‘The Mandalorian’ Had Better Fat Representation In One Episode Than All Of ‘Star Wars’

Hollywood has an aversion to fat characters — on screen, they’re typically punchlines, nonexistent or, worse yet, actors in fat suits. In “Star Wars,” plus-size humans have been largely absent, though fat aliens have appeared in the franchise for decades, inevitably evoking insults and cruel jokes about the fat community. But are things finally beginning to change in the galaxy far, far away?

In “Guns for Hire,” the sixth episode in the latest season of “The Mandalorian,” Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) and Bo-Katan Kryze (Katee Sackhoff) travel to Plazir-15, a planet governed by the Duchess and her husband, Captain Bombardier. While guest stars and cameos are a dime a dozen in franchise properties (especially Disney ones), what’s notable about the Duchess and Bombardier is that they’re played by plus-size actors: Lizzo and Jack Black.

And later in the episode, Djarin and Kryze interact with a lab tech portrayed by Jen Kober, another plus-size actor. This is a rare instance of fat characters, played by fat actors, being represented as people and not offensive tropes in “Star Wars.”

Before this, whenever a fat character showed up in the franchise, they were usually a grotesque and slovenly alien. Jabba the Hutt — whose name has become a taunt for real fat people in the real world — appeared in the original film trilogy for the sole purpose of repulsion. (Even Jabba apparently knows that’s how he’s viewed, as Karen Traviss writes in the novelization of the “The Clone Wars” film.) Jabba is a giant, slimy slug, but he’s also a vile gangster who tries to kill Han Solo (Harrison Ford), enslaves people like Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher), eats live creatures, and slobbers all over himself. He is disgusting, and we rightfully cheer when Leia strangles him to death.

The problem isn’t that Jabba exists, but that he is the trilogy’s representation of an unconventionally shaped character and is such a horrifying villain. But the fat-shaming didn’t stop with Jabba; in subsequent “Star Wars” properties on both the big and small screens, fat aliens are treated with similar disdain.

Across animated and live-action fare, “Star Wars” portrays fat characters as evil gluttons. Unkar Plutt, Orn Free Taa, Azmorigan, the Twins and, more recently, Mokko are all fat, and they’re…