Jar Jar Binks has long been the symbol of everything goofy and lighthearted about the Star Wars franchise. The Gungan outcast was the focus of ire for many years from a certain sect of Star Wars fandom who only wanted things to be ultra serious. In fact, some fans have actually tried to retcon Jar Jar into secretly having been an agent of the dark side the whole time. He did help to start the Empire after all. So maybe it’s not that far-fetched?
Kevin Cassidy
Okay, so this theory is probably not true. But what if it were? What if the mysterious “Phantom Menace” wasn’t a reference to Palpatine, a.k.a. Darth Sidious….but actually Jar-Jar? Via Geeks Are Sexy, we’ve discovered what a dark side, Sith Lord version of Jar Jar Binks would actually look like. Creature and character designer Kevin Cassidy put his skills to the test and crafted these terrifying images that he shared on Instagram. You can take a look at various versions of “Darth Jar Jar” below:
Kevin Cassidy
We’re not going to lie. This is a version of Jar Jar that we would not like to encounter in a dark alley at night. Or in the middle of the day for that matter. Kevin Cassidy has some other extremely cool and creepy “horror-fied” designs of various dark side Star Wars characters on Instagram. He’s designed even scarier versions of Darth Vader, Darth Maul, Kylo Ren, stormtroopers, and the Emperor’s royal guards from Return of the Jedi.
The original Jar Jar actor, Ahmed Best, has gone on record saying that he thought his character’s semi-tragic fate in canonical Star Wars novels was appropriate. But we can’t help but wonder if he wouldn’t have loved playing a dark-side version of Jar Jar that looked as badass as Kevin Cassidy’s. Hey, who knows? Maybe it’ll be a Disney+ streaming series in ten years. Stranger things have happened.
For more of Cassidy’s amazing work, be sure to head on over to his ArtStation page or his Instagram account.
Featured Image: Kevin Cassidy
