Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi Star Kumail Nanjiani "Overwhelmed" After Franchise Debut

By Jamie Jirak

Obi-Wan Kenobi debuted its first two episodes on Disney+ today and saw the return of Ewan McGregor as the beloved titular Jedi. In addition to some returning prequel stars, the new show also features franchise newcomers, including Kumail Nanjiani. The actor, who is best known for playing Kingo in Marvel's Eternals, made his Star Wars debut in the "Part II" of Obi-Wan Kenobi as Haja Estree, a grifter who pretends to be a Jedi in order to earn money from people who are trying to get off world. In a recent post, Nanjiani reacted to the episode and celebrated Haja's Twitter emoji.

"I am so overwhelmed right now. My cousin had a better collection of action figures when we were kids. I was so jealous. I think I finally pulled ahead," Nanjiani wrote. He replied with "#Haja" and "Gaaah it worked!" when he saw his emoji. You can check out the tweets below:

"It's all I've thought about. I don't know what that does, but yeah, I would love to play this character again," Nanjiani recently shared with Entertainment Weekly when asked about his character's future. "Not just because of Star Wars, but it's a really, really, really fun character to play. I've never gotten to play a character like this before. I think it's a type of character that we haven't exactly seen in Star Wars either -- with a con man, you know?"

Nanjiani continued, "He can talk people into stuff, so that's a really fun character to play. And I actually did a lot of research online on con men, and on magicians, too. Because magicians, let's face it, they're kind of like a con man, right? They're tricking people. So I really looked up a lot of stuff about that to learn how to really play a character like this. And I love this character so much. It would be genuinely a dream come true to play him again. Can we get [Lucasfilm president] Kathleen Kennedy on here?"

After making a brief appearance in a trailer for Obi-Wan Kenobi, Nanjiani also shared details about his new character.

"His name is Haja," the actor explained. "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."  

Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi's first two episodes are now streaming on Disney+.

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