Jar Jar Binks is widely considered by perceived fan wisdom to be the worst character in all of Star Wars. He’s a character whose puerile antics set the prequels off to a terrible start, in many critics eyes. Many on the set and making of The Phantom Menace actually expected Jar Jar to be the break out character of the film. Because of his poor reception, Jar Jar’s performance was heavily muzzled in the next two films, but it is heavily believed that he would have had a far more important role to play moving forward.

In the ‘Making of’ extras for TPM Lucas is heard saying that “Jar Jar is the key to all of this.” This could be in the context of overall audience appreciation of the film itself, but it’s likely that this has some larger meaning. We know that in Attack of the Clones it was Jar Jar who suggests the motion to grant Chancellor Palpatine vast emergency powers over the Galactic Senate. It’s this action that allows Palpatine to subsequently overthrow the Senate and bring the Galaxy into the control of the Galactic Empire. Although his role for the film was highly subdued, his actions were highly significant to the shaping of the Galaxy as we know it in episodes IV, V, and VI.

Ahmed Best, the actor behind Jar Jar Binks performance, said this in an interview with EW:

“In Revenge of the Sith, there was a scene that was cut where I’m walking down a long pathway with Ian McDiarmid before he is turned into the Emperor,” Best explains. “And Palpatine kind of thanks Jar Jar for putting him in power. It’s a really interesting scene, and it shows the evolution of Jar Jar from this fun-loving kid’s character into this manipulated politician. And it was an interesting arc for the character that I thought could have been explored, because the scene is really dark. But it just didn’t fit in the movie, which I understand. But yeah, George’s take on it is Jar Jar is now just a politician.”

Though we never really got to see the full extent of the character’s arc, this alone leads us to assume he had some ulterior motives in his actions. Could we have potentially seen a Jar Jar Binks who was connected to the Dark Side? Though I’m personally happy the character was given far more limited screen time in episodes II and III, it would have been interesting to see a film where Lucas’ hadn’t chickened out with Jar Jar’s storyline.

A very ludicrous, and surprisingly convincing theory that swarmed the internet a year ago insists that Jar Jar was actually a Sith Lord in disquise. Be sure to watch the video below explaining, in detail, the entirety of the Darth Jar Jar theory:

Ahmed Best has fanned the flames of this theory on Twitter, as well as in more recent interviews stating, “there’s a lot about it that’s true.”

“I really liked that scene and it got cut from the movie because Jar Jar was so unpopular (in my opinion), 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 reap havoc. Wherever that scene is, that would really give great credibility to the Darth Jar Jar theory.”

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