In Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope, Luke Skywalker describes Tatooine, his home planet, in this manner. Tatooine is located in the Outer Rim Territories, far from the wealthy and powerful core worlds, in the fictional galaxy where Star Wars is set. Tatooine is the place most essential to the Star Wars mythology, despite the fact that it appears to be nothing more than a desert planet populated by gangsters and moisture farmers. It has appeared in five of the nine films in the Skywalker Saga, as well as several television programmes, books, comics, and video games.
Three separate yet interconnected realities make up Tatooine’s past. The most recent animated series, all of the movies, and any books or video games produced since Disney acquired Lucasfilm in 2012 comprise the current Star Wars canon. The Star Wars Legends world, which formed out of the films released between 1977 and 2012, contains some content that still qualifies but the majority does not. Of course, there are also Tatooine’s historical beginnings on this planet, where our story starts in the early 20th century.
Good for nothing but doing bad
Before the timeline was reset, there were several Star Wars stories set in the distant past that focused on efforts to make something of the desiccated planet. The majority of the recorded history of Tatooine before The Phantom Menace is now relegated to Legends canon. The next attempt by non-Tatooinians to establish the planet was made in 4200 BBY (before to the Battle of Yavin in A New Hope), according to the Wizards of the Coast RPG sourcebook Secrets of Tatooine, but the colony struggled and ultimately failed. Tatooine has alternated for millennia between being a sovereign world and a protectorate of the Senate, according to the Knights of the Old Republic narrative. At least four times, the Republic would invade Tatooine before abandoning it. Large enterprises like mining and weapon testing attempt to establish themselves on Tatooine, but these endeavours are never successful.
On Tatooine, only one industry appears to have ever prospered: crime. By 3641 BBY (the time period in which the MMORPG The Old Republic is set), the backwater world serves as the Hutt Cartel’s operational headquarters. Tatooine’s status as a distant, hostile world with little to offer the Republic or legal commerce is seen favourably by them. For millennia, the Hutts have used Tatooine as a base for smuggling, gaming, and trafficking in sentient beings. Tatooine finally discovered its purpose as a shady trading port once it became a centre for the black market.
Green Tatooine and the Kumumgah
Tatooine has not always been the hostile desert land that we now know it to be. Tatooine originally had forests and oceans, according to the canon reference book Ultimate Star Wars, but some unidentified catastrophe permanently altered the planet’s climate. Tatooine’s transformation into the arid rock that it is now is not explicitly explained in the current, Disney-maintained history of the Star Wars universe, therefore this particular aspect of the tale is still the stuff of legends.
An ancient race known as the Kumumgah lived on the lush and vibrant Tatooine 25 millennia before the rise of the Galactic Empire, according to information found in the codex of the video game Knights of the Old Republic and the comic book series Dawn of the Jedi: Force Storm (both of which are now apocryphal). The vast, technologically sophisticated Infinite Empire became interested in the Kumumgah after they perfected interstellar travel and began colonising adjacent space. The Infinite Empire made an example of the Kumumgah when they resisted being invaded and reduced to servitude. Tatooine was bombarded until it turned to glass, which crumbled into sand over decades. The Kumumgah are thought to have evolved into two distinct species — the Jawas and the Tusken Raiders — in the intervening period between the siege of Tatooine and the events of The Phantom Menace in order to adapt to their new desert environment.
Mos Eisley and the Dowager Queen
A colony ship by the name of Dowager Queen crashes lands on Tatooine amid a sandstorm about a century before the Battle of Yavin. The survivors establish Eisley, which they later rename Mos Eisley in observance of the customs of older Tatooine cities like Mos Espa. The Dowager Queen continues to be embedded at an angle in the sand, where it is turned into a hotel and becomes one of the most famous sights in the city. (The Dowager Queen appears in every version of A New Hope, but the Legends video game Star Wars Galaxies elaborates on its past.)
As Mos Eisley develops, it turns into a seedy spaceport community known as a “wretched hive of filth and villainy.” Even though Darth Vader must show some homage to crime lord Jabba Desilijic Tiure, also known as Jabba the Hutt, until Jabba’s passing in the year 4 ABY, the Galactic Empire actually governs over all of Tatooine after the fall of the Republic. When the Empire is decimated in the Battle of Endor a short while later, the people of Mos Eisley throng to the streets to celebrate their newfound freedom, thus they don’t seem very distraught at the death of their de facto mayor.
Old Ben Kenobi and the Great Drought
Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi stays hidden in the Dune Sea of Tatooine for the first 19 years following the destruction of the Jedi Order. In order to uphold his promise to safeguard the young Luke Skywalker from harm, Kenobi conceals his identity and goes by the alias “Ben” while his fellow soldiers are being relentlessly pursued across the galaxy by Darth Vader and his Inquisitors. Kenobi wants to teach Luke to be a Jedi, but Luke’s uncle and guardian Owen Lars wants Kenobi to remain away from Luke for fear that he would suffer the same fate as Anakin.
Despite being forbidden from instructing the youngster, Kenobi continues to watch over him and provide what turns out to be much-needed protection from afar. Tatooine has a drought in 11 BBY, which makes water even than valuable than usual. As moisture farmers, the Lars family is targeted by Jabba the Hutt’s organisation and Kenobi is compelled to step in to protect them and their property. When Jabba employs a bounty hunter to assassinate the person restraining his thugs, this almost blows Kenobi’s cover. However, after the raids and the drought finish, things quiet down and Kenobi resumes his life as Luke’s silent protector.
The canon Star Wars comic book series, which ran from 2015 to 2019, featured depictions of these events in issues #7, #15, and #20.
Tatooine, center of circumstance
Shmi Skywalker, a slave on Tatooine in 42 BBY, gives birth to Anakin, whose conception is completely a mystery to her. The Sith Lord Darth Plagueis and his pupil, Darth Sidious, experimented on Anakin, according to James Luceno’s Legends novel Darth Plagueis (this is also prominently hinted to in the canon film Revenge of the Sith). The combined efforts of Plagueis and Sidious cause the Force to turn in favour of the Dark Side, giving Plagueis greater control over life and death, but the Force responds against them, resulting in Anakin Skywalker’s flawless conception on distant Tatooine without Plagueis’ awareness.
In The Phantom Menace, which takes place ten years later, Anakin is brought to the Jedi and the Sith’s attention by complete coincidence (or, if you’d prefer, the will of the Force). During a forced landing on Tatooine, close to the city of Mos Espa, a spacecraft carrying two Jedi and Queen Amidala of Naboo discovers Shmi and Anakin Skywalker. Anakin is taken back to Coruscant by Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn for Jedi training after Shmi tells him about his enigmatic birth. Obi-Wan Kenobi carries Anakin’s young boy back to Tatooine after Sidious converts Anakin to the Dark Side so that Owen Lars and his wife Beru can raise the child. 19 years later, by chance once more, his twin sister Leia’s spacecraft passes over Tatooine, beginning the Original Trilogy’s events.
Tatooine after the war
Even though there haven’t been many stories in the new canon set on Tatooine after the Galactic Civil War, life there doesn’t seem to have changed much. The Jabba the Hutt’s death leaves a power vacuum in the criminal underworld of the Outer Rim, as evidenced by the Aftermath trilogy of novels, which are immediately following Return of the Jedi. In an effort to establish a presence before the New Republic can unite and drive them out, a new group known as the Red Key Raiders poses as a legitimate mining operation. However, their plans are thwarted, at least temporarily.
The following year, in the Mandalorian episode “Chapter 5 – The Gunslinger,” the show’s main character travels to Mos Eisley, where one street is lined with Stormtrooper helmets mounted on spikes, signifying a bloody victory over the remaining Imperial occupiers. It’s business as usual for the old miserable hive, though, with plenty of smugglers and bounty hunters trying to make a meagre living on the outskirts of the galaxy, aside from the new decor.
Rey travels to Lars Homestead to bury the lightsabers from the Skywalker family at the very end of the Sequel Trilogy, which is the only time Tatooine is seen. Tatooine’s connection to the Skywalker heritage and the conclusion of the Skywalker Saga make it uncertain whether or not there will be any more adventures set there.
Tatooine is a place on Earth (sort of)
Tatooine draws its name from Tataouine, a city in Tunisia close to where the desert scenes of A New Hope were initially filmed. The planet Tatooine was formerly known as Utapau in early draughts of the screenplay (a name that would later be used in Revenge of the Sith). A large portion of the famous art connected with Tatooine is based on real, historical, and modern-day Tunisian architecture. A few of the production sets used in the films A New Hope, The Phantom Menace, and Attack of the Clones, as well as a few authentic local structures that were used in the picture, are still intact and have grown to be popular tourist destinations.
Yuma, Arizona and Death Valley National Park in California, where the Return of the Jedi exterior Tatooine shots were filmed, have also used as American deserts to represent the dry terrain of Tatooine. Jordan, the location of The Rise of Skywalker’s climactic event, marks the end of Tatooine’s real-world history. The locations for the series are mostly brought to life in-studio using Lucasfilm’s new “Stagecraft” technology, making it unlikely that any more pieces of Tatooine will be constructed here on Earth, even though it has been reported that some exterior shooting for The Mandalorian was done in Death Valley.
Thus, in order to finish the story of Tatooine, we must go back in time to that galaxy far, far away.
Tatooine’s deep sci-fi roots
They claim there is nothing new under the sun, or rather, under the “suns” of Tatooine.
Like any work of fiction, Star Wars was not born in a vacuum; rather, it was George Lucas’ response to a number of earlier works.
Akira Kurasawa’s The Hidden Fortress, John Ford westerns, and pulp science fiction, especially 1930s Flash Gordon serials and Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter of Mars, which was published in 1912, are all incorporated into the creation of Star Wars.
Despite the fact that Tatooine resembles Burroughs’ imagined Mars, Arrakis from Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel Dune appears to be Tatooine’s closest relative. Arrakis is a dry, desolate planet where people must collect and reuse water to survive (much like the Skywalker/Lars family business), and where predatory animals lurk beneath the sand like the Sarlacc from Return of the Jedi. Additionally, Star Wars hasn’t shied away from the rare, purposeful allusion to Dune, as shown in C-3PO’s casual mention of the “Spice mines of Kessel.” Even while the two epics have many things in common, like the aforementioned Burroughs, Tatooine may be considered a direct descendant of Arrakis given the similarities between Dune and Star Wars.
Tatooine’s first Jedi, Dace Diath
Tatooine is well known for being the homeworld of Anakin Skywalker and his son Luke, both of whom would grow up to become Jedi Knights and have a unique impact on the galaxy’s history.
But despite being the most well-known Force users on the planet, according to Legends canon, they were not the first. They are preceded by a different father and son who train together in the Jundland Wastes close to the Lars Homestead, where Luke would later spend his formative years.
Jedi Master Sidrona Diath leads his son, Dace Diath, to the seclusion of Tatooine’s desert to instruct him in the ways of the Force about 4000 years before Anakin’s birth. Sidrona is a patient instructor who is confident that Dace’s lengthier journey toward the Force would ultimately make him a better teacher than himself, even though Dace struggles to match his father’s abilities. Dace finds himself trapped on Tatooine’s Dune Sea during a challenging test depicted in the 1996 Tales of the Jedi Companion RPG source book (based on the Dark Horse comics series), where he learns that his impatience is his only enemy and that self-belief is his greatest ally. The fire of Tatooine forges Dace into the first Jedi.
Dace Diath, a brave soldier in the Great Sith War depicted in the Tales of the Jedi comic book series, is slain in one of the conflict’s most horrific murders after Aleema Keto, a Sith sorcerer, purposely causes a supernova to destroy his ship.
Tatooine’s long gearhead tradition
Tatooine has a long history of hot rodding despite not being a significant centre for the manufacture of speeders and ships like Corellia. Finding out how fast you can make your machine to go and placing a life-threatening wager on your driving or piloting prowess are popular pastimes among Tatooine’s youngsters, just as in a lot of other dull locations to grow up. The Boonta Eve Classic, which takes place in Beggar’s Canyon, is the equivalent of the Indy 500 in the Star Wars galaxy. It attracts racers and fans to the planet every year and inspires dreams of glory in many locals, including Anakin Skywalker, the first person to successfully complete a legal podrace (and at just nine years old).
A New Hope makes no mention of podracing, but roughly 35 years later, Luke, Anakin’s teenage son, is a member of a group of hot-rodders in the neighbouring Anchorhead. Luke races through Beggar’s Canyon alongside other local pilots like Biggs Darklighter, but in an aerial T-16 Skyhopper. It’s here that he develops the abilities that will eventually enable him to escape the first Death Star’s trench and turn into a hero for the Rebel Alliance.
Despite being deleted from A New Hope, Luke’s American Graffiti-style gearhead group is still present in the novelization, audio drama, and other extended universe works of the movie. Rebel Assault and the Rogue Squadron trilogy are two video games that specifically reference the Beggar’s Canyon run.
This planet’s not worth dying over
When you reflect on the movies and cartoons, you might be surprised to learn that the actual “Star Wars” themselves barely touch the planet at all. Tatooine is one of, if not the most iconic planet in the Star Wars universe. Tatooine is far away, sparsely populated, and resource-poor; in other words, it has no value from a strategic standpoint. It serves as the backdrop for more intimate, lower-stakes action and character dramas, including as podraces, the conflict on Jabba’s sail barge, and the most intense, rewarding lightsaber duel in franchise history.
That is not to suggest that the system was completely abandoned as a result of the Clone Wars, Galactic Civil War, or First Order-Resistance War. Any time a stage in a shooter, strategy game, or flight simulator is placed on or around Tatooine, this is assumed to represent some real conflict in the chronology of Star Wars, either in Legends or Disney canon, as video games in the Star Wars property are regarded as canonical. The intention to allow fans to run around Mos Eisley spaceport playing Capture the Flag or survival missions had led to a number of little, unimportant conflicts being spread throughout the history of Star Wars. (In our perspective, a noble enough objective.)
