As we all know, Jar-Jar Binks is historically seen as the most hated character in the Star Wars saga. When some defense is mounted for him, though, the most common argument is that he’s fully intended to entertain kids and that’s fine because the franchise should always be at least partially aiming at the younger generation. Interestingly, though, Jar-Jar actor Ahmed Best has now hit out at the Disney era of Star Wars for this very reason, saying that he doesn’t think it accommodates younger fans enough.
Best originally played the bungling Gungan in George Lucas’ Prequel Trilogy. He hasn’t been involved much with the saga since then, but he’s returning for Star Wars: Jedi Temple Challenge, a new game show streaming on Disney Plus. And in a recent video, the actor and motion-capture pioneer explained why he’s decided to come back and what he thinks is missing from the sequel films.
“One of the reasons I said yes to this show was that kids have always lifted me up,” Best told interviewer Jamie Stangroom. “They’ve always given me the feedback and the positivity that I always looked for. When I was Jar Jar, I would always get great responses from kids and I really wanted to, not just continue that, but give back to the kids. I wanted to give them something else, because Star Wars has since skewed older and there isn’t very much for the kids anymore in Star Wars. It’s very much for the millennials and gen-Xers like myself…so kids are kind of left out of these, and the kids have to go to the animated series in order to get their dose of Star Wars, or they do like Phantom Menace. Phantom Menace is very much a kids movie.
Continuing on, he said:
The new iterations of Star Wars are not really skewed towards kids, which is not something that George ever really wanted to do. George was always about the kids, and he used to say that if you get the kids, you have fans for the next 20 years; he was very much about kids. This idea that the movies are for adults is a very new thing, to be honest.”
This a bolt statement, so everyone’s going to have their own opinion on it. Obviously, there are many elements to the Sequel Trilogy that are manufactured to be kid-friendly – adorable droids BB-8 and D-O, the Porgs and, over on The Mandalorian, Baby Yoda. But Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker was certainly almost squarely aimed at established, diehard fans without much care for newbies.
So, you can see why Best feels this way. And he’s right about Lucas not being blown away by them, either. Not to mention that SW toy sales are down across the board.
Tell us, though, what do you think of Ahmed Best’s comments about Star Wars and whether it’s failing to hook the next generation of fans? Sound off down below with your thoughts.
