Jeremy Allen White will play Jabba the Hutt’s son in The Mandalorian and Grogu.
In what may be the weirdest casting of the year, the Emmy-winning star of restaurant drama The Bear has joined the upcoming Star Wars film, as confirmed by multiple outlets and first reported by The Insneider.
White’s character has a long history in the Star Wars universe, first appearing in 2008 feature-length animation Star Wars: The Clone Wars. With orange eyes and greyish-green skin, the diminutive Hutlett is the spitting image of his gangster father, Jabba, only smaller.
Jeremy Allen White attends the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards at Peacock Theater on September 15, 2024 in Los Angeles, California
Photo by Amy Sussman/Getty Images
He’ll fit right in with another baby character in the movie, Grogu, who was referred to as Baby Yoda by fans before it was revealed he had no familial connections to the green Jedi master.
Directed by Jon Favreau, The Mandalorian and Grogu is the the first Star Wars movie since 2019’s Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. It continues where three seasons of popular Disney+ series The Mandalorian left off, following the exploits of bounty hunter Pedro Pascal and Force-sensitive alien Grogu. Sigourney Weaver has also signed on in an undisclosed role.
The Mandalorian and Grogu hits theaters on May 22, 2026. Jeremy Allen White, meanwhile, is set to play singer Bruce Springsteen in biopic Deliver Me, which releases in cinemas in 2025.