12 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Jabba The Hutt

Jabba the Hutt's death wasn't exactly the kind of demise that gets written about in legends and songs– he was comically strangled to death during the Rebel's rescue of Han Solo in the opening of Return of the Jedi. Even worse for Jabba, it's revealed in Bloodline, a novel centered on Leia as a senator in the New Republic, that a holo-recording of his death, flailing tongue and all, was sent around after his passing, making it known forever that "Slave Leia" and "Huttslayer" are synonymous.

The Hutts may have fallen to massive infighting after Jabba's death in Return of the Jedi, but they were a genuine power there for a while. Numerous planets were under the control of the Grant Hutt Council during its heyday, with "Hutt Space" being a large cesspool filled with some of the most reprehensible citizens in the galaxy. Just imagine Jabba's Palace from the opening of the third Star Wars film and extended it to cover entire systems of space and you've got the basic idea.

The entirety of Hutt Space was ruled from the Hutt homeworld of Nal Hutta and the Grand Hutt Council controlled it by wielding a big stick. During the height of their power during the late-Republic and Imperial era, the Hutt Clan was allowed to rule out of the idea that the devil you know is better than the devil you don't. Better to have the Hutts in power than to have all of Hutt Space decend into violent chaos.

The original Jabba the Hutt that was cut from the theatrical cut of Star Wars back in 1977 wasn't a slug but a man. A man who absolutely loved brown clothing. This human Jabba was played by Irish actor Declan Mulholland. It didn't really mesh with the outlandish worldbuilding in Lucas' original film, though the director apparently always intended on replacing Mulholland with an alien in post, hence why it got cut in the first place.

The scene has since been added back into A New Hope with a CGI version of Jabba the Hutt everyone knows and loves pasted over the original performance. Mulholland's Jabba definitely stands as an interesting curio of Star Wars lore and it explains why Han Solo calls Jabba a "wonderful human being" during the updated version of the scene that was added to more recent edits of the film.

Years before Ben Kenobi and Luke would jet off into space with Han Solo to kickstart the "Skywalker Saga," Kenobi ended up running afoul of Jabba the Hutt. During Luke's childhood, Tatooine struggled through the "Great Drought." Being the criminal he is, Jabba began enforcing a water tax on the denizens of Tatooine to make some easy money. Luke, rambunctious and chaoticly-good child he was, decided to try and take his Uncle Owen's money back from the collectors, leading Obi-Wan to get involved.

A Wookiee bounty hunter called Black Krrsantan tracked down and kidnapped Owen Lars, leading to a confrontation with Ben Kenobi, ending with Krrsantan falling off cliff, surviving and fleeing Tatooine, fearing Jabba's wrath.

The Shadow Collective was a group of villains who definitely took on one too many adversaries in their bid for galactic power. Wiping out both the Confederacy of Independent Systems and the Galactic Republic (as well as Darth Sidious pre-Empire) would've been no minor feat for the relatively small outfit of criminals led by the former Sith, Maul. For a little bit there, though, things were working out for the Shadow Collective as Maul managed to lead them in a complete takeover of Mandalore. They forced the Hutt Council to momentarily join the Shadow Collective by brute force, using the Hutts' vast resources to lead them to a (temporary) victory on Mandalore.

Of course, forcing others to help you under the threat of violence isn't a good way to make friends and the Grand Hutt Council was happy to be rid of the Shadow Collective by the time their takeover of Mandalore was complete.

The original Jabba the Hutt puppet was absolutely huge. And if you thought there was merely one person under all that flab, you'd be wrong. Three puppeteers had to work in unison to bring the giant slug to life. Toby Philpott, David Barclay, and Mike Edmonds came together to do a wonderful job, though. One could argue that the Return of the Jedi puppet remains far more realistic than the CGI incarnations of Jabba the Hutt that have emerged since. There is something about his disgusting skin in the 1983 classic that continues to be unsettling to this very day.