The Terrifying Troopers Fans Hope To See On The Obi-Wan Kenobi Series
Disney's upcoming "Star Wars" TV series focused on the life of Luke Skywalker's first mentor Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) has been in the works for years, but the premiere is just around the corner: May 25, 2022 (via Variety).
In all the time the series has been in development, fans have wondered about which characters and places the series might cover, in addition to Obi-Wan Kenobi himself. It's long been known that the film would focus on the period of Kenobi's life between "Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith" and "Star Wars: A New Hope," when Kenobi lives mostly as a recluse on Tatooine, watching over a young Luke Skywalker.
With the popularity of "Star Wars" animated shows "Star Wars: Clone Wars," and "Star Wars: Rebels," fans have been speculating about which characters from those series might show up on the live-action Disney+ series — especially after recent live-action "Star Wars" TV shows and movies have both pulled characters from the animated shows.
Then, in the runup to the premiere, Disney+ released the first trailer for "Obi-Wan Kenobi," confirming that this will definitely be the case. Among other revelations, the trailer confirmed that the show will include a young Luke Skywalker, Luke's uncle and aunt Owen (Joel Edgerton) and Beru Lars (Bonnie Piesse), Darth Vader (Hayden Christensen), and the Grand Inquisitor (Rupert Friend).
The Grand Inquisitor is a character from "Rebels," known only by his title. He's an intimidating, high-ranking Imperial official tasked with hunting down the remaining Jedi not killed by Order 66. Naturally, the Grand Inquisitor's appearance has led some fans to wonder if these other related characters might appear.
To some fans, Purge Troopers would be a great addition to the Obi-Wan series
On Reddit, Redditor u/TSTARK3K21 suggested that the Obi-Wan Kenobi show should include Purge Troopers. These are the elite shock troopers deployed by the Inquisitorius, the organization headed by the Grand Inquisitor. Since he'll be appearing on the show, and most likely will be hunting Obi-Wan Kenobi, it's reasonable to think his personal troopers will show up, too.
The Purge Troopers are essentially death squads trained to battle Jedi, and their lives are expendable. They wear black armor, and their faces are half covered by red tattoos. While the first iteration of Purge troopers was at least partially made up of clones created from the DNA of Jango Fett, later batches of them were made with naturally born human soldiers.
Venturing into potential spoiler territory, Redditors also noted an interesting wrinkle that could come into play on the Kenobi show. In the "Darth Vader" comic books, the Vader-centric series that began in 2015, both Purge Troopers and Inquisitors play a major role — Inquisitors are lower-ranking members of the Inquisitorius, who once were Jedi themselves.
In a showdown with the Inquisitors and their Purge Troopers on the planet Mon Calamari, a fugitive Jedi, Farren Barr, tells the Purge Troopers that their Inquisitor overlords are ex-Jedi, then uses the Force to convince them to carry out Order 66. The Purge Troopers kill the Inquisitors, allowing the Jedi to escape.
Will something like this happen on the upcoming live-action Obi-Wan Kenobi series? Just over two months until we find out.