We'll soon find out why a certain Star Wars character turned to the Dark Side.
While Lucasfilms has kept details about Obi-Wan Kenobi under tight wraps, the stars of the upcoming Disney+ series are revealing new info about their characters as the May 27 premiere gets closer. The latest actor to discuss his Star Wars debut is Rupert Friend, who plays the evil and downright scary Grand Inquisitor.
"He's a pretty powerful member of the dark side," Friend told Entertainment Weekly. "And some people who aren't familiar with Star Wars may or may not know this, but he used to be a Jedi. He used to fight for the forces of good as a temple guard."
Friend stopped short of revealing why the Grand Inquisitor turned his back on the Jedi forces, saying, "All will be revealed in a couple of weeks, but I can say it really helped me to have as my backstory this sense of awesome power and knowledge where he's effectively hunting the folks he once was."
So he and Darth Vader (a.k.a. Anakin Skywalker) have a lot in common. They were taught the ways of the Jedi and have a great understanding of the Force, which makes them both a "pretty fearsome opponent," according to Friend.
Fans of the animated series Star Wars Rebels are aware of the Grand Inquisitor's origin story, but Friend, who purposefully didn't watch the animated series, said that the two characters aren't exactly the same. He explained that he and the writers wanted to create "something fresh that honored and was faithful to the spirit of the character without doing a kind of impression of anybody else's interpretation."
One aspect of Friend's Grand Inquisitor is that he is, well, conceited. Friend said that writer Joby Harold imagined the Inquisitor as being someone "who enjoys the sound of his own voice."
Friend explained, "He's one of those guys who, if you didn't stop him, would just talk and talk and talk. And I'm not giving anything away by saying we're going to experience that in the show. He has this very juicy way of enjoying himself. And I just thought, what does the guy who enjoys the sound of his own voice sound like? And that's what we got."
And as someone who's full of himself, he naturally thinks he's on the same level as Darth Vader—even though he's really not.
In addition to collaborating with Harold and director Deborah Chow, Friend trained with stunt coordinators, who he described as "the best in the world."
"These are master, master swordsmen, masters of pretty much all the martial arts you could imagine rolled into one," Friend said. "So there's almost a balletic quality about it that I find very, very beautiful."
The actor added that he doesn't think lightsaber battles can be compared to other fights, saying, "It's not two guys brawling in a bar."
See the star's lightsaber skills in action when Obi-Wan Kenobi premieres May 27 on Disney+.