Who is Kelleran Beq, the Jedi who saved Grogu from Order 66 in ‘The Mandalorian’ season 3?

Warning: The article contains spoilers from The Mandalorian season three, episode four.

The Mandalorian season three might have shunned Din Djarin to the role of a supporting character, but it sure is dropping jaw-dropping revelations left, right, and center. This week’s episode decided to put a stop to all those theories about who saved the young Grogu from the massacre that was Order 66 — it was a Jedi named Kelleran Beq who risked his own life to protect the child. And though he may seem like a new character for new Star Wars fans, he has his place in the quirkiest pages of the franchise’s history. 

We have met Kelleran Beq before

Through Grogu’s painful flashback to the events of Revenge of the Sith, we get to know the heroic Kelleran was the one who picked up two lightsabers and dueled with both hands while protecting his charge — who could do nothing at this point apart from cowering in fear — from the Jedi Purge. 

Then, this skilled Jedi Master, who never appeared scared despite the very possible chance of a painful death, flew both of them away, even managing to safely land despite their aircraft taking a hit. He then quickly boarded a Naboo ship and flew into hyperspace with a terrified Grogu keeping him company. 

For many, the only connection Ahmed Best (the actor who plays Kelleran) had with Star Wars in the past was voicing the klutz Jar Jar Binks in The Phantom Menace, a role for which he received massive criticism and racist backlash. So, while he never reprised that role, his appearance as Beq isn’t the first, either. 

Jedi Master Kelleran Beq was first seen in the children’s game show on YouTube that started in June 2020 — Star Wars: Jedi Challenge — where young contestants went through Jedi training and tried to overcome an obstacle course to win Kyber Crystals. And Beq? Well, he was their mentor, their supervisor, and in Best’s words, the “Dean of the Jedi Temple.”

Beq’s backstory in the show revealed he was a Jedi Master — aptly nicknamed “The Sabered Hand” because of his impressive lightsaber combat prowess — who led and supervised the training of Padawans on the starship Athylia. He was aided by the droids AD-3 and LX-R5 and wielded a purple lightsaber (like Mace Windu).

As shared by Best in a chat with StarWars.com, Beq is a Jedi “dedicated to just teaching” and was majorly concerned about training the next Jedi generation. Despite being set in the Star Wars universe, the game show was obviously non-canonical, and after it ran for only one season in 2020 — as it was canceled in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic — its connection to the over-arching storyline was seemingly lost forever. 

But with the revelation that Beq was Grogu’s savior — which makes sense since he was the Dean of the Jedi Temple — his status in the galaxy far, far away just became very canon.