The Sarlacc In Star Wars Explained

Until his appearance in Season 2 of "The Mandalorian," fans widely believed the fearsome bounty hunter Boba Fett to be dead. After he fell off Jabba the Hutt's barge in "Star Wars: Return of The Jedi" back in 1983 and was gobbled up by a tentacled beast dwelling in the sands of Tatooine, it didn't seem like a survivable event.

That's because the creature chomping down on him like a slice of deli meat was none other than a sarlacc. Since "Return of The Jedi" came out, lore about the sarlacc has revealed it to be one of the most hideous inventions George Lucas ever put to screen. Now, it has appeared once more in the first episode of the new hit Disney+ show, "The Book of Boba Fett," in which many creatures from past entries in the franchise saw a return, from Gamorrean Guards to clones, and everything in between.

If there's one thing you can count on "Star Wars" fans to do, it's to meticulously chronicle every planet, object, and alien that has ever appeared in the universe's nearly half-century of movies, television, and more. So, based on what we've learned about the sarlacc, here's what you should know about it and why you should probably avoid one at all costs.

The precise nature of the sarlacc is an ongoing debate, according to the fastidious fans on Wookieepedia. Sarlaccs begin as spores, much like mushrooms, leading some (in-universe) scholars to consider it a carnivorous plant, while others insist that it has the level of sentience necessary to be deemed an animal. Either way, getting within grabbing range of its tentacles, which it uses to ensnare prey, isn't worth finding out.

Sarlaccs, upon reaching maturity, burrow deep into the ground, often residing 100 meters beneath the sands, where they are unnoticeable until it's too late. While they can move to new locations, they tend to be immobile once embedded someplace.

A sarlacc's mouth looks a bit like that of a tortoise, complete with a thick tongue to drag prey deep into its belly. Once there, a sarlacc's victim finds itself digested slowly. It can take thousands of years to be digested by a sarlacc, thanks to the low acidity of its stomach bile. Luckily, if you're eaten by one, you'll starve to death in its belly before the acid kills you.

That's just fine with the sarlacc. They need very little food to survive relative to their body mass, and they live for a minimum of 30,000 years. Their only known predator is the krayt dragon. Honestly, with so many nightmarish beasts calling it home, it's a mystery why anybody who can get off-planet chooses to live on Tatooine.