Jabba the Hutt’s sexually ambiguous uncle.

Last updated on: August 12, 2008 at 6:01 pm by Peter T. Chattaway

Jabba the Hutt’s sexually ambiguous uncle. 2008-08-12T18:01:00-07:00 Peter T. Chattaway

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There don’t seem to be any pictures of Ziro the Hutt online yet, so I am settling for the picture of Jabba above.

In any case, there are a few elements in Star Wars: The Clone Wars that have to be seen to be believed, but none, perhaps, more than this, as reported by the MTV Movies Blog:

Ok, let’s be straight for a second: Jabba’s uncle, Zero the Hutt, a new character introduced specifically for the upcoming animated series, is a gay stereotype that makes what Jar Jar Binks represented to the island of Jamaica look subtle by comparison. It’s not the look or design that pushes it over the top into stereotype, of course, but the voice (performed by Corey Burden), a lispy, high-pitched twang purposively reminiscent of Truman Capote.

So how did a character who wasn’t even supposed to speak English wind up sounding like that? Because George Lucas insisted on it, “Clone Wars” director Dave Filoni confessed.

“Zero, Jabba’s uncle, originally spoke in Hutt-ese, like Jabba and then he had a different sluggish voice just like Jabba, and then George one day was watching it and said ‘I want him to sound like Truman Capote.’ He actually said that and we were like ‘Wow!’” Filion revealed. “It’s a hybrid of it but the inspiration is definitely there on Capote. It’s one of those things that takes him from being an interesting character and I think really does put him over the top and does something. He’s a favorite among the crew here.” . . .

But just because Zero the Hutt is a stereotype, that doesn’t actually make him the first gay “Star Wars” character, Filion insisted. He’s actually not straight either, but biologically asexual. . . .

“He’s of questionable [sexuality] at least as a slug. They tell me that these slugs can be either male or female depending. That’s something I guess that slugs and snails do,” Filion said. “I wasn’t aware of that but I have continuity experts that tell me these things and I’m like. I guess Jabba is [his son’s] mother AND father from a certain point of view. It’s interesting.”

Incidentally — and this is not a comment on the new film in particular — but what is the point of a series devoted to the Clone Wars? What kind of stories could it possibly tell? As we know from the prequels, the good guys are all dupes being manipulated by the bad guys. And the bad guys are, well, the bad guys. I don’t see any potential for any truly happy endings here whatsoever.

This is especially true of the film opening this week — and again, I am not reviewing the movie itself here, just commenting on the premise that has already been revealed in trailers and so on.

The basic thrust of the story is that Jabba’s son — or offspring of questionable sexuality, to be consistent with what the director says above — has been kidnapped, and Anakin Skywalker needs to rescue him. So there are basically two possible outcomes, here:

One, Anakin fails, and Jabba’s son dies, and the Jedi and the Galactic Republic lose everything that they had hoped to gain by helping the Hutts, etc. Basically, a big, big downer of an ending — and that’s before we remember that virtually all of the good guys will die or worse in Revenge of the Sith (2005) anyway.

Or, two, Anakin succeeds, and Jabba’s son lives … only to see Anakin’s son Luke kill Jabba himself about a quarter-century later, during the events of Return of the Jedi (1983). So the poor slug’s daddy would be killed by his rescuer’s son, giving him conflicted emotions of gratitude and resentment, if not vengeance, towards the Skywalkers. And that would be just kind of twisted, really.

If George Lucas was still telling stories set during or after the original trilogy, there would at least be a sense of hope, a sense that the Rebellion really can defeat the Empire and rebuild the Republic. The future is open, and the potential for goodness is there. But by miring himself in the period covered by the prequels, Lucas has locked his franchise into a sort of grim, hopeless fatalism. Or so it seems to me, at any rate.

As for the all-important question of who was the first character of indeterminate gender in the Star Wars universe, I nominate Chef Gormaanda, the four-armed cooking-show hostess played by Harvey Korman in The Star Wars Holiday Special (1978):

I could also point to C-3PO, I guess, but I’d rather not perpetuate any stereotypes about the English, if that’s all right.

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