You’ve no doubt heard of Baby Groot, Baby Yoda, and even Baby Shark, but Hollywood’s babyfication has reached a whole new level thanks to Leonardo Viti.
The UK-based 3D character development artist took to Instagram before Christmas to unveil a babified version of Jabba the Hutt, the grotesque space slug made famous by Lucasfilm’s Original Star Wars trilogy. But Rotta the Huttlet this is not.
Cut from the same cloth as Baby Yoda, the undisputed breakout star of The Mandalorian series on Disney+, down below you’ll be able to take a closer look at Viti’s handiwork, which somehow – almost inexplicably – renders Baby Jabba as a cute little chonker. A far cry from the villainous enemy who quickly became a thorn in Han Solo’s side.
Via Instagram:
OK, fine… he’s pretty damn cute. Of course, Star Wars fans were first given a glimpse at Jabba’s offspring when The Clone Wars debuted, in which Rotta the Huttlet was introduced as heir apparent to the Hutt empire. His destiny was soon thwarted by his evil, power-hungry uncle Ziro, who arranged for Rotta to be captured as part of an elaborate scheme to discredit the Jedi Knights. Circling back to Leonardo Viti’s design, though, and it’ll be a little while yet before little baby Jabba is ready to inherit an Empire.
And The Mandalorian? It just wrapped up a pretty impressive, eight-episode debut, in which Baby Yoda emerged as a true fan-favorite and, dare we say it, Internet sensation. A second season is already on the cards for a 2021 premiere, so we haven’t seen the last of Pedro Pascal’s bounty hunter and The Child he’s sworn to protect.