Jar Jar Binks’ Recently Revealed STAR WARS Backstory Links Directly to ANDOR
When Andor first premiered, it felt like a different beast from anything else in Star Wars. Created by Tony Gilroy, the series stripped away the space wizard spectacle and leaned into something raw, political, and uncomfortably real.
It wasn’t built around toy sales or cute sidekicks. It was about rebellion, sacrifice, and the cost of resistance. So the last character anyone expected to be woven into Andor’s mythology is Jar Jar Binks.
And yet… here we are.
For all of its grounded intensity, Andor has always been part of the larger Star Wars tapestry. The show introduced the Axis network, the shadowy rebel operation led by Luthen Rael but actually coordinated in the trenches by Kleya Marki.
One of the network’s key tools was a mysterious communications system known as “fractal radios.” When the tech first appeared, fans assumed Luthen uncovered it through his obsession with ancient cultures and rare artifacts. After all, he was living on Coruscant as a dealer in antiquities, surrounded by relics from across the galaxy.
Turns out, those radios go back much further.
The new comic Star Wars: Jar Jar Binks #1, written by Marc Guggenheim and Jar Jar actor Ahmed Best, with art by Michael Atiyeh, Laura Braga, and Kieran McKeown, drops a interesting revelation.
During the Clone Wars, Jar Jar worked alongside Jedi Master Kelleran Beq. also played by Best. The two grew suspicious of Chancellor Palpatine and his expanding emergency powers, powers Jar Jar himself had helped grant.
On the planet Urubai, they discovered rare crystals capable of powering a secret communications system, the very first fractal radios. They built the system to coordinate their resistance efforts without Palpatine detecting them.
That’s not just a cool bit of lore. It’s a seismic shift.
The comic strongly implies that this network helped Kelleran Beq survive Order 66 and rescue Grogu from the Jedi Temple, spiriting him away aboard a Naboo diplomatic vessel that had been prepared in advance.
The fractal radios weren’t just experimental tech. They were part of an underground effort that predates the Rebel Alliance itself.
Now think about Andor.
From the beginning, there were hints of Naboo threaded through Luthen’s world. His Coruscant gallery featured artifacts tied to Naboo royalty and even Gungan culture. At the time, it seemed like a nod to Emperor Palpatine’s homeworld.
In Season 2, a flashback shows Luthen testing young Kleya on Naboo during a bombing, marking the birth of the Axis network. That connection hits differently now.
Is it a coincidence that the Axis network began on Naboo? That it relied on fractal radio technology originally developed by Jar Jar and Kelleran Beq? Or that Luthen, a supposed antiques dealer, had access to Naboo relics and Gungan artifacts?
Jar Jar Binks, the character once dismissed as comic relief for kids, may have quietly laid the foundation for the rebellion’s communications infrastructure. It’s even possible he supplied Luthen with the fractal radio technology or maintained contacts that helped keep the Axis network hidden.
Jar Jar would’ve had access to Naboo’s royal circles and Gungan resources. He could’ve moved pieces into place without drawing suspicion.
That possibility completely reframes his legacy.
George Lucas always envisioned Star Wars as something for younger audiences, but the franchise has evolved into something much bigger. Andor proved there’s room for morally complex storytelling inside this galaxy.
And now a comic has reached back to the prequel era and tied one of its most divisive characters directly into that darker narrative.
It’s such a strange, perfect example of how Star Wars works as a transmedia universe. Movies, TV, and comics feed into each other in unexpected ways. Nobody predicted that Jar Jar Binks and Luthen Rael would share narrative DNA. But here we are, and It’s kind of awesome.