What Would Lucasfilm’s Rumored Jabba The Hutt Movie Look Like?

With yesterday’s announcement that Lucasfilm is moving forward with a stand-alone movie starring Obi-Wan Kenobi, the waters of Star Wars rumors have been stirred up again. The usual suspects are all out in Force (zing!), including murmurs of an upcoming Boba Fett or Yoda spin-off. But in their write-up of the Kenobi news, Variety noted that one of its sources has mentioned the possibility of a film all about Jabba the Hutt.

This isn’t the first time this particular rumor has been dredged up. Director Guillermo del Toro has even given interviews about how he’d handle a film focused on Jabba as far back as 2015. Now it looks like del Toro may have known something the general public didn’t. So if Lucasfilm does go through with a movie about Jabba the Hutt, what would that even look like?

Guillermo del Toro’s idea, that any movie about Jabba would have to be about the Hutt Cartel, feels right on the money. I doubt many people are clamoring for tales of Jabba’s youth, but Jabba is merely one major cog in the wheel that is the Galactic Underground. And stories about that side of a galaxy far, far away have barely been attempted by Lucasfilm. In the world George Lucas created, the sociopolitical climate has three sides: the Republic/Rebellion/Resistance, the Empire/First Order, and the Hutt Cartel. Hutt-controlled space takes up numerous star systems on the border between the Mid-Rim and the Outer Rim and is the hub all illicit activity for the galaxy. It would be an ideal setting for del Toro to attempt a Star Wars take on The Godfather.

There are even indications Lucasfilm is about to ease fans into the criminal element of Star Wars. Audiences are familiar with gold-hearted rogues and dastardly bounty hunters, but those are only a small piece of the underworld pie. The introduction of Benicio del Toro’s amoral slicer “DJ” in The Last Jedi will be the first time the films have focused on a character with no real attachment to either the Rebel Alliance or the Empire. (I would argue even Boba Fett has skin in the game as he was a pawn of the Galactic Republic).

For decades, the Hutt Cartel has been shunted off to the periphery of the Star Wars universe, popping up in animated television shows such as The Clone Wars and comic books. The Hutt homeworld, Nal Hutta, features prominently in the video game Star Wars: The Old Republic, where players with less-than-pristine moral codes can take on shady quests. Few of these elements have made the leap to the silver screen, however. The Hutt Cartel spans dozens of worlds, with the Grand Hutt Council keeping order among thieves. Run by representatives of the five major Hutt families, the Cartel behaves in much the same way as the mafia or the yakuza. At the height of his power, Jabba was the head of this Council during the Clone Wars. Forever opportunistic and loyal only to themselves (and even then, not so much if a well-placed dagger could move a Hutt up the social hierarchy), the Hutt Cartel has made deals with the Galactic Republic, the Sith, and the Empire. Any of those moments in Star Wars history would make a fine crime film.

To me, the best way to do a Jabba movie would be to cast the infamous Hutt as the impetus of the film, but not the star, either an omnipotent Godfather-type whom the main character react to, or looming over the proceedings in death. With Princess Leia slaying her captor, it left a huge vacuum in the Hutt Cartel power structure, one that would lead to a bloody and protracted power grab by the other factions. While The Godfather is the obvious parallel, perhaps something more in the vein of A History of Violence — where a character who got out of the life is pulled back in — combined with elements of, say Ocean’s Eleven would work just as well.

Obviously, Lucasfilm could still change its mind. Outside of the Obi-Wan spin-off, nothing is set in stone. But if the company was looking for ways to branch out the franchise beyond the Skywalker family, the deep, rich criminal underground is a good place to start.

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