In George Lucas's Star Wars saga, Tatooine is the home planet of the Skywalker family, the setting for much of the action in the saga's films (as well as several of the novels and other pieces of written fiction) and one of the most iconic Star Wars planets. The planet is either seen or mentioned in all six movies.

Tatooine is a desert planet in a binary star system (the two suns are named Tatoo I & Tatoo II), inhabited by poor locals who mostly farm moisture for a living. The planet has been the site of repeated and failed attempts at colonization. During the prequel-era, it was ruled for a long period by the Hutts, being beyond the reach of the Galactic Republic. After the fall of the Republic, the Galactic Empire established a token presence on Tatooine, but the crime lord Jabba the Hutt still retained control of the planet.

After the fall of Jabba the Hutt, Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa-Solo made attempts to forge friendships with the various settlements to unite under a centralized government with ties friendly and beneficial to the Alliance and New Republic.

Tatooine has several sizable settlements, the largest of which is the spaceport Mos Eisley, widely known for its rough-and-tumble nature and vast criminal underworld. Other settlements include Bestine (the nominal capital of the planet, where the Empire's government is located), Anchorhead, Tosche Station, Mos Entha, Wayfar (near Jabba's Palace), and Mos Espa, home of a sector-famous podracing track.

Because Tatooine is not a member of the Republic, Republic Credits were rarely used by merchants on the planet, who preferred to use Peggats, Truguts or Wupiupi.

Notable geological features include the Dune Sea, an enormous desert, and the Jundland Wastes, a rocky region. Despite the planet's extreme aridity, some forms of life do thrive on Tatooine, including the rodent-like Womp rat, elephant-like bantha, and the enormous, fearsome Krayt Dragon.

Tatooine is also home to two apparently native sentient bipedal species: Jawas, pygmy-like scavengers of technology, and Tusken Raiders, also known as Sand People, who are mysterious, reclusive, and extremely hostile to outsiders. Both races wear fully concealing robes keeping their true forms hidden from outsiders (it's stated in the Expanded Universe that Jawas are rodent-like and vaguely hinted that the Jawas and Sand People share a common ancestor). It is implied in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic that their common ancestor are Humans, and that Tatooine is the original human homeworld.

Tatooine was once a member world of the pre-Republic Infinite Empire. Tatooine once had large oceans and a world-spanning jungle. This biosphere was destroyed by an orbital bombardment by the Rakata that "glassed" the planet (that is, fused the silica in the soil into glass, which then broke up over time into sand) and boiled the oceans away. Tatooine is also one of the planets visited in the award-winning computer role-playing game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.

Humans — Settlers

Hutts — Slug-like crime lords

Jawas — Scavengers

Tusken Raiders (Sand People) — Violent nomadic tribes

Other settlers such as Watto

Jabba's Palace, made of stone and metal, is located in the desert known as the Dune Sea and was home to the gangster Jabba the Hutt. It is introduced as the main setting of the beginning of when Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia Organa, Chewbacca, Lando Calrissian, R2-D2, and C-3PO rescue Han Solo from Jabba. Jabba's palace also figures as the main setting in a compilation of intertwined short stories Tales From Jabba's Palace edited by Kevin J. Anderson. Jabba's Palace is also a playable area in the video game Star Wars: Battlefront II.