Guillermo del Toro's scrapped Star Wars movie was about Jabba the Hutt – but the director is totally cool with it being canceled

Jabba the Hutt in Return of the Jedi
(Image credit: Disney/Lucasfilm)

Guillermo del Toro recently shared that he was working on a Star Wars movie that ended up scrapped – and the director has since revealed what exactly the movie was set to be about after an initial cryptic tease of the letters "J" and "BB." 

"We had the rise and fall of Jabba the Hutt, so I was super happy," Guillermo said in a Q&A hosted by Collider.

But, the director also shared that he feels pretty much fine about the movie being scrapped. "We were doing a lot of stuff, and then it's not my property, it's not my money, and then it's one of those 30 screenplays that goes away," he added. "Sometimes I'm bitter, sometimes I'm not. I always turn to my team and say, 'Good practice, guys. Good practice. We designed a great world. We designed great stuff. We learned.' You can never be ungrateful with life. Whatever life sends you, there's something to be learned from it. So, you know, I trust the universe, I do. When something doesn't happen, I go, 'Why?' I try to have a dialogue with myself. 'Why didn’t it happen?' And the more you swim upstream with the universe, the less you're gonna realize where you're going."

While del Toro didn't reveal any additional details about the movie, it's easy to speculate on what the film might have covered. Jabba was a crime lord on Tatooine, home planet of both Anakin and Luke Skywalker, and had the likes of Han Solo and Boba Fett in his employ – until he was strangled to death by Princess Leia Organa, of course. 

The Book of Boba Fett seems to have potentially covered similar ground to del Toro's scrapped movie, considering that series followed Fett taking charge of criminal enterprises on Tatooine, ultimately becoming Daimyo of Mos Espa. 

Next up on Star Wars' slate is Disney Plus show Skeleton Crew, which doesn't yet have a release date. Ahsoka, meanwhile, just wrapped up on the streamer – and for even more on that show, check out our deep dives on: 

Molly Edwards
Senior Entertainment Writer

I'm a Senior Entertainment Writer here at 12DOVE, covering all things film and TV for the site's Total Film and SFX sections. I previously worked on the Disney magazines team at Immediate Media, and also wrote on the CBeebies, MEGA!, and Star Wars Galaxy titles after graduating with a BA in English.