Guillermo del Toro‘s canceled Star Wars movie would have resolved a major mystery from Return of the Jedi. There had been rumors of Guillermo del Toro’s Star Wars movie for years, but it wasn’t until 2023 that we first learned anything solid. According to Del Toro, his Jabba movie would have been the Scarface of Star Wars.

“I would love to do a Jabba the Hutt Scarface, his ascension in the crime family,” he explained. “I just love monsters, and Jabba is a) basically my same shirt size, and b) I love him, man.” Looking beyond the humor, though, the truly tantalizing prospect here lies in the answer to a major Return of the Jedi mystery.

Del Toro Planned To Show The Rise & Fall Of Jabba The Hutt

A Thrilling Prospect

Del Toro’s canceled Jabba the Hutt movie would have been “the rise and fall of Jabba the Hutt,” a prospect that’s absolutely thrilling. How did Jabba become the pre-eminent crime lord in the Star Wars galaxy? It’s easy to see why the idea attracted interest, but I think the second part is even more important.

“If there’s a bright center to the universe,” Luke Skywalker famously observed in A New Hope, “you’re on the planet that it’s farthest from.” So why did a major crime boss end up on Tatooine? It’s true that Tatooine was long controlled by the Hutts, but it shouldn’t have been important; Obi-Wan could safely hide Luke there, after all.

Jabba’s presence on Tatooine hints that he had gone through something of a fall from grace, one that reduced his empire until he only had this barren desert-world left as his stronghold. This, I think, is what Del Toro meant by talking about Jabba’s fall; how the Hutt wound up on the planet farthest from the galaxy’s bright center.

Was Luke Skywalker Right About Tatooine All Along?

Del Toro Could’ve Fixed A Major Star Wars Problem

Tatooine has appeared 23 times in Star Wars history, a fact that’s rather amusing given Luke’s description of the desert-world. It frankly seems ridiculous that Tatooine seems to be more important to the saga than, say, the galactic capital of Coruscant. But I love the idea of Tatooine as being where the failures go to survive.

Was Jabba like Obi-Wan, in that he headed to Tatooine to hide, only to gradually build an empire in the most unlikely place? I’d absolutely love that idea, because it would mean Guillermo del Toro‘s Star Wars movie would add fresh depth to the Skywalker saga and Luke Skywalker’s homeworld.