Mandalore. This schism continues until the end of The Clone Wars, which recently concluded with The Siege of Mandalore in Clone Wars season 7. However, that's not the same Mandalorian Civil War that Boba Fett is talking about. In old Legends canon, the Mandalorian Civil War was called The Great Clan Wars. This happens in 42 BBY, before the events of The Phantom Menace. So, Jango would have been pretty young (in his 20s or teens) during this war.

Again, the Mandalorian vs. Mandalorian action we see in The Clone Wars has nothing to do with the Mandalorian Civil War referenced by Boba Fett in "The Tragedy," and that's because again, Jango wasn't alive for that. But also because there was another, slightly more formative Mandalorian Civil War that happened off-screen sometime before the events of Attack of the Clones.

In the time of The Clone Wars, the planet Mandalore is "peaceful," and all the warriors who wear Mandalorian armor have been banished to the moon of Concordia. We now know Jango Fett was one of those warriors. The side he fought on in the Civil War would have been against the peace movement, later embodied by Satine, Obi-Wan's girlfriend and sister of Bo-Katan.

So is Jango Fett a Mandalorian or not?

In the Clone Wars episode "The Mandalore Plot," Mandalorian Prime Minister Almec tells Obi-Wan Kenobi that "Jango Fett was a common Bounty Hunter. How he acquired that armor is beyond me!"

Now, Almec was a big-time asshole and betrayed all sorts of people on Mandalore — including Satine — before eventually being killed by Darth Maul, who he briefly worked with. So, it's not unfair to assume Almec was lying about Jango Fett. In fact, because of this new info, it seems like how Jango Fett acquired that armor was not beyond him, and he was totally covering for the fact that the warriors of Concordia had not "died out" at all.

When did Jango Fett stop living on Concordia?

This part is a little unclear. Because the Mandalorian Civil War ended in 42 BBY, we can kind of decide that Jango stopped living on Concordia around that time. We know he hooks up with Count Dooku and becomes the template for the Clone Army sometime around the events of The Phantom Menace, which is in 32 BBY. This gives Jango a full decade to leave the Mandalorians on Concordia and start doing his own thing. Right now, in canon, this is all sketchy, because his status as a real Mandalorian basically just happened.

Was Jango Fett a Child of the Watch?

Though not stated outright in "The Tragedy," we could infer that Jango might have briefly been associated with "The Children of the Watch." Then again, the idea of "foundlings," doesn't have to be exclusive to the Children of the Watch, since Bo-Katan seemed fine with referring to Baby Yoda as a "foundling."

But, there's a deeper mystery in all of this: If Jango Fett was a foundling, where was he from originally? This might not seem like an interesting question to answer — beyond creating a web of Star Wars Easter eggs — but when you consider that Jango became the template for the Clone Army because he was such a perfect fighter, his true point of origin might be revealing.

Even now, 18 years after Attack of the Clones, the real origin of the Army of the Republic is still a mystery. If we ever find out where Jango Fett was from before becoming a Mandalorian foundling, everything about The Clone Wars, Revenge of the Sith, and the Empire's rise to power might suddenly seem much different than we were led to believe. And if Jango Fett was a real Mandalorian, then it looks like The Clone Wars and Star Wars prequels only told part of a much larger story.

The Mandalorian is streaming now on Disney+.

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