The Hutts are a fictional alien race in the Star Wars universe. They appear in The Phantom Menace, Return of the Jedi and The Clone Wars, as well as the special edition release of A New Hope. They also appear in various Star Wars games, including those based on the movies, and the Knights of the Old Republic series. None of these are very friendly and all are criminally involved. In the comic book series Tales of the Jedi: Golden Age of the Sith and Tales of the Jedi: The Fall of the Sith Empire, however, there is a Hutt character named Aarrba who is sympathetic to the main characters, Gav and Jori Daragon.
According to the movie, the Hutts originated on a forest planet called Varl, in a binary star system consisting of the two stars Evona and Ardos, which the Hutts worshiped as gods. According to Hutt legend, Evona was absorbed by a black hole, and Ardos collapsed on itself over grief for its mate. Since the Hutts survived the deaths of their gods, they believed they had become gods, hence their egocentrism. Scientists believe the Hutts destroyed their world in a civil war.
After Varl's devastation, the Hutts migrated to a planet called Evocar, and displaced the peaceful natives through canny business practices, even going so far as to evict them. The Hutts renamed their new planet Nal Hutta—"Glorious Jewel" in Huttese. Nal Hutta is the capital of Hutt Space, the species' empire. The primary moon of Nal Hutta is Nar Shaddaa.