Facts About Jabba The Hutt Only Die-Hard Fans Will Know
“Bo Shuda pateesa!”
“Echuta kung!”
You may hear both of these sentences from a certain Hutt. While you might be flattered by the first, you should definitely take your feet and run, when you hear the second one.
Star Wars lore established quite a backstory for the slimy, slug-like species. The Hutts are organized into Kajidic, clans that represented both biological and criminal families. One of these Kajidic was the Desilijic clan and its most famous member His Excellency Jabba Desilijic Tiure of Nal Hutta, Eminence of Tatooine, more informally known as Jabba the Hutt. Today we are going to talk about ten facts, both in and out of universe, about the notorious crime lord, on whom Jedi mind tricks did not work.
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1. $40,000 For A monster
Jabba first appeared chronologically in Return of the Jedi, but Lucas had originally intended to show the gangster boss in A New Hope. Declan Mulholland played Jabba in a scene at the Mos Eisley spaceport where he greeted (and somehow threatened) Han Solo after the latter had dropped a load of spice to avoid being apprehended by the Empire. Back then Lucas intended to replace Mulholland with “a monster.” He asked Twentieth Century Fox for additional $80,000 to create more cantina creatures and also create a non-human Jabba. Fox only granted Lucas $40,000, which was used on the cantina scenes. Mulholland and Jabba ended up on the cutting room floor. Lucas finally got his “monster” in a rather atrocious computer animated Hutt in the Special Edition of A New Hope. The look of the space slug has since been improved with subsequent releases of Episode IV, but never quite matched the look of the puppet from Episode VI.
2. Size Does Matter
When you look at a tiny Huttlett like Jabba’s son Rotta it is hard to believe that something so small can turn into such an enormous creature. Hutts do get quite old. By the time Leia strangled him with her chain, Jabba was 604 years old, 3.9 meters (12.7 feet) high, and weighed 1,358 kilograms (2994 pounds).
3. No-name Ancestors
Jabba’s grandparents were simply called Mama the Hutt, and Papa the Hutt. While Mama was at least granted an appearance in one of the early episodes of The Clone Wars, Papa ran away from his wife before the war and later died. We only got to see his corpse, which was buried on Teth. Current cannon has even less information about Jabba’s parents. His father is only mentioned in one reference book and so far we never got any canonical information on his mother, other than how he forced one of his slave dancers, Yarna d'al' Gargan, to wear special makeup, so she would look more like her. In Legends, we know that Jabba’s father was the crime lord Zora.
4. He Is Male
In Legends, Hutts were hermaphroditic, changing their sexes periodically. The Hutts in the current canon does not exhibit this, remaining the same sex their whole lives. During a panel at Celebration Anaheim in 2015, Pablo Hidalgo clarified that Jabba is definitely male and has always been so.
This leaves the question of who is Rotta’s mother?
5. The Model Always Wins
The character of Jabba was already present in Lucas’ very early concepts for Return of the Jedi. When coming up with ideas for the look for the crime lord, he told his design crew to let their minds run free. Ralph McQuarrie, Joe Johnston, Nilo Rordis-Jamero, and Ken Ralston came up with various concepts and drawings, which Lucas found either “too terrible” or “too human.” Ultimately Phil Tiippett created a model that looked like a strange version of the caterpillar from Alice in Wonderland. Lucas approved this concept and this is how Jabba got his infamous look.
6. My Favorite Frogs
Jabba the Hutt’s diet may not be appealing to most. The crime lord’s favorite food were Klatoonie paddy frogs, which he kept in an aquarium near his throne, and Gorgs, large amphibians that were also sold on the market of Mos Espa.
7. Cheese Slug
While we are on the topic of consumables, the slimy sound that Jabba made as he moved was created by sound designer Ben Burtt using a bowl of melted cheese.
8. Shifting Alliances
One of the reasons that Jabba made it to the top of the food chain of the criminal underworld was his control of the smuggling routes through the Outer Rim. Whoever wanted to transport goods to or from the far reaches of the galaxy would have to come in contact with Jabba sooner or later. During the Clone Wars, both the Republic and the Separatists tried to align with him, with the Republic getting the upper hand after Jabba learned that the Separatists were behind the kidnapping of his son. Later, Darth Vader sought an alliance with His Excellency and the Hutt made a deal with the Empire, which not only allowed him to carry on with his shady business, but also eliminated some of his competitors.
There was one time Jabba actually succumbed to the will of another. Shortly before the end of the Clone Wars, Maul forced Jabba to join his Shadow Collective in order to use his resources to take over Mandalore.
9. The Maltese Hutt
When creating the story for Return of the Jedi, George Lucas imagined Jabba as a kind of sultan, lying on his bed as prisoners are tortured in front of him. Other influences on the overall image of the crime lord include Marlon Brando in The Godfather, and Sydney Greenstreet in The Maltese Falcon.
10. Too Much For One Man
When filming the scenes in Jabba’s palace things got quite cramped with all the creatures and the big cameras. The three puppeteers who worked inside the crime lord must have felt even more claustrophobic. Toby Philpott operated the left arm and the head, David Barcley moved the Hutt’s right arm and mouth, while Mike Edmonds operated the tail. All three of them had headphones and little monitors, so that they could see what was happening outside the big slug and hear director Richard Marquand’s instructions. The trio was aided by two exterior operators, who remote controlled the pupils and the eyeballs, and another puppeteer, who was in charge of the nostrils via cables.
Jabba may be dead, but this does not stop him from being one of the most recognizable and memorable figures in Star Wars history. His infamy is not just because of a certain princess who had to lie before him in a not really princess-like attire.
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Source(s): J. W. Rinzler, The Making of Return of the Jedi (Del Rey, 2013). Adam Bray and Cole Horton, Star Wars: Absolutely EverythingYou Need to Know (DK Children, 2017).