Though he was designed to be comic relief in The Phantom Menace, Jar Jar Binks became the most-loathed character in the franchise—a floppy-eared rabbit alien with the problematic implications whose only real purpose was to sell toys to children. Thankfully his screen time was diminished in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith; even then, he still managed to screw everything up. Jar Jar was granted an interim place in the Galactic Senate and subsequently was manipulated into proposing they give power to Chancellor Palpatine to build an army, directly leading to the creation of the Galactic Empire. Yeah, he sucks on so many levels. But besides a brief appearance in Revenge of the Sith, we didn't know what happened to Jar Jar until earlier this year when a comic revealed that the character ended up a penniless outcast, performing demeaning tasks on the streets for children.
So how about the guy who played him, Ahmed Best? Well, his fate was also pretty bleak. In an interview early last year, he explained how painful it was to be so universally abhorred. It's not his fault that George Lucas wrote a terrible character—or that the marketing department made a horrible and awkward lollipop dispenser, for which they later apologised.
But the one thing that makes Best happy is the pitiful fate of Jar Jar Binks. In a new interview with Jamie Stangroom, he reveals that he wanted a dark ending for Jar Jar, and even pushed for him to get murdered.
As Best says:
It's a very somber, very dark eventuality for Jar Jar, I quite liked it actually! It was really dramatic and I think a good idea to kind of sum up. I always complained to George when I realised 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.
The interesting thing I think about Jar Jar is that everybody keeps looking for an explanation for him, which is human nature, a big part of my book will talk about this. I like all of these theories that try to explain the reasoning for Jar Jar, we talked about the Darth Jar Jar thing before, this one where he comes this tragic character where he realises he's been manipulated and loses his mind. I think it's cool, I think it's interesting.
You know, despite his presence in The Phantom Menace, maybe Jar Jar really worked out for everyone. Plus, depending on how long Gungans live, maybe Jar Jar can be killed in Episode 8 or 9 or in one of the stand-alone films.
