The first trailer for Obi-Wan Kenobi landed online yesterday, and it left Star Wars fans in a state of euphoric joy. From the glimpses at Ewan McGregor’s return as the Jedi knight to the use of John Williams’ iconic themes, the trailer did a terrific job of raising the hype for the upcoming limited series to new levels. And yet there’s one element of the teaser that fans just can’t help but dunk on. Namely, the Grand Inquisitor’s less-than-stellar redesign.
The Grand Inquisitor, leader of the imperial Jedi hunters the Inquisitors, previously appeared in the Star Wars Rebels animated series, in which he was voiced by Harry Potter‘s Jason Isaacs. Isaacs isn’t returning as the character for Obi-Wan, however, with Agent 47: Hitman star Rupert Friend taking over the role. And that’s not the only change.
Though an attempt has been made to recreate his animated appearance, the Grand Inquisitor now looks much chunkier in the face than he did before, no doubt a consequence of the thick prosthetics Friend had to wear for the part. Unfortunately, it’s killing the excitement of seeing him in live-action for a lot of folks, with Twitter full of fans throwing shade at Lucasfilm over the villain’s redesign.
Well, that’s one way of putting it…
Is that the Grand Inquisitor or Megamind?
Or is it the Engineer from Prometheus?
No, wait — it’s Dave from Accounting.
“This is literally Lucasfilm being lazy and inconsistent.”
To be fair, weird head shapes also happen when Star Wars characters go from live-action to animation, as well. Just look what they did to Count Dooku…
We’ll have to see if we can get used to Friend’s Grand Inquisitor looking like something from ’90s Star Trek when Obi-Wan Kenobi premieres May 25 on Disney Plus.