Report: Jar-Jar Binks to make a return to Star Wars live action!

According to a recent report from Making Star Wars’ Jason Ward, Jar-Jar Binks will be making a return to Star Wars live action!

Ward reports that Binks will make an appearance in the Obi-Wan Kenobi show coming to Disney+ (and directed by Deborah Chow), and that Jar-Jar will have a beard at this point in time. Ward says that Binks and Kenobi cross paths in the show and that they talk about the past.

This immediately makes me wonder whether Kenobi actually leaves Tatooine or not (many have speculated that he might), if he crosses paths with Jar-Jar. But it’s also possible that Jar-Jar would decide to return to the desert planet for some reason.

But this report also makes me really excited, and I think it makes total sense. Of course this show figures to have tons of connections to the prequel trilogy, and I am sure that a large part of it will be Kenobi dealing with his life now and reflecting on what once was. And what better character to have him discuss this with than Jar-Jar Binks? Jar-Jar was the Senator who proposed emergency powers to Chancellor Palpatine, so he was certainly deceived by a lie like everyone else – though I’m sure he feels especially responsible for it. So it would be really fitting and appropriate for these two old friends to discuss what happened and how they both were deceived. I’m excited about this possibility.

Though we haven’t heard much of Jar-Jar in the new canon, the brief story we have heard is heartbreaking. After the Battle of Endor, Jar-Jar was a street performer on Naboo as a clown who tried to entertain children. He was banished and outcast and disliked because of his perceived role in the rise of the Empire, but he wanted to try to make up for some of that by making kids entertained. It’s a tragic story. But I would absolutely love to see him show up in the Kenobi series and process what had happened. We haven’t seen the fall of the Republic from Jar-Jar’s perspective, and I think that’s something that would be very interesting.