The idea that Jar Jar Binks was secretly a Sith lord has been an amusing Star Wars joke and meme for years. But next month, the idea of Darth Jar Jar will finally be given form in the new miniseries, Lego Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy. At Comic-Con, the creative team behind the show explained why they decided to incorporate Jar Jar’s dark side into the story.
Rebuild the Galaxy writer and producer Dan Hernandez told GameSpot that the team was excited about the possibilities of remixing the Star Wars universe. And they also realized that this may be their only opportunity to bring Darth Jar Jar to life.
“We said, ‘Maybe this is the only possible way to actually tell the story of Darth Jar Jar and what would that look like?’ and just kind of take it seriously as a not just a meme joke,” said Hernandez. “But to say, ‘Okay, well what would cause him to become a Sith?’ Where would he end up in this version of the Star Wars galaxy and writing it in such a way where we said, ‘Can he actually be scary? Can he actually be something that people never thought that they would see?’ And then to have on top of that to have Ahmed Best come back and be Darth Jar Jar and everything that he brought to that character, because he thoroughly embodies [Jar Jar]. We’re such huge fans of his and of the character.”
According to Hernandez, Best was not only aware of the Darth Jar Jar memes, he fully embraced them while improvising for his character’s darkest turn.
“[Best] was excited to do a different version of the character, too,” continued Hernandez. “Because he was aware of the fan theories and of the memes and all of the that stuff. So he came in and he started to improv and he started just talking all kinds of crazy Darth Jar Jar smack talk, and we basically said, ‘Yes, just that’s in the show. It’s all going right into the show.'”
Writer and producer Benji Samit added that the mash-ups in the show were created to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the partnership between Lego and Star Wars
“We wanted to recreate what it feels like to play with your Star Wars Lego,” said Samit. “Hand anyone a bin of Star Wars Lego and they don’t just act out the scenes from the movies exactly as they are, no. You dump it on the ground. You mix and match pieces. Good guys are bad, bad guys are good. Everything’s twisted around, ships are mashed up. We wanted to, for the 25th anniversary of the Lego Star Wars partnership, to just, like, make something that is a pure celebration of that way of play.”
Lego Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy will premiere on Disney+ on September 13.
Additional reporting by Chris Hayner
