As far as fan theories go, this one was out there; the long and short of it was that Jar Jar Binks was the true Sith Lord in the Star Wars prequel trilogy, controlling Emperor Palpatine, not the other way round. It was mad and ridiculous and fans brushed it off quickly. But what if that wasn’t the case?
Ahmed Best, the actor who provided the voice and performance capture for Bink, has revealed that there may be some truth to the idea. Here’s a Tweet he put up after the theory was posted:
In a video interview with Star Wars reunion webseries These Are The Actors You’re Looking For, Best says: “What I can say about it is – and I kinda said this on Twitter – there’s a lot about it that’s true.”
Shooting the original theorist down a little though, Best says “There are some things that are not true. Could Jar Jar have evolved into that? I think the answer is yes.”
It seems though that the backlash of fans to The Phantom Menace meant that his character was stripped back, almost removed completely come The Revenge Of The Sith.
“Because of the backlash,” continues Best, “and rightly so, Lucasfilm backed off from Jar Jar a lot. But a lot of the influence I put into Jar Jar mirrored a lot of what was already in the Star Wars universe.”
To fuel the theory fire, Best talks about a deleted scene from Episode III which featured Jar Jar and Palpatine discussing the future of the Republic. “It was just me and Palpatine walking down the runway, talking about the plans to turn the Empire into what it had turned out to be… It was a very dark, very personal, quiet scene, but for some reason Palpatine decided to confide in Jar Jar that pretty much he was going to wreak havoc. Wherever that scene is, that would really give great credibility to the Darth Jar Jar theory.”
Coincidence or not (almost definitely coincidence) this would be an interesting scene to see. Best says “I really liked that scene and it got cut from the movie because Jar Jar was so unpopular, in my opinion.”
Speaking on how he sees the future of the franchise, Best says “From what I’ve seen, Disney wants the prequels to just be what it was, I don’t think they’re looking to the prequels at all.”
So basically, that’s Jar Jar Binks himself saying there’s no future for the Darth Jar Jar conspiracy. Sorry to the three people on the Internet who hoped it was true.
Listen to the whole interview below, and listen to him attempting the terrifying Darth Jar Jar voice.
Irwin Fletcher
I'm an LA journalist who really lives for his profession. I have also published work as Jane Doe in various mags and newspapers across the globe. I normally write articles that can cause trouble but now I write for FTN because Nerds are never angry, so I feel safe.
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