Jar Jar Binks, A Sith Lord? The Star Wars Theory That Isn't As Crazy As You'd Think

I know, this concept isn’t something you want to hear, but it’s something you’ve got to hear. A recent Star Wars theory has become pretty viral, if just for it’s seemingly bizarre concept. The idea: Jar Jar Binks is actually the most powerful Sith Lord in the galaxy. 

I mean, this seems pretty legit. Youtube user Vincent H. Valentine walks us through, step by step, the reasons why universally loathed Jar Jar Binks could have been the original big-bad in George Lucas’s master plan for the prequels. But, after Star Wars fans voiced their hatred for Jar Jar, and The Phantom Menace as a whole, Lucas ditched his plans for Jar Jar out of fear. 

Some of the points made in the above video do make sense, starting with Jar Jar’s apparent penchant for battle, despite his incompetence. Afterall, he casually demonstrated abilities we’ve seen in our favorite Jedi and Sith, including an epic force jump that I somehow blocked from my memory (along with all of his scenes in Episode I). Additionally, Jar Jar managed to escape all of the first movie’s battles unscathed, and "accidently" kicked major ass. 

Additionally, there are a few clips where Jar Jar’s mouth seems to be moving in synch with other characters’ dialogue, which is more than spooky. In the Sith Jar Jar Theory, he was actually using Jedi mind-control and helping to will the events of the first movie to his favor.

George Lucas is known for introducing characters who seem unimportant or annoying at first, and later surprising his audience with their true intention. Afterall, Yoda’s first few scenes in Empire Strikes Back portray him as a weird, old, powerless creature living in Degobah. It can be assumed that Lucas was attempting to do the same with Jar Jar, until the backlash and hatred from the fans became deafening.

This theory would also explain certain plot holes, like the hasty introduction of Count Dooku in Attack of The Clones. If Dooku was such an important character to Sith and Jedi alike, why wasn’t he at least mentioned in Phantom Menace? Because, apparently, Jar Jar was going to be the one secretly pulling strings and meant to fight Yoda in Episode II

It seems that, while George Lucas was too scared to continue with Jar Jar’s original storyline, he may have still been able to make the hated character help the Sith cause. Indeed, Binks was the one who convinced the Galactic Senate to grant Palpatine absolute power- essentially, Jar Jar created the Emperor. The actor who played Jar Jar Binks also supported this theory via twitter.

See more

I hate Binks as much of the next guy, although now part of me wishes Lucas had the chance to redeem the most annoying character in the galaxy.

Corey Chichizola
Movies Editor

Corey was born and raised in New Jersey. Graduated with degrees theater and literature from Ramapo College of New Jersey. After working in administrative theater for a year in New York, he started as the Weekend Editor at CinemaBlend. He's since been able to work himself up to reviews, phoners, and press junkets-- and is now able to appear on camera with some of his favorite actors... just not as he would have predicted as a kid. He's particularly proud of covering horror franchises like Scream and Halloween, as well as movie musicals like West Side Story. Favorite interviews include Steven Spielberg, Spike Lee, Jamie Lee Curtis, and more.