Around a month from now, the next live action Star Wars series on Disney+ will arrive in the form of Obi-Wan Kenobi. This highly anticipated project that sees the return of Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen to the iconic franchise over 17 years after they last appeared physically. Although the series is close at hand, there has only been one trailer, which was a brief look into the six-episode entry that sees Obi-Wan ten years after Revenge of the Sith as he hides away in exile on Tatooine, keeping a watchful eye over Luke Skywalker. The trailer showed a look at Tatooine along with its famous inhabitants, Obi-Wan, Luke, and Owen Lars, but also gave fans a brief glimpse at the villains of the series.
Although Darth Vader is expected to be the primary antagonist, the trailer showed that there are several Inquisitors who will look to make their presence known throughout the six episodes. Some of these, like Moses Ingram’s Reva, are brand-new characters, while others, like the Fifth Brother, are previously established villains. Another character who has been seen before, and will appear in Obi-Wan Kenobi, is the Grand Inquisitor, who is known to fans of the Star Wars animated series Rebels. The Grand Inquisitor seems to have a substantial role in the upcoming show, and has an interesting history in the Star Wars franchise.
The Grand Inquisitor has been established in canon as the leader of all Inquisitors, ruling over the likes of Reva, Fifth Brother, Sixth Brother, Seventh Sister, Eighth Brother, and Ninth Sister. The antagonist is a member of the Pau’an species, and a similar looking character was seen speaking with Obi-Wan on Utapau in Revenge of the Sith.
The Grand Inquisitor was not always on the dark side of the Force, however, as he was once a Jedi Temple Guard. These guards were Jedi Knights tasked with surrendering a more traditional Jedi path in order to protect the Temple that houses many of these guardians of the peace. Although the Jedi demanded emotional detachment from their members, the Temple Guards were forced to take this requirement to even more extreme levels. They had to resist any sense of self they had, concealing their faces at all times and remaining completely anonymous.
At some point, the Grand Inquisitor disavowed the ways of the Jedi and the light side of the Force in order to pursue a more selfish path as a servant to Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine. As an Inquisitor, the Pau’an male was tasked with hunting down the remaining Jedi that had escaped death during Order 66, which is what he appears to be doing in the first trailer for Obi-Wan Kenobi. The character is seen doing this in Star Wars Rebels, the series that he first appeared in, when he searched for Kanan Jarrus and Ezra Bridger, along with the rest of the Ghost crew.
The Grand Inquisitor channeled his focus mainly on Lothal, the planet that Rebels primarily takes place on, as he hunted down Jedi. The character was the villain for two of the four seasons of Rebels, as Grand Admiral Thrawn later took over as the primary antagonist for the Ghost Crew and the show's Jedi in seasons three and four. It was during a battle with Kanan that the Grand Inquisitor was destroyed, as the villain opted to take death at the hands of a Jedi rather than have to go back and face Darth Vader to inform him that he failed in his mission. A similar situation occurred in Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, as the main Inquisitor of that game was killed by Vader when she failed to stop Cal Kestis and his team of allies. As Fallen Order was set after Rebels and Obi-Wan Kenobi, the Inquisitor base seen in the game will make its live action debut in the upcoming series.
Although his death came in Rebels, the character lived on in a sense as Darth Vader used his non-physical essence to guard over an abandoned Jedi outpost on Tempes. It was here that the Grand Inquisitor later engaged in battle with Luke Skywalker as the Jedi came to acquire an old lightsaber.
Beyond this, the Grand Inquisitor is more than just the name of a villain that will next appear in live action. Rather, it’s a title that is assigned to the leader of all the Inquisitors, and the Pau’an male that had this name in between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope never had his true identity revealed in canon. Although unlikely given that the focus will be on Ewan McGregor’s character, it still seems a possibility that the Grand Inquisitor is given more backstory in the upcoming series, possibly answering many of the questions about the mysterious villain.