Long ago, director Guillermo Del Toro was said to have been interested in telling a gangster story about Jabba the Hutt and exploring the culture of the Hutt clans. It seems that now, his area of interest in the galaxy far, far away has finally come in handy, as he apparently consulted on The Mandalorian and Grogu to offer his insights into the Hutts.
As part of the press tour stop in Madrid, several Spanish outlets participated in a roundtable with Jon Favreau. As reported by the Spanish outlet Vandal, someone in the room noticed that Guillermo Del Toro received a special thanks credit for the film. Favreau explained that he was particularly passionate about helping explore Jabba’s species on film and their home planet of Nal Hutta:
“I spent a lot of time with Guillermo Del Toro – he had a story he wanted to tell about Jabba’s origin. The directors’ community is very generous, especially around the [sci-fi and fantasy genres].”
So far, three Hutts are confirmed to appear: Jabba’s son Rotta (voiced by Jeremy Allen White), and “The Twins”, who are Jabba’s cousins (pictured above). Favreau noted that Guillermo Del Toro was particularly interested in depicting a Hutt with a muscular physique, which is reflected onscreen with Rotta’s bulky, gladiatorial musculature. Favreau would go on to add that one of the advantages of telling a new chapter of the story of The Mandalorian and Grogu on film meant that they could do much more with the Hutt physicality, after only appearing briefly on a series like The Book of Boba Fett:
“It’s very difficult to have digital characters of that quality in a television series, where you have to finish in less than a year. You always want the Hutts to look grounded – [and for the audience to get] how the flesh and musculature move.”
In addition, Favreau noted that bringing the planet of Nal Hutta to live-action was a unique challenge that required not only the input of Guillermo Del Toro, but also a variety of talent from up and down Lucasfilm’s various creative departments gathering existing materials from pre-existing canonical and non-canonical Star Wars media, noting that they needed to keep consistent with details like the planet’s moon while offering their own spin on everything:
“Thanks to the Star Wars art department, especially Lucasfilm and Doug Chiang, it’s almost like having an entire research division. We had to stick to what already existed, [but] for us, it was more important that it felt like Star Wars than even that it felt real.”
The Mandalorian and Grogu will be released in theaters on May 22, 2026. The movie clocks in at 2 hours and 12 minutes and is tracking for an $80M three-day opening weekend in the US.
Grant has been a fan of Star Wars for as long as he can remember, having seen every movie on the big screen. When he’s not hard at work with his college studies, he keeps himself busy by reporting on all kinds of Star Wars news for SWNN and general movie news on the sister site, Movie News Net. He served as a frequent commentator on SWNN’s The Resistance Broadcast.