Jabba the Hutt

Jabbathe Hutt ( ) is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise. He is a large, slug-like crime lord of the Hutt species. Jabba first appeared in the 1983 film Return of the Jedi, in which he is portrayed by a one-ton puppet operated by several puppeteers. In 1997, he appeared in the Special Edition of the original Star Wars film, which had been retitled Star Wars: Episode IV—A New Hope. Jabba made his third film appearance in the 1999 prequel filmThe Phantom Menace. Jabba is voiced by Larry Ward in Return of the Jedi, and Ben Burtt in A New Hope Special Edition and The Phantom Menace. In the end credits of The Phantom Menace, Jabba is also credited as playing "himself".

In the original film trilogy, Jabba lives in a palace on the desert planet Tatooine. He places a bounty on the smuggler Han Solo, and sends bounty hunters to capture him. After Darth Vader freezes Solo in carbonite, the bounty hunter Boba Fett delivers the frozen Solo to Jabba, who puts him on display in his palace. A group of Solo's friends attempt to rescue him, but are captured by Jabba; he enslaves Princess Leia and decrees that Luke Skywalker, Chewbacca, and Solo will be fed to a Sarlacc. Luke orchestrates an escape, and during the chaos Leia strangles Jabba to death.