Jar Jar Binks actor wishes that Lucas would have killed the character off

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Love him or loath him, the Star Wars character Jar Jar Binks is still alive and well as a member of the on-going interstellar saga. Since the release of STAR WARS: EPISODE I – THE PHANTOM MENACE, the well-meaning yet bumbling Gungan outcast has remained as one of the most divisive players to ever contribute to the legendary space opera.

Recently, Jar Jar Binks actor Ahmed Best made a guest appearance on Jamie Stangroom's podcast, where Best said that he'd always wanted the character to be given a more concrete send-off, which includes Jar Jar being killed in some spectacular way by George Lucas himself. While chatting with Stangroom, Best had stated the following about his desire to see the floppy-eared irritant meet a most TERRRRRRRIBLE end:

“I always complained to George when I realized that Sith was pretty much not going to have Jar Jar in it and they were moving very very far from me, I always complained to George that I didn’t get a good death! I wanted to really be just hacked to pieces in some kind of way…and George wouldn’t do it. I always said that Jar Jar’s fate was too open ended, I would have loved to have closed it in some way. I think everybody wants some kind of Jar Jar closure to happen, including me.”

"Hacked to pieces." you say? Oh Gooberfish, Ahmed, tell us how you really feel?

This seems like just as good a time as any to mention Chuck Wendig's Star Wars novel, Aftermath: Empire's Road. The events of the book take place after the prequel trilogy comes to a close, with the outcast Gungan returning to Naboo where he becomes a street performer. During his time in the sci-fi alleyways and market squares of Naboo, Jar Jar befriends a young refugee boy and teaches him the ways of prat falls, jokey jokes, and other sci-fi-oriented chicanery. Best says that he enjoyed reading Wendig's novel, and that he's found it offers the character a "very somber" and "very dark" redemption arc.

In continuing his talk with Stangroom, Best touched on the obsessive nature of the character for some Star Wars fans: “I’ve been trying to let him go for so long! But there is something out there in the zeitgeist of the Star Wars universe, they just want to keep him around! They want to forget about him, they want to hate him but they just want to keep him around, i don’t know why!”

Lastly, Best also spoke on the "Darth Jar Jar" fan theory that's been making the Star Wars rounds for several years, now. The scenario suggests that Jar Jar is actually a powerful Sith lord in disguise, who uses his eye-rollingly-comedic antics to disarm his Jedi co-horts so that he might one day overthrow the resistance. Not only did Best endorse the theory, he also hinted that some version of the "Darth Jar Jar" narrative was a part of Lucas' plans for the character, before fans retaliated with an unprecedented dislike for the jive-talking, family-friendly comic relief character.

In fact, one outrageous claim that was brought to my attention via Screenrant's coverage of this material is that the Supreme Leader Snoke, the Sith lord introduced in STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS, was somehow created by Jar Jar himself. Best was apparently entertained by this notion as well, and said that it would be cool if Snoke were to be revealed as some manner of shape-shifting being, who later transforms back into the smiley Gungan migraine on two very long legs. Could it be that Jar Jar has been lurking in the shadows of the Empire as well as The New Order this entire time?

Would that reveal blow your mind, or simply piss you off to no end? Let us know in the comments section below! 

STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI will arrive in theaters on December 15th.