Bib Fortuna

Bib Fortuna, a male Twi'lek, originated from Ryloth, the homeworld of his species. Fortuna was born into a prominent clan that had strong connections to the criminal world, though his cousin Beezer, who was more politically inclined, disliked his family's associations. Before working for Jabba Desilijic Tiure, a Hutt crime lord, Fortuna was a slave trader, focusing on members of his own species. He amassed wealth by selling his fellow Twi'leks into slavery. Eventually, Fortuna entered Jabba's service and competed with Bidlo Kwerve for the position of the Hutt's majordomo. Fortuna also presented Jabba with his pet rancor, Pateesa, as a birthday gift. Ultimately, Fortuna prevailed and secured the job, while Kwerve became an early victim of the rancor.

As early as the time of the Invasion of Naboo in 32 BBY, he was Jabba's majordomo. In that year, Fortuna was present at the Boonta Eve Classic, hosted by his master to celebrate the Boonta Eve holiday. From his master's private box, he watched as Anakin Skywalker, a local human boy, defeated the reigning champion Sebulba. Since the Hutt was only interested in the gambling aspect of podracing, Jabba fell asleep before the race concluded, requiring Fortuna to awaken him to announce the winner.

As galactic history unfolded, Fortuna remained in Jabba's service as the Galactic Republic transformed into the Galactic Empire. In 19 BBY, during the early days of the [Imperial Era](/article/imperial_era], Fortuna contacted Cid, a Trandoshan operating on Ord Mantell, and hired her to retrieve the young rancor Muchi from a group of Zygerrian enslavers. However, as time passed without Muchi's rescue, Fortuna contacted her via hologram, informing her of Jabba's impatience and inquiry about the rancor's return. While eating, Cid mentioned that the operation was delayed for planning and asked him to assure Jabba that Muchi would be rescued soon. Despite Fortuna's attempts to threaten her, Cid remained unfazed, claiming that her best team was working on the rescue. Cid had actually hired Clone Force 99, a group of clone commando deserters whom she had just met and was unsure of their success.

With Muchi still not returned to Jabba, Fortuna personally arrived at Cid's Parlor with two Gamorrean Warriors, entering her office and demanding an update on behalf of Jabba. Cid reiterated that Muchi would be rescued, attempting to alleviate his concerns after he threatened consequences for failure by emphasizing the operation's delicacy. Before Fortuna could respond to her request for Jabba's patience, Muchi was heard outside, as Clone Force 99 had succeeded in their mission. Rushing outside to reunite with Muchi, the majordomo was overjoyed to see his master's pet safe, greeting the young rancor before ordering a guard to give Cid her payment with a snap. With the rancor safe, Fortuna told her they would return home before leaving with his guards. Cid proceeded to give Clone Force 99 thirty percent of Fortuna's payment, as they had agreed upon.

Later in the Imperial Era, Jabba welcomed two new smugglers into his employ, the Corellian human Han Solo and his Wookiee co-pilot Chewbacca. As the Hutt's majordomo, Fortuna often found himself dealing with the pair, handing them assignments from Jabba and delineating their pay. One such assignment between around 8 BBY and 2 BBY was no different, as Fortuna informed Solo that the Hutt lord was willing to pay one million credits for the delivery of a verillix urn that contained the ashes of Krestrel D'Naran, a rival of Jabba. To Solo's dismay, Fortuna also specified that the smugglers would be required to work with Greedo, a Rodian bounty hunter of Jabba's who had been the first to learn of the urn. Reluctantly, the trio agreed to the job and headed for Solo's homeworld of Corellia.

With some personal time to spare, Fortuna gallivanted to the streets of Mos Espa to bet on nuna fights, where he promptly lost one thousand of his own credits. During his time off, Fortuna was questioned by an old acquaintance, Buck Vancto of the Benelex Marshal Service, who was pursuing a warrant put out on Solo for a recent heist on Galator III. Knowing that the Twi'lek owed him a favor, Vancto threatened to drag Fortuna back to Ryloth should he not disclose Solo's location. Although Fortuna took the marshal's warning seriously, he feared retribution from Jabba, and agreed to divulge the information so long as Vancto waited to apprehend Solo until after the smuggler had completed his mission.

During the Galactic Civil War between the Empire and the Rebel Alliance, the Twi'lek remained in Jabba's service. Shortly after the Battle of Yavin, which had cost the Empire its DS-1 Death Star Mobile Battle Station, the Empire decided to begin negotiations with Jabba, but a Rebel strike team used the negotiations as an opportunity to destroy Weapons Factory Alpha. Following this loss, the Empire moved the negotiations to Jabba's Palace, but Darth Vader, a Sith Lord, arrived a day early to request bounty hunters for a private matter. After Vader arrived and killed two Gamorrean warriors, Fortuna ran to the Sith to speak with him, only to be met with a lightsaber and a demand to see Jabba. Rushing to his master, Fortuna awoke him and informed him of what had happened. Fortuna stood beside Jabba as he began to talk with Vader, who ordered him to remove the audience so they could talk in private. After Jabba had many of them return in a failed attempt to collect the bounty on Vader's head, the Sith Lord threatened him with a Force choke, and the Hutt crime lord acquiesced, having his two best bounty hunters—Boba Fett and [Krrsantan](/article/krrsantan]—dispatched to fulfill Vader's missions.

The following day, Vader returned to oversee the Empire's official negotiations, accompanied by stormtroopers. Although Fortuna tried to greet Vader, the Sith Lord cut off his pleasantries, beginning the ultimately successful negotiations with Jabba. At some point between the Battle of Yavin and Battle of Hoth, Fortuna contacted the Tatooinian mercenary Saponza and his partner in the name of Jabba. The two men had reacted violently to the presence of Jabba's henchmen around Saponza's homestead, killing six of them. Fortuna let the two mercenaries know they had made an enemy of his Hutt master. Some time later, Jabba's henchmen razed Saponza's estate to the ground in retaliation, and the majordomo contacted Saponza once again to gloat over his misfortune and warn him that Jabba's revenge was not over.

In 3 ABY, Boba Fett captured Han Solo, who had since fallen out of Jabba's favor and earned a price on his head from the mighty Hutt. En route to the crime lord's Tatooinian palace with his bounty, Fett contacted Fortuna and assured the majordomo that Solo was alive, safely secured within frozen carbonite. To Fortuna's confusion, however, Fett abruptly ended their communication when the carbonite matrix containing Solo became unstable, forcing him to take a detour to Nar Shaddaa to fix the issue. There, Solo was stolen from Fett by agents of Crimson Dawn, a galactic crime syndicate that had long been considered obsolete. Fett declined to immediately inform Fortuna of his bad luck, instead simply telling the Twi'lek that his delivery would "be a minute." Representing the interests of an increasingly impatient Jabba, Fortuna warned Fett not to disappoint the mighty Hutt lord.

Soon after, Crimson Dawn sent invitations to many of the major crime lords in the galaxy, including Jabba. Revealing that they held Solo in their possession, they bid the invitees to travel to Jekara and witness the return of Crimson Dawn. Believing that Fett had cheated him and sold the smuggler to a competitor, Jabba placed a bounty on the hunter's head before departing for Jekara, leaving Fortuna to look over his palace. Unaware that the Hutt had left, Fett stormed through the castle's dusty gates, incinerating two Gamorrean guards and demanding that Fortuna give him answers. After explaining that his master was absent, Fortuna suggested that Fett leave, lest the retinue of thugs and mercenaries that made up Jabba's court turn their weapons on the hunter. Fett reminded the rabble, however, that many of their number would perish in a firefight against him, dying in the meager name of Bib Fortuna. With this in mind, no one fired a shot.

At the behest of Fett, Fortuna showed him Jabba's invitation, which depicted a human woman requesting that her audience "await the Dawn." Accepting her as his new target, Fett ordered Fortuna to have his ship, Slave I, repaired of damage it had sustained on Nar Shaddaa before leaving for Jekara himself. Fett was eventually successful in his mission, managing to retrieve the frozen Han Solo and deliver him to Jabba intact.

Later in the war, Fortuna greeted two droid visitors to his master's palace. The two mechanical units, called C-3PO and R2-D2, claimed that they had a gift for the Hutt. The majordomo demanded that they hand over that gift to him so he could bring it to Jabba himself, but the droids answered that their instructions were to give it only to the crime lord himself. Fortuna relented, and led the droids into the throne room, where they delivered a holographic message from their owner, the Rebel hero and fledgling Jedi Luke Skywalker. In the message, Skywalker asked to bargain for the life of his friend Han Solo, offering C-3PO and R2-D2 in exchange.

Fortuna was present when Princess Leia Organa arrived under the disguise of notorious bounty hunter Boushh. She brought along a chained Chewbacca and demanded a higher payment for the Wookiee's capture, under the threat of a thermal detonator. Later that night, Fortuna was hiding alongside Jabba as part of the Hutt's plan to capture Organa when she attempted to free Solo herself. Jabba had Solo sent to the dungeons, while Organa was enslaved.

The next morning Luke Skywalker arrived to rescue his friends. Fortuna tried to stop him from entering the audience chamber. However, he was influenced by Skywalker's mind trick, though he was not as weak-minded as some of Jabba's other guards. Skywalker only succeeded in his mind trick by finding and exploiting Fortuna's weak point, his strong loyalty to Jabba. Fortuna proceeded to wake Jabba, and presented the Jedi to his master. Angry that Fortuna had been manipulated by Skywalker, Jabba pushed him off his dais. As the negotiations became more tense, Jabba dropped Skywalker into the rancor pit.

After Skywalker killed Jabba's Rancor, he was imprisoned and sentenced to death, with Jabba wanting him executed at the Great Pit of Carkoon. Fortuna accompanied Jabba and many of his palace denizens to the pit. Once there, the rebels managed to escape custody, kill Jabba, and destroy his personal sail barge. Though he was presumed to have died in the explosion, Fortuna survived the battle.

By [9 ABY](/article/9_aby], Fortuna had assumed command of Jabba's palace. He had accumulated his own collection of servants and slaves, evolving into an obese crime lord. Years into Fortuna's rule, following the second rescue of Grogu, Boba Fett and Fennec Shand arrived at the palace. They eliminated Fortuna's guards and freed a slave. Fortuna greeted Fett, expressing his belief that the bounty hunter was dead and acknowledging the rumors surrounding him. Fett promptly shot Fortuna, killing him and claiming Fortuna's throne in the palace.

After his passing, Boba Fett engaged with Jabba the Hutt's and Bib's various vassals to maintain the criminal presence on Tatooine. In contrast to Bib Fortuna and Jabba, Boba aimed to govern with respect, which garnered attention from many. Fennec Shand stated that Fortuna was a poor leader who had no right to the throne.

Fortuna, a pale-faced Twi'lek who served Jabba the Hutt for many years, was the first point of contact for anyone seeking an audience with the Hutt, requiring them to navigate past him. Despite this, Fortuna sometimes recognized that his duties included denying visitors access to Jabba, whom he referred to as his master. His position required him to be patient, as he had to deal with a wide range of individuals, from arrogant emissaries to inebriated thugs. However, Cid, the Trandoshan, felt that Fortuna could become too impatient and anxious when an operation took too long. Additionally, his master's unpredictable mood was another potential hazard, particularly because Jabba did not reciprocate the respect Fortuna had for him, viewing Fortuna as a fool. Indeed, the majordomo was easily manipulated by Luke Skywalker's mind trick.

When not greeting visitors or traveling off-planet, Fortuna often remained by Jabba's side, offering advice and information in whispers. Fortuna preferred to speak only Huttese, even though he understood other languages and occasionally used words from Galactic Basic Standard. Fortuna was also willing to threaten business partners to achieve better results. He could represent Jabba on missions away from Tatooine, and a visit from the Hutt's most trusted ally was considered an honor, though Cid mocked Fortuna on one such occasion. Nevertheless, Fortuna deeply cared about Jabba's interests, and was overjoyed when the rancor Muchi was rescued. Fortuna also showed affection for Muchi, calling her his "sweet girl." He was also mortified upon hearing Sy Snootles' suggestive lyrics for the song Jedi Rocks, adhering to the minimal protocol rules of Jabba's court and displaying excessive concern with propriety and modesty. While he was a crime lord, Fortuna was obese and scared of Boba Fett, attempting to act friendly to the bounty hunter, only for his attempts to fail when Fett executed him.

During his time serving Jabba, Fortuna wore a black overcoat, black boots, and a chestplate. After seizing control of Jabba's palace in 4 ABY, Fortuna wore bandages on his head and lekku. By 9 ABY, he sat on a throne and carried a staff.

Bib Fortuna was portrayed by Michael Carter and voiced uncredited by Erik Bauersfeld, who also voiced Admiral Gial Ackbar, in Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi.

In early versions of Return of the Jedi, Fortuna was titled the "High Beeser of Hoth," and initial design sketches depicted him as a wizened old human man wearing a dark cloak and a tall hat. However, these references were omitted from the final version of the film. The character's sharp fingernails and teeth were inspired by a National Geographic article on the indigenous people of Borneo, which was a favorite source of inspiration for Nilo-Rodis Jamero.

The makeup process to transform Michael Carter into Bib Fortuna for the custom took over eight hours initially. By the end of Carter's five-week shoot, makeup artist Nick Dudman had reduced the process to 58 minutes. Removing the makeup took an additional 25 minutes. The most complex effect was Fortuna's "air bladders" or bubbles, which were made of foam and latex fitted in Carter's brows and temples and inflated by hoses operated off-stage to create a pulsating effect. Carter also wore dayglow orange contacts and claw-like finger extensions.

Matthew Wood reprised his role in "Chapter 16: The Rescue," the season two finale of The Mandalorian, in a post-credits scene, where he was subsequently killed. Jesse La Flair served as a stunt double in the episode. Matthew Wood later reprised his role again in "Rampage," the fifth episode of the first season of Star Wars: The Bad Batch.