From the glimpses of Ewan McGregor’s return to the use of John Williams’ music, this week’s first trailer for Obi-Wan Kenobi blew fans away and raised the hype for the incoming Star Wars show to untold levels. The only bugbear folks had with it was our first look at the Grand Inquisitor. While it’s exciting to see him make the leap from animation, many feel that his live-action redesign leaves a lot to be desired ⏤ and an impressive bit of fan art shows how easily he could be improved.
With discussions around the Grand Inquisitor’s look going viral on social media, fan artist BossLogic offered their take on how to do the character justice. BL took a screenshot from the trailer and reapplied the ridged skin from the animated series as well as reimplementing the villain’s distinctive yellow eyes. Obviously some CG-enhancement would be required to make this work in action, but it just goes to show how much better the Inquisitor could appear.
Check out BossLogic’s effort via the tweet below:
First appearing on screen in Star Wars Rebels, the Grand Inquisitor was previously voiced by Harry Potter’s Jason Isaacs, although Agent 47: Hitman star Rupert Friend is taking over the role for Obi-Wan. Fans are willing to give Friend a chance as the character, but the lackluster adaptation of his design has definitely put a damper on his return. Especially as members of his species, the Pau’ans, already appeared in the prequels and looked a whole lot cooler.
We’ve seen studios tinker with VFX in response to social media backlash before, so it’s possible that Lucasfilm will alter the Grand Inquisitor to some degree before Obi-Wan releases. One ostensibly easy fix would be to switch to his yellow eyes, as BossLogic has done here. Otherwise, fans will just have to adjust to the change, much as we’ve had to get used to Ahsoka Tano’s lekku being shorter in live-action.
Obi-Wan Kenobi arrives on Disney Plus this May 25.
