'Star Wars: Battlefront': Dengar DLC Means More Smoke Grenades And (Probably) More Bounty Hunters

The second of four DLC expansion packs for Star Wars: Battlefront, Bespin , drops in June, with new maps and two new hero and villain characters: Lando Calrissian and Dengar. While Calrissian — with his cape, mustache and brio — will be instantly recognizable, what about the dude with the weird burn ward bandages? And since two of the original six Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back bounty hunters are confirmed for Star Wars: Battlefront, are we likely to see more in future DLC?

In an expansive announcement post to the Star Wars: Battlefront site, producer Craig McLeod unveiled a number of details about the upcoming Bespin DLC. The expansion will have four maps around Bespin, with McLeod specifically mentioning Cloud City, the skies of Bespin and the carbonite chamber where Luke and Darth Vader crossed sabers over the future of the Empire (if only you had joined up with your Father, Luke! We could have avoided all this First Order hullabaloo!). The expansion will also include new blasters, Star Cards (equippable weapons and abilities with a cooldown), and a new game mode (it must involve carbonite, right?).

McLeod also confirmed that eight total characters (Heroes and Villains) will be added over four DLC releases, all included in the Star Wars: Battlefront Season Pass. So far the list includes Luke Skywalker, Darth vader, Leia Organa, Emperor Palpatine, Han Solo, Boba Fett, Nien Nunb, Greedo, plus Dengar and Lando Calrissian in the upcoming Bespin DLC.

So who is this Dengar fellow and what will he bring to the Battlefront table? While nothing has been announced about his special abilities, what we know about the character speaks volumes. Dengar first appeared in Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back, though Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Marvel’s Star Wars comic has revealed that Dengar’s bounty hunting career began years before the events of the Original Trilogy.

A human from Corellia, Dengar is known for his more direct approach to bounty hunting. He doesn’t bother with the detective work. In the Clone Wars show he’s seen working with a young Boba Fett, Bossk, and Asajj Ventress. He later worked for the Hutts, pursuing Han Solo after the events of the original Star Wars. In Marvel Star Wars #11, Dengar manages to take down Chewbacca in single combat, only to get tossed off a building after Han Solo intervenes.

With his plate armor, blaster and grenades, Dengar is likely to be a tank in Star Wars: Battlefront, deploying heavy firepower and smoke grenades in frontal assaults.

But even more interesting than Dengar’s capabilities as a Villain in Star Wars: Battlefront is what his presence might mean for the four unannounced Hero/Villain characters coming to future DLC. Among the six bounty hunters introduced on the bridge of Darth Vader’s Super Star Destroyer, Executor, Boba Fett is the clear fan favorite. But would Dengar be anyone’s second choice?

While the character has had a bit of a renaissance in the new Disney Star Wars continuity, is he really more popular than sentinel droid IG-88 or Trandoshan/Gorn/Reptilian-World-Elite Bossk? Hell, Bossk even gets a line in Empire Strikes Back:

The next Star Wars: Battlefront expansion after Bespin will be set on the Death Star. And while the natural picks might be Chewbacca and Grand Moff Tarkin, don’t count out IG-88, whose sleek, murdered out color scheme would go great in those Imperial halls. With Star Wars: Battlefront’s preference for minor characters, bounty hunters in particular, it seems unlikely that Dengar will be the last we see of those ill-reputed gangsters and fortune-chasers in Star Wars: Battlefront.