Obi-Wan Kenobi marked the first time we've seen the Sith Inquisitors in live-action, but the villains didn't look quite as good as we'd hoped. After their striking debut in Star Wars Rebels, it was clear the translation from animation to live-action was something Lucasfilm really struggled with.
The Grand Inquisitor, in particular, looked very watered down and more akin to a cosplayer than the formidable alien character we'd seen doggedly pursue Kanan Jarrus and Ezra Bridger, with Rupert Friend essentially donning some face paint for the role. Now, comments from The Clone Wars and Rebels writer and producer Dave Filoni may go some way towards explaining the villain's grounded appearance.
Talking to StarWars.com, Propmaster Brad Elliott recalled Filoni telling him to "Imagine the live-action came first, and that the animated material was an exaggerated version of the live action."
Rather than trying to imitate what we'd seen in Star Wars Rebels, Elliot explains that "this gave us permission to keep the form factor of the props established in animation, but to control the proportions and to bring them more in line with props made for human hands versus animated ones."
This is really interesting, as it better explains Lucasfilm's approach to the characters we first meet in animation. Given how stylised some of these shows are, it makes sense to work backwards because some of the mockups we've seen of a show-accurate Grand Inquisitor look more than a little ridiculous.
Still, we can't help but think there was room for improvement in Obi-Wan Kenobi, so the response to the villain's design is, hopefully, something the studio can learn from moving forward.
We don't know for sure whether The Grand Inquisitor will return in a future Disney+ TV show as none of the upcoming projects really fit timeline-wise. His story ended in Rebels, but with rumours swirling about live-action flashbacks to that show in Ahsoka, there's always a chance we'll see Friend there.
What did you think about Obi-Wan Kenobi's version of The Grand Inquisitor?