J.J. Abrams thought about killing off Jar Jar Binks in Star Wars: Episode VII


There are few Star Wars characters — or, for that matter, few movie characters — more despised than Jar Jar Binks. The clumsy, gibbering alien, who made a splashy debut in Star Wars: Episode I in 1999, was so widely hated that an editor painstakingly cobbled together a widely distributed recut of Episode I that eliminates Jar Jar almost entirely.
Jar Jar doesn't appear in the original Star Wars trilogy, which means his whereabouts in the decades after Star Wars: Episode III are unknown. But Jar Jar haters will appreciate the canonical solution proposed for Episode VII by director J.J. Abrams: Jar Jar is dead. "I have a thought about putting Jar Jar Binks’s bones in the desert there," said Abrams in an interview with Vanity Fair. "I'm serious! Only three people will notice, but they'll love it."
Jar Jar may be doomed in the official Star Wars canon, but if you're one of his few defenders, never fear — a clever editor has already re-edited the Episode VII trailer to give Jar Jar a more prominent role. —Scott Meslow
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Scott Meslow is the entertainment editor for TheWeek.com. He has written about film and television at publications including The Atlantic, POLITICO Magazine, and Vulture.
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