Obi-Wan Kenobi: Kumail Nanjiani spills details on his character in the Star Wars series

Kumail Nanjiani is living the geek dream. After getting to take part in The X-Files, the comedian went on to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Kingo in Eternals, and he’s now set to appear in the Obi-Wan Kenobi series set to debut on Disney+ next week. While speaking on Entertainment Weekly‘s new Star Wars podcast, Kumail Nanjiani shared the first details on his Obi-Wan Kenobi character.

Kumail Nanjiani revealed that his Obi-Wan Kenobi character goes by the name of Haja 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.” Nanjiani added that Haji is a “sort of con-man guy who cons people for money.“

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.

We don’t know whether Haja will survive the events of Obi-Wan Kenobi, but Kumail Nanjiani would love this play him again. “Not just because of Star Wars, but it’s a really, really, really fun character to play,” Nanjiani said. “I’ve never gotten to play a character like this before.“

The Obi-Wan Kenobi series begins 10 years after the dramatic events of Revenge of the Sith where Obi-Wan Kenobi faced his greatest defeat—the downfall and corruption of his best friend and Jedi apprentice, Anakin Skywalker, who turned to the dark side as the evil Sith Lord Darth Vader. The first two episodes of the series will debut on Disney+ on May 27, 2022.