The Grand Inquisitor looks and sounds a bit strange in the Obi-Wan Kenobi trailer. It had been long rumored that Ewan McGregor's Obi-Wan Kenobi series would include the Inquisitors in some form, given there's little he could do while living on Tatooine, and the story needed to take him off-planet for it to truly work. That appears to be what's happening, as the Inquisitor Reva comes to Tatooine (and comes face to face with Owen Lars) in search of the Jedi Master.
Perhaps that search is what leads Obi-Wan Kenobi to leave the sand planet, which forces the Grand Inquisitor to join the hunt. In the Obi-Wan Kenobi trailer, the Grand Inquisitor ignites his spinning, red-bladed lightsaber (first seen in the TV show Star Wars Rebels) and questions someone about Obi-Wan's whereabouts — it's the best look at him, though he appears in other scenes as well. This trailer marks the first time the character has been seen in live-action, and while his design is mostly accurate to version fans know from other mediums, the Grand Inquisitor still looks and sounds off.
The issue is that the Grand Inquisitor looks like a normal human being with white makeup and red lines (it is an actor underneath that makeup, after all), rather than having depressed eyes, long limbs, and a lanky frame. And what's makes this worse is that the Grand Inquisitor's species, the Pau'an, already appeared in Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith — and they looked perfect. While it comes off as being nitpicky, the sheer difference between them makes it seem like the Grand Inquisitor isn't Pau'an in live-action.
The Grand Inquisitor In Obi-Wan Kenobi Compared To Star Wars Rebels
In Star Wars Rebels season 1, the Grand Inquisitor is the leader of the Empire's Inquisitors and he looks similar to standard Pau'an, though with a slender frame given it was animation. But in addition to his look being different in Obi-Wan Kenobi, he also sounds different. His voice in Obi-Wan Kenobi is less menacing and fiery, which could come with time. Based on the Obi-Wan Kenobi trailer, the Grand Inquisitor speaks normally, without elongating his vowels or deepening his voice as Jason Isaacs did when he voiced the character in Star Wars Rebels.
Who Plays The Grand Inquisitor In Obi-Wan Kenobi
Rupert Friend plays the Grand Inquisitor in Obi-Wan Kenobi. Friend is an English actor who got his start in Hollywood by appearing in films like The Libertine and Pride & Prejudice, but it wasn't until the 2010s that he broke out and became more well-known. He's primarily known for playing Peter Quinn in multiple seasons of Showtime's Homeland, as well as the titular Agent 47 in the video game adaptation Hitman: Agent 47 in 2015. Since then, he's appeared in projects like The Death of Stalin and Strange Angel, but playing the Grand Inquisitor will undoubtedly catapult his name forward.
Obi-Wan Kenobi premieres on Disney+ on May 25th.