Obi-Wan Kenobi: Kumail Nanjiani’s Star Wars Role Revealed

The first two episodes of Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi debuted this weekend, ushering in an epic blend of new and returning elements of the Star Wars universe. As the series follows Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) on an adventure set between the Prequel and Original trilogies of films, that has allowed some unique faces to factor into the proceedings — including Haja, a new character portrayed by Eternals and The Big Sick star Kumail Nanjiani. Nanjiani’s character makes his debut in the series’ second episode — and here’s what you need to know about him. Spoilers for Episode 2 of Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi below! Only look if you want to know!

The second episode sees Obi-Wan traversing through the alien metropolis of Daiyu, searching for a young Princess Leia (Vivien Lyra Blair) who has been kidnapped by bounty hunters. After asking children on the street of how to track down a missing person, Obi-Wan is led to Haja, who appears to be a Jedi helping a mother and son escape off-planet. Obi-Wan, however, can see that Haja is using magnets and other technical tricks to pretend to have Jedi abilities. That being said, Haja does clearly have connections around Daiyu, and points Obi-Wan to a location that ultimately helps him find Leia.

Later on in the episode, Obi-Wan is targeted by all of Daiyu’s assassins, who are given a bounty to bring him in to the Inquisitors. Haja discovers this and offers to help Obi-Wan and Leia escape the planet on a cargo ship — and they ultimately succeed in the effort, while Haja briefly distracts Reva (Moses Ingram) on the ground.

While Haja’s appearance in Obi-Wan Kenobi is relatively brief, it’s still a significant and interesting one, especially in terms of the ways the mythos of the Jedi order could be exploited in-universe.

“His name is Haja,” Nanjiani shared with Entertainment Weekly. “And he’s this guy who works on the streets of Daiyu, which is this new Star Wars location that we haven’t seen before that’s absolutely gorgeous. And he’s the guy who’s worked really hard to stay out of the bigger conflicts at play. He just kind of wants to be his own guy. Survival for him is all that matters.”

“He’s this sort of con-man guy who cons people for money,” the actor detailed. “That’s what’s important to him. And then he has a run-in with Obi-Wan and suddenly he sort of gets stuck in the bigger conflicts at play, which is the thing that he really tries to avoid. So he is this street-level con-man guy who then gets embroiled in stuff that’s way too big for him. And he has to make a choice.”

What did you think of Kumail Nanjiani’s appearance in Obi-Wan Kenobi? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

New episodes of Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi will debut on Disney+ on Wednesdays. If you haven’t signed up for Disney+ yet, you can try it out here.

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