Holy snokes!
Indira Varma stars as Tala, an undercover double agent, in the Star Wars series, Obi-Wan Kenobi. When the trailer for the show was first released, Varma's character was introduced as an Imperial officer, but upon watching the series, viewers learned her true agent identity and that she works with conman, Haja Estree (Kumail Nanjiani), who met Ewan McGregor's Obi-Wan Kenobi on Daiyu.
But that's not Tala's only secret. In a recent interview, the Game of Thrones actress revealed that the agent was originally written into the script very differently.
"There had already been different incarnations of the script and the story line," Varma told Entertainment Weekly. "And I think, originally, she was going to be a love interest."
So why did the writers decide against it? "They felt that it was maybe a bit clichéd where always the woman turns up and they fall in love or whatever," Varma explained. "And it's more interesting that this is a woman with agency who is not just going to fall at the feet of Obi-Wan."
But while Tala is not technically Obi-Wan's love interest, Varna has her suspicions.
"I do think in my heart that she's in love with him," the actress revealed. "Because she's prepared to give up everything to further his quest and to help him out. So that's my little secret thing that's going on inside."
Varma noted that the producers also "talked about several different versions of what her back story could be."
"They would talk about maybe she'd lost a child in a war and that she had therefore become disillusioned," the actress shared. "She'd become an Imperial officer because she thought they were going to do good. There were all these storylines that were being bandied around."
Varma continued, "If not much of it's going to be seen on screen, there's a limit to how much you want to share what your inner life is."
In a recent episode of E! New's Twitter series While You were Streaming, Ewan revealed that he liked the changes made to the script. "Every iteration of the script...just got better and better and better," the actor said. "I was always happy to read them."
Watch Varma star as Tala in Obi-Wan Kenobi as new episodes drop every Wednesday on Disney+.