By the time he completed the Star Wars screenplay, Jabba had evolved into a fat, slug-like creature with a gaping mouth and eyes on extended feelers.

[16] Lucas ultimately cut the scene due to budget and time constraints, and because he felt it did not contribute to the film's plot.

[19][20] Nilo Rodis-Jamero, the costume designer for Return of the Jedi, said he had envisioned Jabba as a refined, intelligent man resembling Orson Welles.

He modeled Jabba's head on that of a snake, complete with bulbous, slit-pupilled eyes and a mouth that opens wide enough to swallow large prey.

Stuart Freeborn and the Industrial Light & Magic Creature Shop designed the one-ton puppet, while John Coppinger sculpted its latex, clay, and foam pieces.

[20] The puppeteers included David Barclay, Toby Philpott, and Mike Edmonds, who were members of Jim Henson's Muppet group.

[24] A heavy, booming quality was given to Ward's voice by pitching it an octave lower than normal and processing it through a subharmonic generator.

[28] According to the film historian Laurent Bouzereau, Jabba's strangulation by Leia was inspired by a scene from The Godfather (1972), in which the obese character Luca Brasi is garroted by an assassin.

He also replaced the English dialogue with Huttese, a fictional language created by Ben Burtt, the film's sound designer.

Joseph Letteri, the visual effects supervisor for the Special Edition, said his goal was to make Jabba look as realistic as a flesh-and-blood character.

The authors Martha and Tom Veitch called his body a "miasmic mass" that seems to release "a greasy discharge, sending fresh waves of rotten stench" into the air.

"[40] The science fiction writer Jeanne Cavelos wrote that he deserves an award for "most disgusting alien", while the film critic Roger Ebert described him as loathsome and evil.

The beginning of the film features the attempts of Princess Leia, Chewbacca and Luke Skywalker to rescue Han Solo, who was imprisoned in carbonite in The Empire Strikes Back (1980).

After Luke kills the monster, Jabba decrees that he, Solo and Chewbacca will be fed to a Sarlacc, a deadly ground-dwelling beast.

The Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker and his apprentice Ahsoka Tano return Rotta to Jabba in exchange for the safe passage of Republic ships through his territory.

[45][50] In "Eminence", Jabba and the Hutt Council are approached by the Shadow Collective leaders Darth Maul, Savage Opress and Pre Vizsla.

[58] He was based on a character later named Mosep Binneed, who appears briefly in the Mos Eisley Cantina scene in Star Wars.

[16][59][60] While awaiting the sequel to Star Wars, Marvel kept the monthly comic going with its own stories, one of which depicts Jabba tracking down Solo and Chewbacca to an old hideaway they use for smuggling.

Circumstances force Jabba to lift the bounty on Solo and Chewbacca, which enables them to return to Tatooine for an adventure with Luke.

[59][60] The 1977 novelization of Lucas's Star Wars script describes Jabba as a "great mobile tub of muscle and suet topped by a shaggy scarred skull", but gives no further detail about his appearance or species.

[63][64] Ann C. Crispin's novel The Hutt Gambit (1997) explains how Jabba and Solo become business associates and depicts the events that lead to a bounty being placed on Han's head.

At the same time, Jabba's family on the Hutt homeworld Nal Hutta make claims to his palace, fortune, and criminal empire.

"[68] Rolling Stone said that Jabba is "without a doubt the finest Star Wars portrait of the id" and that one has to "admire his dedication of being his true, absolutely horrendous self".

[69] The Denver Post applauded the special effects team on Return of the Jedi for making Jabba look like a "horrid creature".

Phil Owen of TheWrap said the digital Jabba in the 1997 release of A New Hope looked "incredibly horrible", while Matt Goldberg of Collider called it "awful".