Hutt

"You can't take Her Royal Highness there! The Hutts are gangsters..."

- Quarsh Panaka

Hutts were a large slug-like sentient species who were native to the planet Nal Hutta. They were well known as galactic gangsters whose Grand Hutt Council controlled the Hutt Clan crime syndicate. One famous Hutt was the crime lord Jabba, who ruled a massive criminal empire from his palace on Tatooine.

Biology and appearance
Hutts were a massive slug-like species who had large mouths and stubby arms. They were tough and muscular with thick leathery skin, which was wrinkled and slimy. Hutts often had watery eyes and slack facial expressions. Their tails were supported by a skeletal spine. Despite their legendary adult size, Hutts start out as tiny Huttlets less than half a meter in height.

Their homeworld of Nal Hutta had a hot atmosphere and was frequently streaked by greasy rains, creating a fetid sauna in which Hutts were most comfortable. Hutts could live for centuries – Jabba was 604 when he was killed – and could grow to enormous sizes.

Some Hutts suffered from a genetic defect that caused their skin to be bereft of pigment and prone to cracking.

Pre-Clone Wars
For centuries, the Hutts dominated much of the organized criminal activities in the galaxy. They dominated the Twi'leks of Ryloth and the Nikto species for several centuries.

Clone Wars
During the Clone Wars, the Galactic Republic forged a tacit alliance with the crime lord Jabba Desilijic Tiure after the Jedi Anakin Skywalker and his Padawan Ahsoka Tano rescued his son Rotta. The Republic Senator Padmé Amidala also foiled a plot by Jabba's uncle Ziro to overthrow his nephew with the collusion of the Confederacy of Independent Systems.

Age of the Empire
The Hutts also had extensive dealings with the Galactic Empire and helped run several black site prisons. During the Age of the Empire, the Hutts and other organized criminal groups exercised a powerful grip on the Galaxy. Following the liberarion of Akiva, the New Republic took steps to curtail the influence of the Hutts and other organized groups by introducing financial regulations and undertaking comprehensive patrols of the galactic shipping lanes. Still, the Hutts were able to exercise some influence over the Nikto species and their government.

Post-Galactic Civil War
During the New Republic era, the Hutts lost much of their former power over the galactic underworld and were supplanted by Nikto crime cartels like Rinnrivin Di's cartel. The Hutts were disliked by both the Populists and the Centrists, the two main factions in the New Republic's Galactic Senate. Several Nikto like Rinnrivin admired Leia Organa for her role in killing Jabba and christened her "Huttslayer."

Culture
Most Hutts were crime lords who lived opulent lives overseeing criminal underworld activities like spice smuggling, slavery, gambling and bounty hunting in Hutt Space. They were typically obese, with the muscular Nar Shaddaa kingpin Grakkus being an exception.

The Hutt Clan was divided into families known as kajidics: Jabba's family was the Desilijic kajidic, whose sigil was tattooed on his arm. Hutts bandaged and buried their dead. The Hutts believed that at least one of their own, Boonta Hestilic Shad'ruu, had ascended to godhood, and held the Boonta Eve holiday in their honor.

Classical architectural Hutt style could be seen on the planet Mataou. It was characterized by terraced buildings with sloping gates, and white and red colors.

Clothing was optional for Hutts, and some would use live Sha'rellian toops as hairpieces. Hutts liked to eat gorgs, slime pods and Klatooine paddy frogs, and were known to smoke hookah pipes.

Behind the scenes
Hutts first appeared in the 1983 film Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi, the final installment of the Star Wars original trilogy.

On the Return of the Jedi tape included in the 1997 The Star Wars Trilogy Special Edition, Lucas detailed that the word Hutt was originally going to just be Jabba Desilijic Tiure's gangster title, but was eventually changed to indicate Jabba's species.

Early concept art for Jabba the Hutt, and therefore for the Hutt species, by Ralph McQuarrie depicted Jabba as a fat individual with an immense double chin. Though this design wasn't used in the finished film, it would later inspire the look of Azmorigan, and therefore the Jablogian species, in Star Wars Rebels. Coincidentally, the same concept art inspired another species in the Star Wars Legends lore.

Lucasfilm Story Group's Pablo Hidalgo revealed at Celebration Anaheim that Hutts have separate sexes in canon, no longer being hemaphroditic as they were in the Legends continuity.

Translations
In many languages, the phrase "[Name] the Hutt" is translated as "[Name] of Hutt".

Non-canon appearances

 * William Shakespeare's The Phantom of Menace: Star Wars Part the First
 * Star Wars Epic Yarns: Return of the Jedi
 * Disney Infinity 3.0
 * Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes
 * LEGO Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures
 * LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens
 * LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens
 * LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens
 * LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens