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Well, this is unexpected: Jeremy Allen White, who stars in The Bear as a tortured chef with anger issues named Carmy, is set to voice Jabba the Hutt’s son, Rotta the Hutt, in The Mandalorian & Grogu. This was first reported by industry scooper Jeff Sneider on The Kristian Harloff Show before being corroborated by several trades, including Variety. We highly doubt anyone had this latest casting on their 2024 Star Wars bingo board.
While Rotta the Hutt, canonically nicknamed “Stinky,” isn’t exactly a household name these days, he is technically a blast from the franchise’s big-screen past, specifically from the 2008 The Clone Wars animated movie that launched the popular series of the same name. In fact, he’s the MacGuffin of the film—when the Separatists kidnap Rotta in order to convince the Hutts to join their side of the war, it’s up to Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker, and Ahsoka Tano to retrieve the little Hutt and return him to Jabba on Tatooine. Long story short, after confrontations with classic dark-side baddies Count Dooku and Asajj Ventress, as well as a few CG animated battles, the heroes succeed in getting Stinky to safety.
But what does this all mean for The Mandalorian & Grogu? Well, you have to look at when the movie takes place on the Star Wars timeline and what’s happened in the decades since that Clone Wars adventure.
The Mandalorian & Grogu presumably takes place after the events of the Disney+ series that first launched Din Djarin and Baby Yoda into stardom. So, around five years after Return of the Jedi. Wookieepedia says that Rotta was born around 24-22 BBY (Before the Battle of Yavin), while The Mandalorian & Grogu will likely take place around 9 ABY (After the Battle of Yavin), which means we’ll meet an older Rotta in the upcoming film.
Why bring back a 33-year-old Stinky now, in the first Star Wars movie since 2019? There’s the obvious Clone Wars nostalgia, of course, something The Mandalorian has heavily dabbled in since season 2 reintroduced Katee Sackhoff as Bo-Katan Kryze. But more crucially, the franchise is bringing back Rotta a few years after the death of his father and the end of Hutt rule on Tatooine. In the mighty Jabba’s absence, Boba Fett steps in to become the new daimyo of Mos Espa, not only fighting off a claim from Jabba’s cousins but the Pyke Syndicate in order to ascend the throne. While his cousins may have been happy to avoid further bloodshed (i.e. their own deaths), Jabba’s son may not be so ready to give up his birthright.
Could part of The Mandalorian & Grogu pick up where The Book of Boba Fett left off? With Boba Fett and his partner Fennec Shand now officially in power on Tatooine, Rotta could show up to give the new daimyo some trouble, a conflict that pulls Din and his son back into the action after seemingly settling in for a long vacation on Nevarro at the end of The Mandalorian season 3. Perhaps a hologram message from their old pal Boba is what kicks off the film?
We’re just speculating, of course. Very little is currently known about the new Star Wars movie beyond what was shown in a short sizzle reel at D23 in August, which teased the return of the Razor Crest as well as Lasat warrior Zeb Orrelios from Rebels, itself a sequel series to The Clone Wars. We also know that the duo will once again face off against the Imperial remnant at some point in the film, specifically on an ice planet guarded by AT-ATs.
Will this new mission also tie into the return of Grand Admiral Thrawn, as seen in Ahsoka? And how does Stinky fit into all of this? We’ll just have to wait patiently for the answers.
Star Wars: The Mandalorian & Grogu, which recently wrapped filming, will hit theaters on May 22, 2026.
The post The Mandalorian & Grogu Brings Back a Forgotten Star Wars Movie Character appeared first on Den of Geek.
