So, one of the biggest talking points about the Obi-Wan Kenobi show – before it was released – was why the Grand Inquisitor’s head was such a different shape from what it was in Rebels when we first met him and subsequent comics.

We know that Pau’an species have been seen in live-action before as we met Tion Medon, left, on his native planet of Utapau in Episode II: Attack of the Clones, so why the Grand Inquisitor, played by Rupert Friend, looked so different was pretty unexplainable because, as you can see from the graphic above, his head loses it’s height in live-action when it really shouldn’t.

However, soon after the show debuted its opening two episodes, there was another question about the Grand Inquisitor that was raised after he was seemingly killed by another Inquisitor called Reva at the climax of the second episode and seemingly confirmed dead in the third episode when Reva spoke to Darth Vader.

So, now we have ‘why does he look so different’ and ‘why, since we know he is alive in Rebels which takes place years after Kenobi, is he dead’ going around in our heads about the same character.

Ok, so, first up… he’s not dead.

In a new interview, writer Joby Harold promises all is not as it seems: “We would never break canon,” he says, “So that’s all I’ll say. Canon is everything.”

He added that he “can’t speak to it beyond that [but we, the writers] all know where we’re going in the show.”

Ok, so he’s not dead.

Interestingly, when Reva, played by Moses Ingram, discusses the Grand Inquisitor’s death, Vader tells her that if she does his bidding, she will be the Grand Inquisitor and while there’s an argument that Vader doesn’t care about any of the Inquisitors (he doesn’t) but to me it seems more likely that Vader knows the Grand Inquisitor isn’t dead and is manipulating Reva for whatever reason, we know not yet.

Don’t forget too that Reva stabbed him in the stomach but clearly she doesn’t know what we do… that Pau’ans have two stomachs! So his survival method is right there. Let’s not forget too that Sith and Dark Side users in Star Wars – Darth Maul, Darth Vader and now Sheev Palpatine –  have a habit of surviving terrible ordeals.

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And his appearance?

Well, I’ve been thinking about that. In Rebels the Inquisitor tells Jedi Kanan Jarrus ‘there are worse things than death’, so, I’m wondering if something happens to him between now and his inevitable appearance, that makes him look more, well, accurate to how we saw him before. Perhaps his race change as they age or perhaps whatever hell he goes through to survive will result in his elongated appearance.

And, yes, I know in Rebels we saw a scene with him as a guard in the Jedi Temple before he turned to evil and in this scene he looked the way he does throughout Rebels, but it seems to me that that scene is constructed from the memory of how he looks in the recent presence rather than an actual flashback, so I don’t think that shows us his true appearance at that period.

Another possibility is that the Grand Inquisitor in Rebels is a clone of the original and perhaps isn’t even aware of it? A product of Palpatine’s experiments in Force-using clones?

Also, while it’s unlikely, we know that in canon, Palpatine hid his ghastly Emperor appearance from people seeing him as Sheev Palpatine by using the Force… could the Grand Inquisitor be doing the same? It’s unlikely… but not totally impossible.

Anyways, I think we’ll see him back as the Grand Inquisitor we knew before Obi-Wan Kenobi – what about you all? Am I wrong? Am I overthinking it? Let me know your thoughts, gang.

Source: Variety