{"id":601453,"date":"2026-05-24T13:20:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T13:20:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/601453\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T13:20:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T13:20:16","slug":"jabba-the-hutts-buff-son-rotta-is-star-wars-strangest-father-son-story-yet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/601453\/","title":{"rendered":"Jabba the Hutt\u2019s buff son Rotta is Star Wars\u2019 strangest father-son story yet"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a franchise, Star Wars<\/a> has been around long enough that what makes a Star Wars project is malleable \u2014 the complex themes of Andor<\/a> can theoretically exist within the same galaxy as the goofy antics of Jar Jar Binks<\/a>. But there are certain ideas that flow throughout Star Wars like the Force, chief among them the complicated relationship between fathers (or father figures) and sons. Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader. Anakin Skywalker and Sheev Palpatine. Anakin and Obi-Wan Kenobi. Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon Jinn. Kylo Ren and Han Solo.<\/p>\n

The title characters of The Mandalorian and Grogu<\/a> technically follow in this tradition: the stoic bounty hunter and the adorable, Force-sensitive creature in his charge. (At this stage, the primary \u201cconflict\u201d is the tension between their different life spans: Grogu\u2019s species can live for hundreds of years, and Pedro Pascal\u2019s Din Djarin won\u2019t be by his side forever.) But while the film does give us plenty of screentime between Din and Grogu, their relationship remains largely uncomplicated: they have a deep bond, and take turns protecting one another. Instead, the most interesting \u2014 albeit confounding \u2014 father-son dynamic comes courtesy of [checks notes] Jabba the Hutt\u2019s buff son?!<\/p>\n

[Ed. note: Light spoilers ahead for the plot of The Mandalorian and Grogu.]<\/p>\n

Prior to release, far and away the most bizarre element of The Mandalorian and Grogu was the knowledge that the movie would feature Rotta the Hutt, the son of the infamous slug-like crime boss that terrorized Luke, Han, and Princess Leia in the original trilogy. Adding to the WTF-ery was Jeremy Allen White of The Bear fame voicing the creature. (Director Jon Favreau suggested that a shared connection<\/a> to playing on-screen chefs \u2014 Favreau wrote, directed, and starred in 2014\u2019s Chef \u2014 helped make the collaboration happen. My brain is fried.)<\/p>\n

\"The
\n Image: Lucasfilm<\/p>\n

In The Mandalorian and Grogu, Din is working for the New Republic to track down Imperial warlords still wielding power in the far reaches of the galaxy. Jabba\u2019s cousins, known as the Twins (as previously seen in The Book of Boba Fett<\/a>), have information on the whereabouts of an important Imperial officer. In exchange, they want Din to rescue their nephew, Rotta, who is being held prisoner and forced into gladiatorial combat on the planet Shakari<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When Din and Grogu arrive on Shakari, they instead find that Rotta isn\u2019t being kept against his will as much as he\u2019s embraced his life in the fighting limelight. Rotta explains that the Twins don\u2019t want him back out of the goodness of their hearts, but to kill him and cement their control over Jabba\u2019s criminal empire. Rotta isn\u2019t even interested in the family business; he\u2019s not like his father, he insists repeatedly.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not surprising to see a Star Wars movie include a son expressing concern that the sins of their father will be passed down to them. What is surprising is when these themes are explored through a giant slug with washboard abs. That Rotta is such a key part of The Mandalorian and Grogu is a potential make-or-break moment for the audience, especially because the script (co-written by Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni, and Noah Kloor) isn\u2019t anywhere as nuanced as you\u2019d hope. Rotta\u2019s character development is essentially repeating variations of \u201cI\u2019m not like my dad\u201d and hanging out with Grogu. (I have no complaints about the latter.)<\/p>\n

\"The
\n Image: Lucasfilm<\/p>\n

The deeper issue is that The Mandalorian and Grogu never figures out what to do with the contradiction at the heart of Rotta\u2019s character. On paper, there\u2019s something compelling about Jabba\u2019s heir rejecting the violent legacy he was born into. Star Wars has always been obsessed with inheritance \u2014 not just bloodlines, but the fear that identity is predetermined. Rotta slots neatly into a lineage that includes Luke refusing Vader\u2019s path and Kylo Ren trying, unsuccessfully, to escape the gravitational pull of both the Skywalkers and the Solos.<\/p>\n

But Rotta isn\u2019t rejecting his violent legacy as much as the family business. He does kill characters, seemingly without remorse \u2014 a fighter in the ring, Stormtroopers in a chase scene \u2014 and even attacks Din before realizing that his captor, Janu, doesn\u2019t want him to make it out of their gladiator arrangement alive. Like the rest of The Mandalorian and Grogu, it feels like the movie tried to speedrun through Rotta\u2019s character development instead of letting the audience sit with the contradictions of someone who, despite rejecting a life of organized crime, has literally built his body around a life of combat.<\/p>\n

\"The
\n Image: Disney Plus<\/p>\n

In an alternate timeline, you can imagine Rotta turning into a cult favorite character \u2014 the absurd visual of a swole Hutt playing with Grogu on a beach speaks for itself. And to be fair, it almost works. Rotta is memorable in a way that many modern Star Wars supporting characters simply aren\u2019t. Non-human characters in this franchise tend to fall into a bucket of cute and plucky (Grogu) or straight-up terrifying (the Sarlacc), but Rotta occupies a rare middle space: funny by design, yet played with just enough conviction that he doesn\u2019t feel like a punchline.<\/p>\n

But memorable isn\u2019t the same thing as meaningful. The strangest part of The Mandalorian and Grogu isn\u2019t that Jabba the Hutt\u2019s son becomes a central emotional figure in the story. It\u2019s that the movie stumbled onto a genuinely fascinating continuation of Star Wars lore \u2014 but never quite figured out how to be as fearless and inventive<\/a> as it clearly wants to be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As a franchise, Star Wars has been around long enough that what makes a Star Wars project is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":601454,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[96,2839,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-601453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=601453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601453\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/601454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=601453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=601453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=601453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}