The first four episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi hit Disney+ today and saw Obi-Wan (Ewan McGregor) heading to the water moon of Nur to save Leia (Vivien Lyra Blair) from the Empire. The episode features the debut of O’Shea Jackson Jr. as Roken, an engineer and smuggler who assists The Path in getting Jedis and Force-sensitive people to safety. Obi-Wan goes to Roken for help with rescuing Leia and he initially declines, but ultimately decides to help when he learns Leia knows Path secrets and could reveal them to the Inquisitors. Jackson Jr. has been very vocal about his upcoming part in the series, and his latest post was the perfect way to celebrate his franchise debut.
“How it started/ How it’s going. God is Great,” Jackson Jr. wrote. The actor used the classic meme format to showcase of one his first Hollywood jobs serving as a production assistant on a movie featuring his dad, Ice Cube, followed by his name in the classic Star Wars font. You can check it out below:
Videos by ComicBook.com
Back in December, Jackson told ComicBook.com‘s sister site PopCulture.com that his Star Wars gig was “the best job I ever had in my life,” but kept his role a mystery by faking a phone call from the House of Mouse. “I think Mickey Mouse is calling me, man. I’m going to have to get that,” Jackson jokingly shared.
“It was such an honor to work for Star Wars. I’m such a nerd. If anybody who really knows me knows I’m a nerd to the core. That was the best job I ever had in my life.” Jackson joked, “I just want to go back. I hope there’s reshoots. I can’t wait for people to see it. I can’t wait to see a trailer. I’m over here drooling like everybody else.”
Another character was introduced in the third episode of Obi-Wan Kenobi. Tala (Indira Varma) saved Obi-Wan and Leia from a group of stormtroopers last week, and it was revealed she joined the Empire long ago before she knew what they really stood for and has been helping Jedi in secret for years. During a recent interview with EW, Varma revealed she was almost going to play Obi-Wan’s love interest.
“There had already been different incarnations of the script and the storyline,” Varma explained. “And I think, originally, she was going to be a love interest. [Deborah Chow and Joby Harold] They felt that it was maybe a bit clichéd where always the woman turns up and they fall in love or whatever. And it’s more interesting that this is a woman with agency who is not just going to fall at the feet of Obi-Wan.”
“We talked about several different versions of what her back story could be,” Varma added. “They would talk about maybe she’d lost a child in a war and that she had therefore become disillusioned. She’d become an Imperial officer because she thought they were going to do good. There were all these storylines that were being bandied around.”
In addition to the aforementioned actors, Obi-Wan Kenobi also sees the return of Hayden Christensen as Dark Vader, Joel Edgerton as Owen Lars, and Bonnie Piesse as Beru Lars. The cast also includes Moses Ingram, Kumail Nanjiani, Rupert Friend, Sung Kang, Maya Erskine, Simone Kessell, and Benny Safdie.
Obi-Wan Kenobi releases new episodes on Wednesdays on Disney+.
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