Jabba the Hutt isn't just a crime boss, as far as the Star Wars universe is concerned,
he is the boss.
But Jabba is so much more than just a lazy, corrupt blob.
He's got a history that's just as gross and bizarre as his slime-coated skin.
Here are a few things you might not know about
Jabba Desilijic Tiure...
Jabba Desilijic Tiure…
Jabba Desigurbearear...
Jabba the Hutt.
A slimy evolution
Jabba the Hutt is famous for his bulbous body and slug-like features.
In the decades since his debut in Return of the Jedi, he's become a symbol for gluttony
and corruption, and it's all thanks to his disgusting, pulsating bod.
But Jabba could have looked very different.
In the original Star Wars script, he's simply ambiguously described big and gross, with
facial scars from vicious battles.
In the original concept art, he's vaguely Chewbacca-like and stands on two legs, and
in the Marvel Comics Star Wars adaptation, he's a yellow humanoid with a snout and bushy
mutton chops.
It was only when Return of the Jedi entered pre-production that Jabba started to take
his now-familiar form.
But bringing a giant, slug-like Jabba to life was a major production.
In Return of the Jedi, there were three main puppeteers, and other performers moved his
eyes and helped animate his tail.
Larry Ward, who also voiced Greedo, provided the vocals.
Over the years, a lot of people have played Jabba.
Declan Mulholland played the first, weirdly human Jabba the Hutt in a scene that was ultimately
cut from the original Star Wars.
Veteran actor Ed Asner played Jabba in a radio drama, and in The Clone Wars, he's played
by Kevin Michael Richardson.
Several different actors have voiced him in video games.
And in The Phantom Menace, he's credited as being played by "himself."
Figure that one out.
Mommy issues
Jabba is a mobster from a family of mobsters, so of course his family reunions get a little
complicated.
In 2008, the animated film The Clone Wars introduced Jabba's uncle, Ziro the Hutt, and
his son, the flatulent Rotta.
Later, the cartoon series expanded Jabba's family tree by bringing in other family members,
including the obese Hutt matriarch Mama.
Jabba's parents don't play a big on-screen role, although they clearly had an impact
on the young Hutt.
According to The Star Wars Character Encyclopedia, one of Jabba's dancers, Yarna d'al' Gargan,
was made in his mother's image.
If she seems a little Hutt-like, that's not an accident.
As the Character Encyclopedia explains, Jabba had Yarna's body "enlarged" and forces her
to wear makeup that makes her look like his mom.
Yes, it's all a little weird, even for Jabba.
Still, twisted parent-kid relationships are kind of a Star Wars thing, and it wouldn't
be the first time we've seen characters in a galaxy far, far away getting a little too
close to their family members.
How to speak Hutt
You can't actually learn Huttese, because it's not a real language.
It is, however, based on one.
On the DVD commentary track for A New Hope, Lucasfilm sound designer Ben Burtt says he
based Huttese on Quechua, a collection of loosely affiliated South American languages
that date back to ancient Incan times.
As the story goes, Burtt located an instructional tape and played it for Larry Ward, who used
the sounds to create Huttese words for Jabba.
Huttese isn't actually Quechua, it has no formal structure.
Not that anyone on set would've noticed: During filming, Jabba's puppeteers delivered all
his lines in English.
The Huttese was added in post-production, and it was designed to fit Jabba's already-filmed
mouth movements.
"Your mind powers will not work on me boy!"
Dude looks like a lady
Hutt physiology is really freakin' weird.
According to reference books like The New Essential Guide to Alien Species, Hutts don't
have skeletons, although they do have a "mantle" that helps give their heads that distinct,
blobby shape.
They sweat mucus, and they have snake-like qualities, too.
In the 1995 comic Jabba the Hutt: The Dynasty Trap, Jabba is seen swallowing an entire human.
And while Jabba has a son, don't go looking for Mrs. Hutt.
She doesn't exist.
In Star Wars' old continuity, Hutts were born with both male and female reproductive organs,
and could choose to mate with themselves.
According to the novelization of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, that's exactly what Jabba
did.
In 2012, though, after Disney purchased Lucasfilm, the Mouse House wiped most of Star Wars' non-film
continuity clean.
As part of this reshuffling, the Hutts got definitive genders.
Jabba's hermaphroditic past is gone.
For better or worse, he's now a dude, and only a dude.
Tats for Hutts
Jabba's arm tattoo wasn't supposed to be important.
It was supposed to look cool.
In an interview with ScifiNow, John Coppinger, the man who sculpted Jabba, said the tattoo
was really just a meaningless afterthought.
"I put a tattoo onto Jabba's arm, as a finishing touch.
[...] Now if you Google 'Jabba Tattoo' there you'll find yards of information about Huttese
tribal markings."
In the novel Darth Plagueis, Jabba's tattoo is implied to be the symbol of his clan, a
crime family known just as much for their fearsome loyalty as for their greed, their
opulent tastes, and their fondness for humanoid women.
Hey, at least Jabba's comfortable in his own gross, slimy skin.
You can't say that about a lot of people.
"He doesn't feel the need to be charming, or anything he's just an unpretentious, very
straightforward, guy."