Star Wars: George Lucas Says Jar Jar Backlash Was Similar To First C-3PO Reactions

There is little doubt that Jar Jar Binks was one of the reasons why fans weren't initially fond of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. However, George Lucas says that this wasn't the first time that people disliked a Star Wars character. Interestingly, the filmmaker pointed out that the reactions to Jar Jar were fairly similar to how the audiences initially felt about C-3PO.

Lucas recently spoke to StarWars.com about the negative reactions to The Phantom Menace which were mostly directed at Jar Jar. The Star Wars creator stated that the reason why people didn't like the character because he was intended for younger viewers.

"The main thing they obviously got upset about was Jar Jar. But they got upset at Jar Jar because he was there for the kids," Lucas said before revealing that there were similar reactions to C-3PO when Star Wars first premiered.

"When I did A New Hope, everybody felt the same way about Threepio. They hated him. They thought he was too childish and the jokes were bad. They said the same thing. It's just that the initial wave of Star Wars sort of overwhelmed the criticism of Threepio. We even played on that in Empire, making fun of him and acknowledging the fact that he was annoying. And then in the third one, we did the same thing with Ewoks. People just went berserk. They said it was horrible, it ruined the movie, and how can you watch this, and all that kind of stuff," he said.

Lucas admitted that he wasn't surprised about the backlash but there was another reason why the reactions to Jar Jar became so strong.

"I was used to that sort of thing, but for some reason, the criticism through the internet became more alive. And the news media began to listen to the fans," he said. "Obviously, when a fan, or a group, or a blog says something terrible, they take it seriously, and suddenly that became the reality. It was very hard to turn back from that."

Jar Jar might not be the most popular Star Wars character but Lucas continues to defend Jar Jar since "this is for 12-year-olds and kids are going to love Jar Jar."

C-3PO will be back in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, which premieres on December 20.

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