Klaatu

Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope.

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Klaatu was one of several Kadas'sa'Nikto who served Jabba the Hutt. He was Barada's main assistant, in charge of repairing the skiffs.^[2]

Klaatu was noted as a gambler, and would try his best to make his way to Jabba's throne room to view executions by Jabba's rancor.^[2]

During the Battle of the Great Pit of Carkoon, he was present on the top deck of the Khetanna.^[4]

Biography[]

Redpantshuman — Luke Skywalker defends himself from Klaatu and another guard.

Klaatu was essentially an indentured servant at Jabba's Palace, working off a large gambling debt to the Hutt, but the Nikto was secretly plotting to kill Jabba. During the Battle of the Great Pit of Carkoon, Klaatu was on the deck of Jabba's sail barge when Luke Skywalker reached the place. The Jedi approached Klaatu and cut the Nikto's weapon in half, and then Klaatu fled to the inside of the sail barge with another guard, dying in the explosion that followed.

Behind the scenes[]

"The Green Nikto seen in Jabba's palace was called Klaatu, though Wooof was one of the production names used for this character."

―Leland Chee^[5]

Vul-tazaene — Klaatu follows Jabba's entourage.

Klaatu was portrayed by Corey Dee Williams, the son of actor Billy Dee Williams,^[6] during the battle of Carkoon, filmed in Yuma, Arizona. Background work earlier in the film was done by John Simpkin during the initial scenes in Jabba's Palace filmed at Elstree Studios in the UK.^[source?] Klaatu was named for Klaatu barada nikto, a phrase from the 1951 film The Day The Earth Stood Still. "Klaatu" is the name of the humanoid alien protagonist in the film.^[7] During Jabba's Palace scenes, Klaatu was portrayed by English actor John Simpkin. John filmed these scenes in Elstree Studios in London. John was then replaced by Corey Dee Williams for the US desert shoots onboard the Sail Barge.^[source?]

According to Leland Chee, Klaatu was the Nikto in the throne room, but he had already been named Wooof (an original production name) by Decipher. However, on July 6, 2011, Chee admitted that to be a mistake in his Keeper of the Holocron blog on Facebook, and that Wooof and Klaatu were separate characters.^[8]

On-set production photos[1] of Jabba's throne room revealed however, that both Wooof and Klaatu were present during the throne room scenes. While mostly left out-of-frame during the Palace scenes, he can be spotted over the shoulder of a character he's standing behind, next to Mosep Binneed.

The "Klaatu (Palace)" action figure made by Kenner in 1983 was based on Wooof. However, in the same year Kenner also produced a "Klaatu (in Skiff Guard Outfit)" action figure which was based on the actual Klaatu. The two characters are in fact different. Hasbro's 1999 "Klaatu" figure included in the Jabba's Skiff Guards set was also based on Klaatu.

In the Dark Horse Comics issue Tales of the Jedi 4, a group of individuals is said to include "Klaatu",^[9] potentially a misidentification of the Kadas'sa'Nikto species.

Klaatu was given an entry in 2008's The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia, which showed him as the character previously erroneously identified as Yotts Orren on the Khetanna.