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One Of The Mandalorian And Grogu's Biggest Characters Was Barely In The Trailers

By Witney Seibold

May 23, 2026 6:45 am EST

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Lucasfilm

Mild spoilers for "The Mandalorian and Grogu" to follow._

Jon Favreau's "The Mandalorian and Grogu," a continuation of the live-action TV series "The Mandalorian," takes place in the New Republic era of the "Star Wars" timeline, after the events of "Return of the Jedi" but years before "The Force Awakens." It's an insidious period where the remnants of the Galactic Empire are regathering in secret, trying to rebuild their evil in the shadows. Meanwhile, the New Republic is wary of the political fragility of the galaxy following the Galactic Civil War. During all this, those residing in the galaxy's Outer Rim must scrounge to survive, giving rise to a thriving criminal syndicate.

The plot of "The Mandalorian and Grogu" follows the titular bounty hunter, Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal), and his miniature, super-powered adopted toddler son to the Outer Rim to retrieve Rotta the Hutt (Jeremy Allen White) and return him to his aunt and uncle, the leaders of a crime syndicate of their own. Din is only retrieving Rotta in exchange for information, though, as the Hutt family knows the location of a particularly dangerous former Empire general.

When he finds Rotta, however, the narrative shifts. Rotta is the son of the dead crime lord Jabba the Hutt, and he's grown tired of living in his father's shadow. He is currently enslaved by an underground pit-fighting organization, forced to battle space monsters in a gladiatorial arena. Rotta admits that he would rather keep fighting and win his freedom organically than return to a crime family that would probably kill him.

Eventually, Rotta becomes a major part of the movie, joining forces with Din and Grogu and engaging in several action scenes and chases. This is a surprise, given how little Rotta was in the "Mandalorian and Grogu" trailers.

Rotta the Hutt plays a surprisingly large role in The Mandalorian and Grogu

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Francois Duhamel/Lucasfilm

"The Mandalorian and Grogu" is episodic in its structure, and Rotta the Hutt is essentially the guest star of one of the film's "episodes." He gets to speak at length about how he hates his father's legacy and how fighting allows him to stand on his own two legs. er, make that his big long slug tail. Lest we delve too_ far into spoiler territory, let's just say that Rotta ultimately ends up in the arena with Din, and the pair are forced to battle a gaggle of opponents as a team. And that's far from the end of Rotta and Din's adventures together in the film.

No mere throw-away character, Rotta has a fully-realized personality and a fair amount to do in "The Mandalorian and Grogu." For that matter, he gets more to do than Zeb (Steve Blum), a Lasat pilot and former Rebel who's become one of Din's key allies. Zeb, for those who are less familiar with him, was introduced in the animated series "Star Wars Rebels" before making his live-action debut via a cameo on "The Mandalorian." Don't worry about him too much; he's barely in the movie.

Rotta, meanwhile, has moments of tenderness in the movie, mostly with Grogu, whom he adores like his own child. It's a credit to "The Mandalorian and Grogu" that it takes the time to develop Rotta as a character rather than treating him like a glorified visual effect. He even has abs, making him the first buff Hutt ever featured in a "Star Wars" flick.

We've also met Rotta before, namely as an infant in the 2008 animated feature film "Star Wars: The Clone Wars."

Rotta the Hutt appeared in the Clone Wars movie prior to The Mandalorian and Grogu

Lucasfilm

The plot of "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" is a little complex, but basically the Separatist Alliance's leader, the former Jedi Count Dooku (Christopher Lee), kidnaps the infant Rotta in an attempt to strong-arm a deal with his father, Jabba. In order to stop this, the Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi (James Arnold Taylor) promised Jabba that he'll rescue little Rotta from Dooku's clutches. As a result, a significant chunk of the movie involves Obi-Wan's former student turned Jedi Anakin Skywalker (Matt Lanter) and his own young student or Padawan, Ahsoka Tano (Ashley Eckstein), returning Rotta to his father.

"The Mandalorian and Grogu" marks Rotta's first major appearance since then. He's also but one of many "Star Wars" characters that we've now seen at drastically different ages in separate projects, much like Anakin and Obi-Wan before him. In fact, when interviewed by Empire, Jon Favreau compared Rotta's journey from the "Clone Wars" movie to "The Mandalorian and Grogu" to that of Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan), the son of Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers), in the "Rocky" legacy sequel "Creed." (Notably, the late Weathers also portrayed Din's associate Greef Karga in "The Mandalorian.") As Favreau put it:

"When you're trying to establish yourself and your name is famous, when you're Jabba The Hutt's kid, what does that do? How has that affected his trajectory? I get a kick out of that."

That means Rotta the Hutt is but the latest "Star Wars" character to have grown up and faced the challenges that come with that before our very eyes.

"The Mandalorian and Grogu" is now playing in theaters.