Obi-Wan Kenobi director Deborah Chow reveals new details about Moses Ingram's new Star Wars villain, the Sith Inquisitor Reva. Taking place 10 years after the events of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith (2005), Obi-Wan Kenobi follows Ewan McGregor’s titular Jedi Master during his time in exile as “Ben” on Tatooine—where he watches over a young Luke Skywalker (Grant Feely) from afar. In addition to returning legacy characters like Obi-Wan, Hayden Christensen’s Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader, Joel Edgerton’s Uncle Owen, Bonnie Piesse’s Aunt Beru, and the live-action debut of the Grand Inquisitor, the limited series introduces brand new characters in Kumail Nanjiani’s Haja and Ingram’s (The Queen’s Gambit) Reva the Third Sister.
At the height of the Galactic Empire’s meteoric rise, Vader dispatched the Grand Inquisitor and his band of Inquisitors to exterminate Jedi and/or Force users who managed to survive Order 66. This has been explored in Dave Filoni’s animated series Star Wars: Rebels and the video game Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. In Obi-Wan Kenobi, Rupert Friend inherits the role of the Grand Inquisitor from voice actor Jason Isaacs and Ingram appears as his underling, Reva. Given the mystery surrounding this new character, fans have been eager to discover how the Third Sister will play into Obi-Wan Kenobi.
In an exclusive interview with Screen Rant, Deborah Chow—who returns to Star Wars after having worked on The Mandalorian—spoke about the upcoming series. The director explained the dichotomy between the legacy aspect of Obi-Wan Kenobi and the introduction of new elements before teasing what Ingram’s character brings to the series. Read the full quote below:
“We're bringing Inquisitors into live-action, and Moses is a new character within that. But I think one of the things we were looking at is, we obviously have such a strong legacy aspect to this series that we felt like we really also wanted to have some elements that were new. So much of Star Wars has always been about that for me, about getting to see new planets and meet new creatures and characters, so I was really excited to introduce Moses's character...It was also kind of exciting to get to do sort of a young, Dark Side female, because there really haven't been that many on the dark side in live action.”
Although the Nightsisters, Mother Talzin, and Asajj Ventress are all crucial components of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, indeed, there haven’t been many female dark side Force users in live-action. Reva is poised to play a major role in Obi-Wan Kenobi and is even rumored to have as much screen time as its titular character. That said, the Third Sister’s arc on Disney+ could mirror that of the Second Sister. In Fallen Order, Trilla Suduri is a former Padawan who was tortured by the Empire and turned into an Inquisitor. While she never receives a full redemptive arc, Reva’s run-in with Obi-Wan could possibly offer this new character redemption.
There’s already a lot of pressure on Obi-Wan Kenobi to award McGregor and Christensen some much-needed closure following the Star Wars prequel trilogy and its mixed reception. It’ll be interesting to see how well the series manages to fulfill its legacy obligations while also introducing new characters. Hopefully, Moses’ Inquisitor adds to the overall story, holds her own alongside Vader, and leaves her mark as one of the more compelling, villainous female characters in Star Wars canon thus far when Obi-Wan Kenobi releases on Disney+ May 25.
