'Kenobi' Writer Speaks Up About The Fate Of The Grand Inquisitor

Finally, An Explanation

By Culture SlatePublished 2 years ago • 3 min read

The Grand Inquisitor means trouble.

And not just when he is intimidating settlers in order to discover the whereabouts of a Jedi in hiding, or when he is executing a thug who kidnapped young Princess Leia. When the leader of the Imperial Inquisitors first appeared in flesh and blood in the teaser for Obi-Wan Kenobi, some fans went up in arms as the Pau’an looked quite different from his appearance in Star Wars: Rebels and in the Darth Vader comics. Instead of the elongated head that is typical for this race, his head was much more rounded in live-action and he did not have the yellow Sith eyes. When the show finally premiered, at least the yellow eyes were back, but the unusual head shape remained.

However, that is not where the troubles end. In the final moments of the second episode of Obi-Wan Kenobi, Reva, aka. the Third Sister, stabbed her superior in the belly with her lightsaber, leaving him seemingly dead on the ground. This caused another uproar, as the same character was clearly alive in the first season of Rebels, which takes place five years after the events of Obi-Wan Kenobi.

With the decanonization of the former Expanded Universe, the new Star Wars lore has unified. Movies, television shows, books, comics, and video games all share the same level of canon and none supersedes the other. As it is impossible that the creators of the Kenobi show have simply overlooked the events of Rebels (there is still the Story Group, after all), a question arose whether Lucasfilm has willfully broken its own canon.

Joby Harold, head writer and executive producer of Obi-Wan Kenobi, has now answered this question and given at least a hint as to the fate of the Grand Inquisitor. In an interview with Vanity Fair Harold gave a cryptic answer in regards to Reva’s driving her lightsaber into the Grand Inquisitor:

“As you know, we would never break canon. So, that’s all I’ll say [Laughs]. Canon is everything.”

When the interviewer insisted and asked if fans should just wait and see, before judging something as a mistake or a retcon, his answer was more or less that the show will reward patience.

It is obvious that the creators of Obi-Wan Kenobi would not just kill the Grand Inquisitor outright, neglecting the events of Rebels. It appears that the audience will learn the fate of the Grand Inquisitor in the remaining episodes of the show.

This leaves the following possibilities:

He Isn’t Actually Dead.

This is the most obvious (but also the most boring) explanation. There is precedence that a gut wound in Star Wars is not lethal (at least not in short term). The Grand Inquisitor could have been found in time and put into a bacta tank, or he could have been given cybernetic implants like Fennec Shand got in The Book of Boba Fett. He may return at the end to deal with Reva once and for all.

There Is Another.

Another possibility (though quite small) is that the Grand Inquisitor presented in Obi-Wan Kenobi is not the same character as the one in Rebels. There is another Pau’an in the ranks who will take on the role of Grand Inquisitor (and who actually looks like the one from Rebels). Chances for that are small though, as the Darth Vader comics from 2017, which take place shortly after Revenge of the Sith and thus years before Kenobi) already had a Grand Inquisitor who looked different from the one played by Rupert Friend.

Things Aren’t Quite What They Seem

Reva did not actually stab the Grand Inquisitor at all, but just some decoy whom the “real” Grand Inquisitor used to test Reva’s loyalty and commitment. Now that this has been settled, he could come out of hiding, and show Reva her place.

Anyway, the fans’ patience that Joby Harold referred to won’t be tested much further. The last episode of Obi-Wan Kenobi (at least for this season) will air on June 22.