The Mandalorian Weaponizes Jar Jar Binks Against Star Wars Fans

I’m not here to speak on the quality of The Mandalorian or its movie “spinoff”. I haven’t seen either. I don’t have Disney+ and can only go by what I’ve heard from fans, that the first two seasons were well received but the show dropped off storywise in the third season, when “baby Yoda” was brought back for profit reasons rather than story reasons when his arc was supposedly over with after being collected by Luke Skywalker for training. Apparently training Yoda/Grogu’s race is a lot faster than everyone else. Or DisneyFilm wanted to sell more plushies or something. That never ends well.

Sorry, Gremlin. On another show I might have liked you, but you don’t fit that show.

No, I haven’t forgotten what you did to Flash Gordon, NBC Saturday Morning programmers!

However, I can speak to the current treatment of the fanbase by the show’s new stewards. I’m more and more convinced that showrunners, directors, and producers are weaponizing unaware actors against fans as they try to rework franchises into their shows at the expense of what made the property so beloved in the first place. The SEECA crowd (snobs, elitists, egotists, corporatists who let them, and to a lesser but growing level the current activist movement in Hollywood) continue to alter properties to fit their tastes, partly because the studios aren’t paying attention but forcing them to only make existing IP due to being risk averse…only what they’ve done is almost a bigger risk in killing those properties by giving them to people who don’t care at the expense of people that do.

Yes, I do blame the creators for not caring what the fans want rather than show what they can do with an existing property and garner enough support to convince the studios and services to let them make what they want. I also blame the studios for putting the wrong people in charge. I do NOT blame the actors who are out of touch for making the show…but I WILL blame them for fan responses.

Enter Brandon Wayne, one of the suit actors for Pedro “almost literally phoning it in unless I need the helmet off for five seconds so I can make five other movies at the same time” Pascal for the Mandalorian sub-franchise. I get it. It’s a good assignment and a paid gig, hopefully being paid what you’re worth. In a recent interview with Movieweb, Wayne spoke out against the critics of The Mandalorian And Grogu, and used the previous hate leveled against Jar Jar Binks from The Phantom Menace against the classic fans. It’s not the solid argument he thinks it is, and shows us that even the suit actors are happy to take on the fanbase as “toxic” rather than passionate. You can see from the start that article writer Manuel Demegillo has a few biases of his own.

The Mandalorian‘s Brendan Wayne has offered some sobering thoughts on the state of Star Wars fandom. He’s speaking from experience, having played the body double for Pedro Pascal’s Din Djarin. The latter is a relatively new character in the Star Wars universe, but he was quickly embraced by the broader fan community. That’s a clear sign that the franchise is thriving, but it can also go off the rails, especially when the fans start gatekeeping.

“Gatekeeping” as it gets used these days is a term for wanting what you liked about a show, movie, comic, or game to be adapted or continued correctly. Nobody was ever kept out of Star Wars who honestly likes Star Wars. If you try to change something then you’re a fan of the changed version, not the original. Or maybe you’re a fan of the brand more than the specific elements that made the brand so big. We’ll come back to that later.

Wayne addressed that issue in a panel interview with MovieWeb, which noted how nostalgia influenced Star Wars fans through the years. The conversation stemmed from Ahmed Best’s guest role in The Mandalorian Season 3. He played Jedi Master Kelleran Beq in Episode 4, and in a flashback sequence, he helped rescue young Grogu during the Jedi Temple siege. Wayne said Ahmed Best’s Jedi return was “something that was owed to him,” considering the backlash he received when he played Jar Jar Binks.

Best did the voice and motion capture for Jar Jar Binks, who was an incredibly pivotal character in the Star Wars prequel trilogy. However, a large contingent of Star Wars fans, many of whom grew up with the original films, despised how the character was portrayed. It crossed the line when the hate towards Jar Jar was also directed at Best, who described the experience as the “first textbook case of cyberbullying.” The controversy damaged his career, so returning as Kelleran Beq was truly vindicating.

“Meesa not most hated character anymore?” “No, but plenty of people still don’t like you.” “Aw.”

I was there when all that was going on. Best shouldn’t have gotten grief for Jar Jar. Any complaints, many of which I thought were overblown…like insisting Jar Jar was a racist stereotype because of his speech patterns (nothing new, odd ways of speaking are, as Yoda illustrates). On the other hand, Anakin Skywalker’s line about how he hated sand was lampooned for a reason. The delivery was terrible at the writing stage and not directed the best at the acting stage. Nobody blamed Hayden Christensen for it, or at least not him alone. I also don’t remember Best getting individual flack for having played Jar Jar, and he did do a Star Wars themed game show for kids. Speaking of things we’ll be coming back to.

I also wouldn’t go so far as to say Jar Jar was “pivotal”. If anything one of the complaints was that he wasn’t. If Jar Jar had learned from traveling with Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon, especially his time on Tatooine, he could have. He could have helped convince the Gungans to fight by boosting Padme’s pleas with what he saw of people working together in the pod races and just trying to eek out a living. Then his presence might be worth it. He also cast the deciding vote that led to Palpatine collecting power as Emperor, which the only “pivotal” he did and could have been done by anyone. Instead all we got was questionable comic relief (remember, I defend most comic relief characters, at least conceptually) and an internet meme that he was a Sith lord manipulating things the whole time.

Wayne extended that comment to the broader Star Wars conversations, which, he observed, can be derailed by toxic gatekeeping. He acknowledged the franchise is now operating in a very different landscape, especially after Disney bought Lucasfilm. Asked about The Acolyte Season 2’s prospects, he said it’s possible, but tricky.

I think it’s harder to do that with Star Wars right now, because you have Disney behind them, and Disney somehow has become a lightning rod in so many ways,” he explained. “It’s interesting to see people who are pulling against the franchise they love, just because of their ownership… That can be 100% toxic in the Star Wars world.” Wayne said fans have every right to criticize what they don’t like about Star Wars, but they don’t have the right to impose their preferences on the entire community.

Why not? Your bosses keep trying to impose their preferences on the fanbase. Fans rejected The Acolyte so hard that Disney+ cancelled it after the first season. The type of fans, new or classic, who should have connected to it was harder on it than The Rise Of Skywalker, a movie both Classic Star Wars and Disney Star Wars fans hated. They also came down on Obi-Wan for other decisions, like focusing too much on a Sith who was hoping to kill a child to get revenge on Darth Vader for killing children (or at least tormenting the kid), movie making mistakes like not getting a gate prop right, and having Obi-Wan abandon Luke to go protect Leia. Again, this is what I’ve heard the fans say, and they came with enough footage to back up their statements that I can’t doubt them. Here’s the part that got Wayne in trouble with the internet and sparked me to start this article, emphasis mine:

“That’s like any movie, show, or theater performance,” he added. “It’s to be present and to watch it, and if you don’t connect, cool, but we don’t need to hear how bad you are, that they ruined your Star Wars. They didn’t ruin your Star Wars. It’s our Star Wars.”

Therein is the problem. When fans say Star Wars was for us, they mean that everything they loved about Star Wars was removed by Disney, who openly admitted to ignoring any notes George Lucas gave them on the way out, tried to shift to more female oriented because there are female Star Wars fans while not realizing they were also taking out what they loved about Star Wars as well, and made everything into something the new stewards wanted it to be. That included ending the Skywalker focus to replace the classic characters with their own, whether it was Rey Palpatine, Ahsoka Tano, or Osha…wait, her sister Mae’s full name was Mae-ho “Mae” Aniseya? Really? And here I thought being named after facial cleanser was lame enough.

You know the…other…funny part? You know who else was critical of Disney Star Wars? Ahmed Best! Not to the extent of many fans, but in that just linked to article from John F. Trent of Bounding Into Comics back in 2020 (full podcast included), Best said he thought something was missing from recent Star Wars.

Best appeared on Jamie Stangroom’s YouTube channel where he discussed the [then] upcoming Jedi Temple Challenge show, his role as Jar-Jar Binks, and even rumors surrounding the Obi-Wan Kenobi series.

When asked about how Jedi Temple Challenge is geared towards introducing kids to the Star Wars universe, Best detailed some of the current struggles of the Star Wars universe.

Best explains, “A big deal for me was to be able to give kids something to, and this is the thing that Star Wars, I think, is falling short of now. There really isn’t very much to believe in anymore.”

He adds, “The lack of faith is really the thing I find to be missing. We don’t talk about the Force anymore in the Star Wars movies. We are really about lineage, and legacy, and lying, and technology.”

Best continues, “But the thing that makes Star Wars work was the Force. There were two sides, the Light Side and the Dark Side. But we all believed in the Force. It’s not this thing that you have to cultivate. It’s not this thing that you have to have faith in and believe in. And that’s what worked in the Lucasverse when it came to Star Wars.”

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“All of those things that Yoda did with Luke Skywalker on Dagobah in the swamp, this is where it was first. You’ve got to get good here. And I dig that. I like that. It’s something that I think would be wonderful for kids because now there is a path to this thing. Now you have a line to get to become a strong Jedi. Now, there are actual steps you can take to being a strong Jedi. It gives you belief and faith.”

Best was hoping Jedi Training Challenge would bring that to kids, with classic fans saying that Rey and Osha’s stories didn’t feature that. Especially Osha, who turns Sith at the end and murders her own sister…who tried to murder her as kids because she dared consider leaving the witch order they were part of. Meanwhile Rey’s talents came whenever the plot needed them to and introduced a new “Force healing” power that was never present before. At least when Rowan Freemaker learned he was destined to be a “Force Builder” in season two (a power that only works in a Lego universe) after being able to sense the Kaber Saber in season one he still had to train, which is what he did the whole season. The kids in Young Jedi Adventures, set in the often lampooned or otherwise ignored “High Republic” period, is all about the three main Padawans learning how to be a proper Jedi. Again, it was Lego who gave Rey a challenge to actually overcome in their “Holiday Special” (aww, they took it down and it was from an official channel!) when she had to travel around time to learn from other teachers how to be a better teacher.

Someone in the comments of the Movieweb article made a fair point:

I don’t care if the only parts of the SW franchise you enjoyed were the Holiday Special and the Ewok movies, if you want to call yourself a fan, be my guest and welcome aboard!

I actually liked The Ewok Adventure but not Battle For Endor after making the first movie pointless by killing off the parents they tried to save and one of the kids that was part of it. The only good part of The Star Wars Holiday Special was the cartoon segment. I’ve gone over what’s Star Wars to me. My personal canon includes The Freemaker Adventures a LEGO parody! I’m weird that way. On the other hand, if the version you like is far removed from what fans liked before (and the poster in the full comments said he was a classic fan who accepted the Disney era stuff), those fans are going to disagree with you. Saying “You may THINK you are protecting the legacy of a franchise you love by playing gatekeeper, but you’re doing the exact opposite. You’re making SW fans look like obnoxious, judgmental, exclusivist snobs” is not a correct assessment. You’re basically saying the fans who liked Star Wars the way it was, connected to the characters, and wanted a better return for them–AND passing of the torch as the actors that aren’t getting older are the ones that passed away–than the sequels shouldn’t demand a return to the classic Star Wars formula and lore. That’s a form of gatekeeping as well, but one that takes away things from other fans rather than just stopping them from being part of the conversation.

The Mandalorian And Grogu, as of this writing the day before it posted, still hasn’t made back the production budget when you factor in theater cuts and promotion. It’s barely made the production budget on its own, and according to Geeks & Gamers contributor Martin Martinaro may be the lowest-grossing of the Star Wars movies. Meanwhile nobody complained about the actors, including this guy because I doubt most of the FANS knew who he was (heck of a way to introduce yourself) until they started attacking critical fans. I’m still convinced that the ones to blame are the people making the movie telling the actors that all criticism is “toxic” or based on race and gender rather than wanting good Star Wars from fans who list non-white males among their favorite characters. (People loved Mace Windu and thought Finn was robbed of a good story arc. Plus all the non-HUMAN characters in this franchise.) The real arguments are being obscured by creators who want to ignore George Lucas’ vision and put a mainstream franchise into theirs under the belief that their tastes are better or because the studios won’t let them make what they want and aren’t paying attention to what they’re doing.

It’s not gatekeeping to say “I want Star Wars to be what I enjoyed in the first place, and I don’t see it here”. It’s fans who want what they loved to continue to be what they love, and right now Star Wars isn’t that.