Ahmed Best’s ‘Star Wars’ return throws fans into a canonical conundrum

Warning: The following article contains spoilers for The Mandalorian.

With the third season of The Mandalorian in full swing, everyone’s favorite sci-fi foster family is back touring the galaxy. Each episode thus far has certainly had its moments, yet none quite as powerful as last week’s chapter: “The Foundling.” In a twist that almost no one could have predicted, Ahmed Best has finally returned to Star Wars.

Portraying Jar Jar Binks during George Lucas’ prequel trilogy, the fandom certainly hasn’t been kind to Ahmed Best since his turn as the meesa-saying Gungan. Surprisingly, though, Best wasn’t back to play Jar Jar; instead, he was tasked with becoming a Jedi — which seems like a step up, if you ask us.

In the episode, Best plays Master Kelleran Beq, the Jedi responsible for rescuing Grogu from the horrors of Order 66. Pretty cool, right? We’ve all been wondering how the heck Grogu made it out of the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, and thankfully, the answer has arrived. There’s just one problem — didn’t Kelleran Beq host a children’s show?

Star Wars fans certainly opened up a can of worms with this since the deleted Reddit post below.

Ahmed Best actually played Kelleran Beq during Disney’s Star Wars Kids YouTube Show: Jedi Temple Challenge. In the online series, young contestants complete challenges, competing to earn the title of Jedi Knight. Kelleran Beq’s existence in such a situation has caused some Reddit fans to pose an interesting thought experiment, and we’re not sure what to think.

This sort of logic is exactly what the Star Wars franchise needs. Not a simple “yes” or “no” — instead we take a deep dive into the structure of Jedi training in the first place and how the attachments needed for the aforementioned show would only bleed into the dark side.

One user takes a much more technical approach…

We’d love to believe a YouTube show has actually become Star Wars canon, but the reality is it’s a game show — nothing has to make sense. Sure, Ahmed Best being Kelleran Beq is cool. Seeing him save Grogu is even cooler. But we’d wager that Kelleran Beq’s representation in The Mandalorian is totally different than the one during Jedi Temple Challenge.

Just be thankful that a guy like Ahmed Best is getting his moment in the spotlight. After all the unwarranted Jar Jar harassment this guy got back then, to be turned into a kick-butt Jedi Master is pretty darn cool.