Warning: SPOILERS ahead for the first three episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi!
The Obi-Wan Kenobi series excited many fans of Star Wars Rebels by bringing that show’s season 1 villain, the Grand Inquisitor, into live-action. Even though Jason Isaacs proved unavailable to reprise the role, Rupert Friend managed to duplicate his calm menace and love of his own voice. Friend also made clear in interviews that he thought this character was the same one voiced by Isaacs. Though he avoided watching Rebels so he wouldn’t simply be doing mimickry.
However, in episode 2 of Obi-Wan Kenobi, he takes a saber through the torso from Reva. The same kind of stab wound that killed Qui-Gon Jinn. And characters’ conversations in the subsequent episode made clear that he was indeed dead. At least as far as everyone in the Empire is concerned. So how could he still be alive later in the timeline, where he dies [again?] after a battle with Kanan Jarrus?
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In a new interview with Vanity Fair, head writer and executive producer Joby Harold addressed the seeming contradiction. “As you know, we would never break canon,” he laughs. “So, that’s all I’ll say. Canon is everything. We all know where we’re going in the show [from previous films and TV shows] so anytime you can undercut that, pull the rug on that, have a reversal…”
The reversal got the audience reaction he expected. At the Star Wars Celebration screening, he says, “It was an audible gasp. The people…were not expecting that at all. That was quite gratifying because that’s the intention to show.”
It sounds like we have not seen the last of the Inquisitor. Maybe Darth Vader is lying about him being dead. Or maybe he has a twin. Perhaps a clone? Whatever the case, Harold appears to have an answer in mind that he’s not telling yet.
What do you think will become of the Inquisitor? Let us know in comments.
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