Star Wars: Dave Filoni Addresses More of Ahmed Best's Kelleran Beq in Future Stories
After nearly two decades since playing Jar Jar Binks in the Star Wars prequels, Ahmed Best returned to the galaxy far, far away as Kelleran Beq, a Jedi master who made his canonical debut in Season 3 of The Mandalorian, with filmmaker Dave Filoni teasing that the figure could have future appearances. Best first debuted the character in a non-canonical web series Star Wars: Jedi Temple Challenge, though The Mandalorian confirmed that he helped rescue Grogu from Order 66, paving the way for the events that followed in the series. Given that these events unfolded years before The New Republic, it's unclear if Kelleran Beq would appear in another flashback or if he would appear in this timeline.
"It's always a possibility," Filoni shared with Entertainment Weekly's Dagobah Dispatch podcast. "We love Ahmed, and he did such a great job. It was a real thrill for us to get him involved."
With how little audiences have known about Grogu, a.k.a. "Baby Yoda," this flashback scene provided important details about his history, yet still left plenty of room to explore more elements of this sequence. According to Filoni, the idea to incorporate Best's Beq came relatively early in the development process.
"We talked with him about it," Filoni pointed out. "We come up with these ideas and we think: Who might work with it? We make sure before we get too far to bring them into the process, so it's not just like, 'Here's who you're going to play.' It's like, 'What do you think of this? We want you to be this person. What are your thoughts on it?' [We try to] make it a real collaboration and think it's really key to the success of it."
Best has had a complicated history with the Star Wars franchise, to say the least, as his Jar Jar was a beloved character among younger audiences, yet hated by many older fans. These older fans spent years ridiculing the character, which understandably impacted Best, though eventually the actor came to terms with how the angry fans were merely the most vocal and not necessarily the majority.
The Mandalorian creator Jon Favreau echoed Filoni's tease about Beq's future, expressing his own personal interest in learning more about the figure.
"He had done a lot of work on that character of Kelleran Beq for Jedi Temple Challenge," Favreau expressed. "So he's been involved with Star Wars all the way through and definitely had formulated this character. And we love to draw from all of Star Wars, and even things that aren't canon. If they feel right, we'll pull 'em in. And now that character exists squarely in Star Wars canon."
Favreau added, "I think people dig seeing that character. I want to learn more about that character."
Stay tuned for details on Kelleran Beq's future.
Are you hoping the character makes a return? Let us know in the comments or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things horror and Star Wars!