This article will contain obvious spoilers from The Mandalorian’s Chapter 20.
We now know how Grogu escaped Order 66. It was with the assistance of a Jedi named Kelleran Beq, played by Ahmed Best. If you’re not familiar with the name of the actor, you will be in a moment.
Ahmed Best is known for his voice work for Jar Jar Binks in the Prequel trilogy. Obviously, Jar Jar is a hated character in the universe due to his annoying personality. I understand. The sad part about this is that Ahmed Best received the backlash as a result, even to the point he considered suicide because that’s how bad it got.
Weirdly enough, Star Wars fans still haven’t learned their lesson due to the hatred Moses Ingram got for her role in Obi-Wan Kenobi was Reva. It’s just outright pathetic to attack the actor for their role. If a character is disliked, this is generally due to the direction of the Producers and Directors.
Moving back on track. Ahmed came back to the Star Wars universe in The Mandalorian. This was in the form of a flashback scene. We see Grogu being protected by a squad of Jedi at the Jedi Temple during Order 66. Unfortunately, most of the Jedi fall, and Grogu is led to an elevator where we’re first introduced to Kelleran.
It’s there we see the most badass scene ever when Kelleran dual-wields sabers and defends against clone troopers on the offensive.
There are 2 reasons why I’d like to see a show given to this character.
1. Order 66
The scene in The Mandalorian is directly when Order 66 is underway. I’d like to see the show continue his journey from the moment above. We haven’t really seen what happens directly after Order 66 except briefly in Revenge of the Sith.
I want to see how the worlds completely change as the Empire completely takes over everything. I want to see how intense the hunting still was for surviving Jedi and there’s no doubt the Empire hunted Beq everywhere.
You could even feature Darth Vader as the villain. We know shortly after Order 66 he was already on the field hunting Jedi down and killing them. I can’t see this being any different. Kelleran is one of the few Jedi in live-action that managed to survive Order 66 with relative ease. Even some of our Jedi Masters could barely put up a fight against the clones.
You could even tie the story into Kashyyyk where Vader was killed hiding surviving Jedi and told one of the ones who was dying that he was Anakin Skywalker. There are many different avenues in how you could do a spin-off with the character.
2. Ahmed Best
I can only imagine the hesitancy of the actor to return to Star Wars after everything he endured by a small portion of “Star Wars” fans. I don’t doubt for a single second that Ahmed actually did very well with his voice work for Jar Jar. After all, 90’s kids grew up with the Prequels and a lot of us laughed a lot when Jar Jar was on screen. I know I did. Granted, as I got older the CHARACTER became annoying but I always knew the work was well done.
For Best to return to the role and give that level of performance in such a short clip is incredible. It proves that he’s got what it takes and I fully believe he could handle his very own show. He deserves it after all.
I think I’m just happy a lot of the actors who were given a lot of hate back in the Prequel era are returning to the universe. Hayden Christensen did so too. We have to remember, these actors are just doing what they’re paid to do. They don’t deserve to be personally attacked on so many levels.
I know this may be a bit premature given we only got a small clip. I just think Star Wars has been lackluster in the last few years with the exception of The Mandalorian. This could be another show to add to the roster that I think will work well. I miss proper lightsaber action.
