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Jar Jar Binks Will Not Appear In ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens,’ Fans Everywhere Are So Disappointed

By Aaron Homer
Published on: 03:47 PST, Dec 8, 2015

Jar Jar Binks will not be in Star Wars: The Force Awakens — that’s the good news. The bad news? There is no bad news: Jar Jar Binks will not be in Episode VII. There’s no downside.

As People reports, The Force Awakens producer Kathleen Kennedy was joined by Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia), director J.J. Abrams, and a handful of other cast and crew at a Saturday news conference where some of the beans — very few of them — were spilled about what fans can expect.

Kennedy got straight to the point and left no margin for error, saying, “Jar Jar is definitely not in the movie.”

Jar Jar Binks made his first appearance a few minutes into The Phantom Menace, and almost immediately, he became probably the most hated character in the franchise. The character’s goofy antics and grating voice rubbed fans the wrong way, and some critics, such as Bruce Handy of Vanity Fair, went so far as to say that Jar Jar was emblematic of all that was wrong with the second trilogy (Episodes I, II, and III).

“Jar Jar has come to symbolize what many fans see as the faults of the prequel trilogy: characters no one much cares about; a sense of humor geared toward the youngest conceivable audience members; an over-reliance on computer graphics; and story lines devoted to the kinds of convoluted political machinations which wouldn’t have been out of place in adaptations of [much more serious films], but which fit less snugly in films with characters like Jar Jar Binks.”

Jar Jar’s convoluted speech patterns and servile attitude even drew accusations of racism. In an 1999 Wall Street Journal report, writer Joe Morgenstern compared Jar Jar to Stepin Fetchit (a characterization of a lazy slave popular in the early 20th century).

Fortunately, TFA will be mercifully spare fans the controversy that is Jar Jar Binks.

So what can fans expect when TFA hits theaters in two weeks? Carrying on with the theme of hated characters from earlier installments of the franchise, director J.J. Abrams revealed that another fan un-favorite won’t be turning up in TFA either.

“No, there are no Ewoks in this film,” he remarked.

Actually, there may, in fact, be at least one Ewok in TFA. Carrie Fisher quickly joked, “That you’re aware of,” and then Abrams responded, “There are rumors that some snuck onto set.”

This back-and-forth may — and this is pure speculation — may be hinting at a blink-and-you-miss-it Ewok somewhere in a TFA scene. Hiding a character, a prop, or a visual reference somewhere in the movie is common in the industry. Fans call these references “Easter Eggs,” and the Star Wars franchise has its share.

So there may be an Easter Egg or two in TFA. Are there any other surprises fans should be on the lookout for? Probably, but one “surprise” that won’t be happening is a final scene after the credits roll. In just about any and all films in the Marvel franchise, you’d best sit through the credits lest you miss a final scene. That won’t be happening in TFA, says Fisher.

“All the scenes are actually in the movie,” the actress explained.

So far, just about everyone associated with The Force Awakens has been extremely tight-lipped about what will and will not be happening in the much-anticipated film. The news that Jar Jar Binks won’t be in it is, while not much of a spoiler, at least a sigh of relief.

[Image via Shutterstock/samzsolti]

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