The Star Wars Fan-Favorite Duo Needs A Movie
Star Wars needs a shakeup to get it out of its current rut, and we have just the thing: bring back Tag and Bink. Tag and Bink were the Star Wars equivalent of Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead, a comedic play starring two minor characters from Hamlet. Or, to put it in more mainstream terms, Tag and Bink were Forest Gump if — rather than rubbing elbows with JFK and John Lennon — he were wandering through the biggest moments of Star Wars.
Dark Horse’s Tag & Bink
Star Wars has always been ripe for spoofing, and no spoof has ever been funnier than the Tag & Bink comics published by Dark Horse in the early ’00s. Over the course of two miniseries and a one-shot, the hapless pair bumbled their way through all the major events from the original and prequel trilogies, causing mayhem as they went. What starts as two rebels stealing stormtrooper armor to survive the events at the beginning of A New Hope quickly becomes an epic tale of behind-the-scenes buffoonery.
The Birth of Tag & Bink
The idea to do a Star Wars comic where Tag and Bink stumble around the periphery of all of the important events in Star Wars came from a single scene in A New Hope. At one point aboard the Death Star, two stormtroopers stand around shooting the breeze while Obi-Wan Kenobi sneaks around behind them. Writer Kevin Rubio thought he could expand that scene into a whole story of two numbskulls affecting things behind the scenes of the original Star Wars trilogy, and the rest is history.
Almost Came To The Screen
So far, the two decidedly non-canon characters have failed to make the leap from page to screen, but not for lack of trying. Solo: A Star Wars Story director Ron Howard shot a scene with two actors playing Tag and Bink for a fun easter egg cameo, but it was cut from the final film. The scene in question where two imperial cadets named Tag and Bink escort Han Solo after he is kicked out of the imperial flight academy remains in the Solo novelization, however.
Tag & Bink Need More Than A Cameo
But a cameo isn’t really good enough. The comedic premise of two morons mucking about while the rest of the galaxy is engaged in a serious war deserves its own film. A Star Wars movie starring Tag and Bink would not only open Lucasfilm up to making some non-canon content other than Star Wars: Visions, but it would also be the studio’s first venture into a whole other genre. There has always been humor in Star Wars, but aside from parodies like Family Guy’s Blue Harvest or the Phineas and Ferb Star Wars special, Disney has been reluctant to take Star Wars in an all-out comedy direction.
Star Wars Needs To Expand To Other Genres
Reportedly, the original directing team of Lord and Miller was fired from Solo mid-production specifically because they were making the film too much of a comedy. Disney should rethink that course of action because, frankly, exploring new genres within the Star Wars universe might be the only way to save it. A Star Wars comedy starring Tag and Bink could give way to an R-rated horror movie set in the Star Wars universe or a rom-com; the possibilities are endless.
Disney could even try and get Lord and Miller back to write and direct the Tag and Bink flick—their comedic sensibilities would gel perfectly with the source material. If any low-level Lucasfilm execs are reading this, do us a favor and slip a copy of Tag & Bink are Dead into Kathleen Kennedy’s purse if you get the chance. At this point, it couldn’t hurt.
