Star Wars: What Happened To Jar Jar Binks After Revenge Of The Sith?
Jar Jar Binks (Ahmed Best) gets a pretty rotten run through the Star Wars prequels. First, his home planet of Naboo is invaded by the Trade Federation in "The Phantom Menace," throwing him into a galactic adventure to free his people. After that, Jar Jar represents the Gungan species in the Galactic Senate — a pretty impressive gig for someone with no prior political aspirations. But, unfortunately, he ends up being used as a pawn by Sheev Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid), who manipulates him into proposing the Emergency Powers Act and supporting the creation of a clone army.
Throughout "The Clone Wars," Jar Jar works diligently in the Senate and as an ambassador for diplomacy, often getting caught up in kooky adventures (it is a cartoon, after all). In the end, like many others in the Star Wars galaxy, the war immensely affects him. He attends the funeral of his friend Padmé Amidala (Natalie Portman) in "Revenge of the Sith," but many fans likely don't know what happens to him after the prequel trilogy.
Jar Jar's story plays out differently in the official canon and the Legends timeline — formerly known as the Expanded Universe. However, neither tale is particularly happy. For all his jolliness, Jar Jar experiences a pretty tragic canonical ending because the public blames him for helping Palpatine rise to power. Of course, it isn't really his fault.
What happens to Jar Jar in canon?
After "Revenge of the Sith," Jar Jar's story gets darker. And it's not because of the theory that Jar Jar is secretly a Sith Lord. Because Palpatine manipulates him as a tool to gain more power, many believe that the Gungan representative is partially responsible for the rise of the Empire — including members of his species.
In the canon Star Wars book "Aftermath: Empire's End," it's revealed that Jar Jar was once again exiled from his Gungan home because people despised his actions. He becomes a clown in the capital city of Theed — one of the Naboo locations you can visit in real life — juggling and performing street tricks to entertain children and earn a living. He continues in this line of work for decades, as "Empire's End" shows him years after the Battle of Yavin.
It's unclear what happens to Jar Jar after this point in the timeline, but there's no reason he wouldn't be alive during the New Republic era. That leaves the door open for a potential return in the future, especially now that the overall fan sentiment toward the character seems much kinder than it once was. It's upsetting that Jar Jar received such undue blame for Palaptine's crimes, but it's also an undeniably interesting arc for Star Wars to introduce. Tears of the clown, indeed.
What happens to Jar Jar in Star Wars Legends?
Jar Jar's fate is less specific in the Star Wars Legends timeline. It's also tragic in a different way. Various extraneous Star Wars texts confirm that he remained in his political role after the rise of the Empire, even taking over Padmé's senator position following her death. This suggests that in the Expanded Universe, Jar Jar never fully recognizes the evil of the regime he serves — at least, not for some time.
While this may be a more comfortable life than the one Jar Jar gets in the official canon, it's not necessarily a better one. Is it preferable to be ignorant and happy, or to know the truth despite its harsh consequences? This, inexplicably, seems to be the question at the heart of Jar Jar's story. If you thought of him simply as a goofy comic relief character with an army of haters, think again. There are layers to the onion that is Jar Jar Binks, revealing darker and darker details the further you go.
Perhaps he is the Sith Lord the Jedi were searching for the whole time. Who could say for certain?