Jeremy Allen White said he had no awareness of Rotta the Hutt before playing him in The Mandalorian and Grogu. White said that he “did a bit of a voice” to play the giant Star Wars slug over the course of “a couple sessions.”The Bear star said that he was “excited about doing the movie that my daughters can go and see.”

Did you know that Jabba the Hutt has a large adult son?

Jeremy Allen White didn’t — but that didn’t stop him from playing the character anyway.

The Bear star discussed his upcoming turn as an oversized space slug in an interview with Variety. When the outlet’s reporter remarked that they had no prior knowledge of Rotta’s existence, White admitted, “Neither did I.”

The actor will provide the voice of Rotta in Jon Favreau’s Star Wars film The Mandalorian and Grogu, a theatrical continuation of the streaming series The Mandalorian that stars Pedro Pascal.

Rotta the Hutt in ‘The Mandalorian and Grogu’.

Lucasfilm

White explained how he first came aboard the project. “I’ve been a fan of Jon Favreau’s for a very long time,” he explained, noting that his films Swingers and Made “had a tremendous effect on” him in his youth. “We met at a party. I told him that, and he was like, ‘I have something I want to talk to you about. Can I call you?'”

White said that he had a conversation with the Iron Man filmmaker about The Mandalorian. “I said, ‘It’s a great show. You do a great job. I’d known Pedro Pascal for a little bit, and he’s great and has fun on it and he loves you,'” the Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere actor remembered telling Favreau. “He was like, ‘I want you to be in it.'”

The Iron Claw actor was enthusiastic about the offer. “Fantastic, of course,” White said. “And then he started explaining it and started talking about Rotta. I’d never done voice work. There isn’t any stop-motion work or anything physical like that. ”

White noted that his voice performance might not sound familiar to some viewers. “I did a bit of a voice, but then I think Jon also ended up tweaking it a little bit,” he said. “It was maybe a year ago. I did a couple sessions. I’ve not seen any of it.”

The Shameless alum noted that he was glad to voyage into a galaxy far, far away because The Mandalorian and Grogu will mark one of his first family-friendly projects. “I was excited about doing a job that is in this world of Star Wars, a world that I have admired for a very long time,” he said. “I was also excited about doing the movie that my daughters can go and see.”

Jeremy Allen White.
Cindy Ord/WireImage

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Rotta the Hutt first appeared as a baby in the 2008 animated movie Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which saw Anakin Skywalker (Matt Lanter) and his apprentice Ahsoka Tano (Ashley Eckstein) rescue the young Hutt from the clutches of Count Dooku. The character also briefly appeared in a season 3 episode of the Cartoon Network series The Clone Wars, which followed the events of the theatrical film.

The Mandalorian and Grogu will mark Rotta’s first appearance as a full-grown adult Hutt — and if the brief glimpse of him from the film’s trailer is any indication, he’s significantly more muscular than his slovenly father from Return of the Jedi.

The Mandalorian and Grogu soars into theaters on May 22, 2026.