The Mandalorian and Grogu’s casting director joked that she cast Jeremy Allen White as Rotta the Hutt because he’s “sexy.”
As the latest Star Wars film prepares for theaters, The big premiere in Los Angeles was last night. Variety talked to Sarah Finn, the casting director on The Mandalorian and Grogu about tabbing The Bear’s leading man to play a Warrior Hutt.
Finn clearly had a ball with the concept. Director Jon Favreau wanted to do something original with an established presence in the Star Wars universe. So, figuring out how to get some interesting interiority with a talented actor was on the menu. Here’s what she had to say.
“Because Rotta is so sexy,” Finn joked. “Again, I’m going to reverse-engineer it. Jon [Favreau] wanted to create a character. A character that had an internal life that was going to come out through this form. Jeremy Allen White is an amazing actor who has a rich internal life, who is a master at creating characters. Again,we were really very thrilled when he agreed to take this role.”
White’s casting as Rotta is one of the biggest question marks headed into The Mandalorian and Grogu. When the news officially dropped on social media, the general consensus was confusion. (Partially because of the age of AI we currently find ourselves in.)
Jeremy Allen White as buff fighter Rotta the Hutt
If you’ve spent any amount of time on the Internet at all, you know that there a *ahem* set of preferences for everyone. And, that would definitely include Jabba’s jacked son. But, there’s something with legacy heret that appealed to Favreau and his team.
The filmmaker previously spoke to Empire Magazine about that family history. One of the highlights of that feature is Jeremy Allen White casually dropping, “I know a little Hutt-ese.” Favreau previously teased, “[Rotta’s] in top form, fighting in the pits, a gladiator of sorts.”
In the short view we get of the Hutt in the trailers, he’s an imposing force and one that our buddy Din Djarin is going to have to contend with. If you get a little bit of Jeremy Allen White’s sultry tones, all the better!
“When you’re trying to establish yourself and your name is famous, when you’re Jabba The Hutt’s kid, what does that do?” the director queries. “How has that affected his trajectory? I get a kick out of that.”
So yeah, now Star Wars has another jacked Hutt. The surprises never cease. And, just wait until the fanart starts rolling out.
(featured image: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)
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