Star Wars fans were buzzing recently when writer David S. Goyer revealed on a podcast that he’d collaborated with Guillermo del Toro on a planned Star Wars movie that never got made. And given that del Toro has been open in the past about his love of the character Jabba the Hutt, everyone rightly guessed that it would have been a movie centering around the ‘Godfather’ of the Star Wars universe.
It turns out that back in 2015, Guillermo del Toro spoke on the same podcast about some of his Star Wars ideas for one of the biggest and (in some fans’ opinions) best Star Wars character – Jabba the Hutt. It would have been a gangster crime movie that takes place in a galaxy far, far away – which sounds exceedingly cool.
“When I spoke to [Lucasfilm’s] John Knoll about it, I said, if I ever do [a Star Wars movie], I would love to do Jabba the Hutt’s Scarface. You know? His ascension in the crime family,” he explained to the Happy Sad Confused podcast (via The Playlist). “But it’s not a plan, I’m not announcing anything, don’t pick it up [as a thing].”
Back in 2015, when it was suggested that he could have directed one of the already planned Star Wars movies in order, Guillermo del Toro responded with the least surprising three little words; “I like monsters.” He continued; “I just love monsters, and Jabba is a) basically my same shirt size, and b) I love him, man.” Basically, if it ain’t about the iconic Star Wars villain Jabba, GDT is not interested in Star Wars.
Star Wars crossing over with another genre such as the gangster movie is not as crazy as it sounds. The saga already has huge influences from the best Westerns, for example, something that Dave Filoni and Robert Rodriguez have leaned into even more in some of the Star Wars series. Andor saw Star Wars straying into political thriller territory, and the prison episodes are like a sub-genre of their own.
Since speaking about the Jabba the Hutt idea in 2015, Guillermo del Toro has won the Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director, made noir movie Nightmare Alley, and his stop-motion animated Pinocchio (which won him a third Oscar). He also made the highlight of Halloween 2022 – Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities – which you should definitely catch up with. To understand more about del Toro’s love of monsters, you could also seek out his book At Home with Monsters.
As it’s the season, check out our guide to the best monster movies, just to make GDT happy.