Hello out there! We’re back for another look at Solo: A Star Wars Story. This time, let’s take a look at Jabba the Hutt!
We first heard about Jabba appearing in Solo from the Hashtag Show. At the time, they claimed to have “sources” that said there was a combination of CGI and puppetry to build Jabba for Solo. When we reported on it at the time, we didn’t trust the source. Sounds like we were right. Something about the matter-of-fact way they were reporting it. So Jabba never actually appeared in the film, but he was mentioned…sort of.
What we did get in Solo was an indirect mention of Jabba. That line from Beckett that was used and reused throughout the different trailers “Heard about a big-shot gangster, putting together a crew”. It turns out that the big-shot gangster is revealed to be on Tatooine, which pretty much strongly suggests that Jabba is who is was referring to. That said, I think it’s a fair question to ask “why?” we know that’s who it is.
You see, at the time of Solo, Jabba had already been the leading crime lord on Tatooine for several hundreds of years. Yeah, that’s right, many centuries. You can imagine the kind of network that a crime boss could create given that much time. Jabba’s network reached all throughout the Outer Rim. During the Clone Wars, Jabba encountered perhaps an even bigger crime lord: Maul. At the time, Maul was just getting started setting up his Shadow Collective, which later may have grown into or was reborn into Crimson Dawn. Maul had some schemes to take over Mandalore, and he brought together some of the biggest crime syndicates in the galaxy. In the end, these efforts culminated in Maul killing Duchess Satine in a twisted revenge against Kenobi.
It’s weird to think that Jabba, if only indirectly, had a hand in that revenge against Kenobi. This is especially strange when you consider that Kenobi faced Jabba’s council during his Clone Wars days, and later one of Jabba’s regular bounty hunters, the wookiee Black Krrsantan, was hired by Jabba to kill Kenobi after he took down some of Jabba’s tax-collecting thugs. This would of course be a great way to tie these films with a future Kenobi movie.
Come to think of it, consider all these connections: Jabba the Hutt, Black Krrsantan, who was later teamed up with Doctor Aphra, and worked with Boba Fett. It’s hard to imagine that they won’t use some of this canon comics material or something similar in a future film.
Going back to Jabba, it is clear that Han and Chewie were on their way to find Jabba at the end of Solo. The question is, who else will they meet in the inevitable future sequel to Solo? At least, I hope it is inevitable. I talked a little while ago about the prospects of a Underworld Cinematic Universe, and once you crack the door open a little bit into that world, it’s hard to keep all the characters and connections from flooding out. Somehow, I expect a wookiee-on-wookiee fight between Chewie and Black Krrsantan, as well as an encounter with Jabba’s other regular bounty hunters.
So while Jabba wasn’t seen in Solo, his implied presence is pretty big. I expect to see him in Solo 2, and I expect him to offer a severe warning to Han to never, ever, ever, dump his cargo even in he gets boarded by the Empire.
Brought to you by @davestrrr. Stay tuned to Spoiled Blue Milk for the best of Star Wars!