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A long time ago — well, six years, but on the internet, that’s an eternity — a group of fans decided that, for reasons entirely unnecessary to recount here, it was “clear” that Jar Jar Binks wasn’t just a comedy figure in the Star Wars prequel trilogy, but the central villain of the whole piece… well, before George Lucas lost his nerve and rewrote the story for reasons unclear. The idea very quickly caught on, and became known as the ‘Darth Jar-Jar theory,’ and everyone, eventually, moved on.

Well. Almost everyone.

“I always liked this Darth Jar Jar theory, when that was going around,” Jar Jar Binks himself, AKA actor Ahmed Best, said during an appearance on the Star Wars Celebration livestream Saturday. “You know what the funniest thing was? When people would come up to me and they’d go, ‘Have you heard this Darth Jar Jar…?’ How could I have not heard of it? It’s everywhere.”

Even better: Best got to play Darth Jar Jar when the meme became a reality in the Lego Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy miniseries on Disney+ in 2024 — a comedy in which Star Wars lore got rewritten thanks to an ancient artifact and a nerf-herder who knew no better.

“I always wanted to explore this whole Darth Jar Jar thing, right? So when Rebuild the Galaxy came about, I was just like, ‘Oh, this is just absolutely perfect. This is the best way to explore Darth Jar-Jar and start talking about him.’ So I was really excited to be a part of it.”

The best thing about finally getting to play Darth Jar Jar in a comedy, Best said, was that it let him finally fulfill a Star Wars ambition he’d had for more than two decades.

“I got to do a whole bunch of comedy ad-libbng while we were doing it, which is my thing and I just love it,” he said.  “‘I am the Phantom Menace, I’ve always been the Phantom Menace’ was totally improv-ed. It’s something that I’ve been meaning to say for over 20 years.”

Lego Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy is streaming now on Disney+. Think of it as the final chapter of the Darth Jar Jar idea. (For now, at least.)

Get to know, understand, and love the Star Wars franchise more with our Star Wars watch order, guide to all the upcoming Star Wars movies & TV shows, and all the Star Wars movies and Star Wars TV shows ranked.