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‘The Mandalorian’ Gave Jar Jar Binks Actor Ahmed Best A Triumphant Return To ‘Star Wars,’ And Fans Are Here For It

(WARNING: Spoilers for The Mandalorian episode “The Foundling” below.)

As the actor who played Jar Jar Binks in the Star Wars prequels, Ahmed Best did not have the best experience with fans following the release of those films. In recent years, Best has opened up about receiving death threats and constant insults that he “destroyed” people’s childhood. The fan backlash was so intense that, at one point, Best contemplated suicide. It’s one of the most glaring examples of Star Wars fandom at its worst.

Fortunately, the tide has significantly turned. While Best has continued to work with the franchise by voicing Jar Jar in The Clone Wars animated series and hosting Star Wars: Jedi Temple Challenge for Disney+, The Mandalorian just made one of the actor’s dreams come true in a huge way.

Over the past three seasons, executive producer Dave Filoni has hinted that he knows who rescued Baby Yoda (or Grogu, if we must) from the Jedi Temple during the Order 66 attack that took place during Revenge of the Sith. A brief glimpse of Baby Yoda witnessing the Jedi massacre was shown in Season 2, but it The Mandalorian Chapter 20, Star Wars fans finally get to see his escape.

In the action-packed episode, Baby Yoda makes a run for it as clone troopers breach the temple. His odds of getting out aren’t looking great until another Jedi comes to his rescue. That Jedi? Kelleran Beq played by none other than Ahmed Best, who helped develop the character for Jedi Temple Challenge.

It was a huge moment for Best, who finally got to live his dream of playing a canonical Jedi (and a pivotal one at that) and Star Wars fans are absolutely here for it. Shortly after The Mandalorian episode started streaming, Twitter exploded with love for Best. The actor’s name has been trending all Wednesday morning as Mando fans geeked out over his badass rescue.

You can see some of the reactions below:

New episodes of The Mandalorian stream Wednesdays on Disney+.