There has been this long-running joke in the Star Wars fandom that one, everyone hates Jar-Jar Binks and two, there is a possibility that he's actually a Sith Lord. Two very conflicting statements there, but I'd like to think that if Jar-Jar Binks had been a Sith Lord, we all would have liked him better perhaps. But then looking at this conceptual artwork for a scary Jar Jar, perhaps not.
This character concept from artist Kevin Cassidy takes the idea of the buffoonish Jar-Jar Binks and makes him into a terrible, snarling, Sith Lord that we can imagine standing right next to General Grievous or Darth Maul. Cassidy, who's a senior character artist at Roundhouse Studios, calls the piece Darth Jar-Jar, and we're not sure how he made him look so badass.
Comparing the original character to Darth Jar-Jar is like night and day. One is soft, slouchy, and clumsy, while the evil concept is angular, serious, and stoic. His skin looks harder, his mouth is scared from a previous battle, and his eyes are staring into our souls.
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Although this artwork brings the idea of Darth Jar-Jar to life in a very visual way, as we mentioned, there has been a fan theory running for a few years that Jar-Jar Binks was supposed to be Sith. Although this has been a joke for many years since The Phantom Menace, a post on Reddit from user Lumpawarroo from several years ago pulled together a load of evidence to support the theory - and some bits are decently believable too. You can read it here, it's certainly a wild ride.
So with the fan theories and now this excellent artwork, we're off to think about what the Star Wars films could have been were Jar-Jar Binks not the (loveable?) idiot he is in the prequels. You know, it would be funny to see the character come up once again in any of the many Disney Plus projects that are in the works at the moment - at this point, we'd settle for just an 'Ex-Squeeze-Me'.
Featured Image Credit: Kevin Cassidy / Disney