As a wise Jedi Master once said, “There is always a bigger fish.” And when it comes to the Jedi hunter faction of the Empire, the bigger fish of the galaxy are the Imperial Inquisitors.
The Inquisitors are out in full force in the trailer for Disney Plus’ new Star Wars series Obi Wan. First we meet Reva, played by Moses Ingram The Queen’s Gambit, who hunts down Obi-Wan on Tatooine and interrogates Uncle Owen. We also see Grand Inquisitor, a real badass who reports directly to Darth Vader.
No, movie viewers, you haven’t seen either of these two in the prequels, sequels, or the original trilogy. But they are a big part of Star Wars. (Apologies to Ewan McGregor for being overshadowed — he’s cool, too.)
Fans who’ve devoured every bit of Star Wars lore are by now familiar with the Inquisitors. But those who have not caught up with the novels, comics and especially those Star Wars: Rebels
To help you understand Obi Wan‘s most dangerous foes, we’ve traced the history of Star Wars to chronicle the past and present of these expanded universe characters.
Who are the Imperial Inquisitors?
During the stretch in between Vengeance of the Sith and A new hope, the Inquisitors are a special unit of Imperial soldiers working under Darth Vader. Each of them is Force sensitive and most wield a lightsaber. They are tragic figures; Each of them is a former Jedi who defected from the Resistance and chose to join the Empire.
By selecting ex-Jedi, Vader avoided the need to directly oversee his new Force-using Death Squad. Vader probably does this in part so he doesn’t violate the Sith Rule of Two, which dictates that there must always be two Sith, a master and an apprentice. So if you want an army of Force users running around with lightsabers, they have to be Inquisitors and not actual Sith.
What are the inquisitors doing?
You can think of the Inquisitors as a small task force on missions. They can go on missions to quell rebellions or quell local strife. Rather, they are the violent cousins of the Jedi who served as peacekeepers for the Republic. Sometimes they are glorified tax collectors. But their main purpose is to hunt Jedi.
With their recent Jedi past giving them insight, the Inquisitors hunt down the remaining Jedi who slipped through the cracks of Order 66. As Darth Vader himself states in the first episode of Star Wars: RebelsInquisitors focus their efforts on “Children of the Force,” the next generation of Force users who could pose a threat to the Empire.
Which inquisitors have we seen before?
Most of what we see of the Inquisitors in official canon is in Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith Comic series in which they frequently accompany the Sith Lord on his various missions across the galaxy. But the version of Inquisitors that most closely resembles Reva comes from Star Wars: Rebels. in the rebels, the fifth brother and seventh sister (names based on the Inquisitor ranking system) pursue the show’s band of heroes across the galaxy. In the Season 2 episode, “Always Two There Are,” we see these two Inquisitors and their formidable skills in action as they hunt down Ezra and his friends.
Then the Inquisitors show up in Jedi: Fallen Order
Inquisitors played an important role in Respawn’s recent Star Wars game, where they made a perfect boss fight opponent. In the game, they spent most of their time hunting. The protagonist, Cal Kestis, set after the fall of the Republic, is a Jedi living in the post-Empire era, meaning Inquisitors are a daily threat. And one day they catch up with him in the hunt for surviving Jedi.
Why are inquisitors in Obi-Wan?
The post-Vengeance of the Sith Timeline is when Inquisitors really shined, so it was only natural clone wars Creator – and shadow master of this new live-action TV era of Star Wars storytelling – Dave Filoni brought the animated timeline to the plot of an Obi-Wan story. In the cartoons, Obi-Wan has had his fair share of encounters with inquisitors. Now he will do it again, for reasons that will remain mysterious until the show premieres DisneyPlus on 25 May.
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