When you think of a mysterious, all-powerful Sith Lord, you probably didn’t think of Jar Jar Binks, the clumsy Gungan from the planet of Naboo. Starting with a Reddit post in October 2015, fans have begun to speculate, is Jar Jar’s purpose in the prequel trilogy more than “comedic relief?”

According to this theory, Jar Jar is a master of the Force. In the Phantom Menace, Jar Jar is seen jumping twenty feet in the air and diving into the water, as he leads Jedi Knights Qui Gon Jin and Obi Wan Kenobi to the Gungan city of Otoh Gunga. Although this could possibly be a physical characteristic of his species, nowhere in any of the episodes do you see any Gungan using this athletic ability, even in battle against the Trade Federation’s droid army at the end of The Phantom Menace.

If his physical abilities don’t make him powerful enough, Jar Jar also has very powerful mind control abilities. In many small clips in The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones, he is seen using his powers on many different characters, from Boss Nass (getting promoted to Gungan general, for dragging his peaceful people into a war… what?!) and all 2,000 members of the Galactic Senate, when he convinces them to give Chancellor Palpatine emergency powers, promoting him to Supreme Chancellor and to create a Grand Army of the Republic.

He is also able to mask his Force abilities, leading the Jedi to believe that he had very little Force sensitivity, concealing his true power.

At the end of Phantom Menace, Jedi Master Yoda speculates on who the master of the fallen Sith, Darth Maul, could be. He quotes: “Always two there are… a master and an apprentice.” Many people assume that the Master is Darth Sidious, also known as Chancellor Palpatine, but according to this theory, Sidious is the apprentice and Jar Jar is the master. This becomes very possible when you notice the close friendship between Binks and Palpatine. In the Phantom Menace, you see Jar Jar and Palpatine standing next to each other at the funeral of Qui Gon, even though they had never met at that point in the episode. Jar Jar promotes Palpatine in front of the whole Galactic Senate, putting him in the position of the Supreme Chancellor. Furthermore, once Jar Jar reaches Coruscant, capital planet of the Republic, he is practically inseparable from the Chancellor, seen in many different scenes in all episodes of the trilogy.

If Palpatine is Jar Jar’s apprentice, then what is the purpose of Count Dooku, the apprentice of Palpatine? Some basic logic can answer this question.

Dooku made his first appearance in Episode II, Attack of the Clones. There is no acknowledgement of him in The Phantom Menace in any way. His character was hurriedly added in, then quickly killed off at the start of Revenge of the Sith (Episode III). So why was Dooku added in and killed off almost as quickly as he entered the prequel trilogy?

Fans have speculated that it was to cover up the existence of “Darth Jar Jar” our behind-the-scenes Sith Lord. In an interview with BBC shortly after the release of The Phantom Menace, Lucas lamented the disapproval of fans towards Jar Jar.

“A group of fans for the films that doesn’t like comic sidekicks. They want the films to be tough like Terminator, and they get very upset and opinionated about anything that has anything to do with being childlike.”

This statement by Lucas makes it very clear that Jar Jar was a mistake. So, was Dooku created to hurriedly cover up the existence of a Sith Lord that Lucas clearly felt would not be embraced by fans?

Actor Ahmed Best, who provided the voiceover for Jar Jar, provides even more evidence to the real purpose of Jar Jar Binks.

“What I can say about it is. There’s a lot about it that’s true. There’s some things that are not true. Could Jar Jar have evolved into that? I think the answer is yes. Because of the backlash, and rightly so, Lucasfilm backed off from Jar Jar a lot. But a lot of the influence I put into Jar Jar mirrored a lot of what was already in the Star Wars universe. Was there an official Darth Jar Jar in the works? I cannot answer that question, that’s a George Lucas question.”

Best goes on to share even more about Darth Jar Jar, revealing a deleted scene from Revenge of the Sith.

“…it was just me and Palpatine walking down the runway, talking about the plans to turn the empire into what it had turned out to be. It was a very dark, very personal, quiet scene, but for some reason Palpatine decided to confide in Jar Jar that pretty much he was going to reap havoc. Wherever that scene is, that would really give great credibility to the Darth Jar Jar theory.”

Whether you believe in the existence of Darth Jar Jar or not, this chilling evidence would potentially change the entire fate of our beloved galaxy far, far away…