6 Star Wars Myths Started By The Actors

In October 2015, just two months before the release of The Force Awakens, a creative fan posted a theory to Reddit suggesting that Jar Jar Binks (Ahmed Best) was originally supposed to be revealed as Palpatine's (Ian McDiarmid) evil collaborator, but George Lucas changed tack once he saw the negative reception to the character in The Phantom Menace.

Though the viral "Darth Jar Jar" post was nothing more than a fan theory, it took on much greater traction when Best tweeted a provocative retort: "It feels really good when the hidden meaning behind the work is seen. No matter how long it takes."

Best elaborated further in a subsequent interview:

"There is a lot about [the theory] that is true, there are some things about it that are not true... Could Jar Jar have evolved into that? I think the answer is yes. Because of the backlash, and rightfully so, Lucasfilm backed off of Jar Jar a lot, but a lot of the influence that I put into the character mirrored a lot of what was already in the Star Wars universe."

Best has also spoken about deleted scenes from both Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith which would've shown Palpatine confiding his nefarious plans to Jar Jar and later sarcastically thanking him for putting him in power.

While it's unlikely Jar Jar was ever designed as an out-and-out monster, Best makes a clear case that Lucas had far more interesting plans for the character pre-backlash, to transition him from fun-loving merch-bait into a more justifiably contemptible, manipulated politician across the prequels.