Star Wars: 10 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Jabba The Hutt
6. He Was In A New Hope ( And He Was Northern Irish)
One of the most controversial changes made to A New Hope in the Special Edition, released in 1997, was the addition of a previously cut scene where Han Solo encountered Jabba. The gangster demanded the money Han owed him, and Han gave his typically roguish, check's-in-the-mail answer.
Jabba appeared in peculiarly flat CGI, the best 1997 could manage, because in his cut appearance he had been played by a regular human. Specifically, he was a portly Irish actor named Declan Mulholland whose distinctive Northern Irish accent graced the scene.
While Lucas claimed he would have added a stop-motion character in Mulholland's place if the scene had been kept, Mulholland is fully made-up and costumed in a dapper furry number, and his performance didn't seem like that of a simple stand-in.
Whatever the real plans for the scene, Jabba's first appearance in the Star Wars universe was as a curious footnote in A New Hope, resurrected 20 years later to give the trilogy's re-release a marketing boost.