Obi-Wan Kenobi: Kumail Nanjiani’s Role Revealed In Star Wars Series
The initial first two episodes of Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi premiered this weekend, escorting fans in an epic blend of some new and returning elements of the evolving universe of Star Wars.
The show follows Obi-Wan Kenobi (played by Ewan McGregor), as he goes on an adventure that is set between the Prequel and Original trilogies of the movies, allowing a few unique faces to factor into the way — including Haja, an all-new character played by Eternals star Kumail Nanjiani. Nanjiani’s character will make his debut in the second episode of Obi-Wan Kenobi — and here’s all you need to know about him.
Spoilers for Episode 2 of Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi below! Proceed only if you want to know!
The second episode of Obi-Wan Kenobi sees the titular character traversing through the metropolis of Daiyu, looking for Princess Leia (played by Vivien Lyra Blair) who has been abducted by various bounty hunters.
What happened in Episode 2?
After asking the kids on the block on how to track down someone missing, Obi-Wan is taken to Haja, who appears to be a Jedi helping a mother and son while escaping off the planet. However, Obi-Wan can see that Haja uses magnets and other tricks to look as if he had Jedi abilities. Apart from this, Haja clearly has connections around Daiyu, pointing Obi-Wan to a location that helps him locate Leia.
Later on, in the second episode, Obi-Wan is a target of all of Daiyu’s assassins, who are provided a huge bounty to bring Kenobi to the Inquisitors. Haja gets to know this and offers help to Obi-Wan and Leia in escaping the planet on a cargo ship — and they also succeed in the effort, while Haja distracts Reva (played by Moses Ingram) on the ground.
While Haja’s debut appearance in Obi-Wan Kenobi is quite brief, it’s still an interesting one, especially in terms of the numerous ways the Jedi order mythos could be exploited in the Star Wars universe.
Kumail Nanjiani Also Opened Up On His Star Wars Character
“His name is Haja,” Nanjiani shared with Entertainment Weekly. “And he’s this guy who works on the streets of Daiyu, which is this new Star Wars location that we haven’t seen before that’s absolutely gorgeous. And he’s the guy who’s worked really hard to stay out of the bigger conflicts at play. He just kind of wants to be his own guy. Survival for him is all that matters.”
“He’s this sort of con-man guy who cons people for money,” the actor detailed. “That’s what’s important to him. And then he has a run-in with Obi-Wan and suddenly he sort of gets stuck in the bigger conflicts at play, which is the thing that he really tries to avoid. So he is this street-level con-man guy who then gets embroiled in stuff that’s way too big for him. And he has to make a choice.”
The first two episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi are streaming on Disney+ now while new episodes drop every Wednesday.
