The widely loathed character definitely won’t appear in the upcoming film The Force Awakens – quashing rumours that he was a villain all along

Why has Jar Jar Binks been banished from the Star Wars universe?

Name: Jar Jar Binks.

Age: Born in the year 52 BBY.

BBY? Before the Battle of Yavin, according to the Galactic Standard Calendar.

I see. Are you feeling OK? It might help if I mention that Jar Jar Binks is a Star Wars character.

Not really. I haven’t seen a Star Wars film since the one with all the teddy bears. Binks first appeared in The Phantom Menace. He was also in the next two, Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith.

What does he look like? An amphibious donkey after ill-advised collagen injections.

Star Wars producer confirms Jar Jar Binks will not appear in The Force Awakens Read more

Think of the hours in makeup. Hardly any: Binks was a CGI concoction, a bumbling Gungan from the planet Naboo, brought in to provide comic relief.

So he was funny? No. He was irritating, with a silly voice and alien patois, which had enough of a Jamaican tinge to give rise to allegations (denied by creator George Lucas) of racist stereotyping. Binks is often considered the most hated character in the whole space saga, if not in the entire history of film.

He sounds ripe for rehabilitation, then. Not yet, it seems. At a press conference, producer Kathleen Kennedy said that Binks will not appear in the forthcoming Star Wars instalment, The Force Awakens.

How did she put it? “Jar Jar is definitely not in the movie.”

Pretty unequivocal. Indeed. Her answer was greeted with cheers and applause.

So everybody’s happy? Perhaps not everybody. For the last month or so a theory has been making the rounds among Star Wars fans, to the effect that goofy Binks is a powerful Sith lord in disguise – perhaps the Supreme Leader Snoke himself.

I don’t know what that means, and I think I don’t care. It’s alleged that George Lucas had always intended for Binks to be revealed as a bad guy in later films, but lost his nerve when the character turned out to be so unpopular.

Thank you. Now I know I don’t care. Some people even thought the director of the new film, JJ Abrams, might take the opportunity to re-establish Binks as a dark presence. But he hasn’t.

What about the teddy bears? They’re gone too.

Do say: “Jar Jar is dead. Long live JJ.”

Don’t say: “Yousa’ll miss missa whena missa m gone.”