Grand Inquisitor (Star Wars)

This article is about the fictional character. For the short story by Dostoevsky, see The Grand Inquisitor. For other Star Wars inquisitors, see Inquisitorius. For the second Grand Inquisitor, see Reva Sevander.

The Grand Inquisitor
Star Wars character
File:Grand Inquisitor (Star Wars).png The Grand Inquisitor, as depicted in Star Wars Rebels.
First appearance	As Temple Guard: The Clone Wars "The Wrong Jedi" (2013; first confirmed appearance, retroactively) As Inquisitor: Rebels "Spark of Rebellion" (2014; extended cold opening) "Rise of the Old Masters" (2014; full appearance) As Sentinel: Rebels "Shroud of Darkness" (2016)
Last appearance	"Part VI" Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022)
Created by	As Temple Guard: Dave Filoni Charles Murray As Inquisitor/Sentinel: Simon Kinberg Henry Gilroy
Based on	Inquisitorius by Bill Slavicsek & Curtis Smith Michael Allen Horne & Carol Hutchings
Adapted by	Charles Soule (comics) Joby Harold & Deborah Chow (Obi-Wan Kenobi)
Information
Species	Pau'an
Gender	Male
Title	Jedi Knight Sentinel Grand Inquisitor Succeeded by: — Reva Sevander (first successor) — Unnamed inquisitor (second successor)
Occupation	Master of the Inquisitorius Temple Guard
Affiliation	Jedi Order (formerly) Inquisitorius Galactic Empire

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The Grand Inquisitor, introduced simply as The Inquisitor and also known as the Master of the Inquisitorius, is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise. Created by Dave Filoni, based on a character concept from the Star Wars and Dark Empire Sourcebooks, he is introduced as the main antagonist of the first season of the animated series Star Wars Rebels (2014–2018), in which he is voiced by Jason Isaacs. However, the character was later revealed to had once been of the masked Jedi Temple Guards as seen in Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008–2014; 2020), making that his first appearance.

A member of the Pau'an species, the Grand Inquisitor becomes disillusioned with the Jedi Order due to the actions of the Jedi Council during the Clone Wars, and ultimately defects from it during Order 66, joining the Galactic Empire. Trained by Darth Vader alongside the other Inquisitors, he is tasked with hunting down all remaining Jedi throughout the galaxy, a mission which eventually brings him into conflict with Jedi Padawan Kanan Jarrus, the leader of a Rebel cell on the planet Lothal. Following his defeat by Jarrus, the Grand Inquisitor opts to commit suicide to avoid Vader's punishment for his failure. Later, his redemeed spirit, known as The Sentinel, helps Jarrus complete his Jedi training in order to become a Jedi Knight, before being enslaved by the Sith as a Temple Guard once more.

In addition to the animated series, the character appears in Marvel Comics' 2017–2018 comic book series Star Wars: Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith, written by Charles Soule, and the 2022 Disney+ series Obi-Wan Kenobi, written by Joby Harold and directed by Deborah Chow, both prequels that depict him leading the Inquisitors in the hunt for other Jedi, such as Obi-Wan Kenobi. The character also reappears in the 2020 fourteenth volume of Star Wars (also written by Soule), a sequel storyline in which his Force spirit faces Luke Skywalker in combat.

The Grand Inquisitor received positive critical reception, leading to interest in him reprising his role in live-action media on Disney+. Ultimately, Rupert Friend was cast as the Grand Inquisitor, portraying the character in his first live-action appearance in Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Concept and creation

The concept of a Grand Inquisitor originated from the 1987 Star Wars Sourcebook by Bill Slavicsek and Curtis Smith, where the death of "Torbin, the Grand Inquisitor" is mentioned in passing. In the 1993 Dark Empire Sourcebook by Michael Allen Horne and Carol Hutchings, an outline of the role of Torbin and the Sith Inquisitorius as conceived of by Slavicsek and Smith was written — Force-wielders affiliated with the Sith (but not Sith themselves) who would hunt Jedi on the behest of Darth Sidious following Order 66. After another Grand Inquisitor, Ja'ce Yiaso, was included as an antagonist of the Star Wars Galaxies expansion pack Jump to Lightspeed, a succession of Grand Inquisitors leading the Inquisitorius were introduced in the novel series Star Wars: The Last of the Jedi, written by Jude Watson from 2005 to 2008 and set between Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith and Episode IV – A New Hope; these works (and many others) were rebranded as Star Wars Legends and rendered non-canon in 2014 by Lucasfilm following the company's purchase by the Walt Disney Corporation, with a new version of the group, initially embodied by a lone Inquisitor (voiced by Jason Isaacs) visually based on "Torbin, the Grand Inquisitor", reentering canon in the 2014 3D animated television series Star Wars Rebels, created by Dave Filoni, Simon Kinberg, and Henry Gilroy, and described as an "intimidating figure" and "Jedi Hunter" active during the same time period as the book series, designed to avoid being a "carbon copy" of Darth Vader or Darth Maul with a "creaturely, terrifying, and nightmarish look."

Referred to simply as "The Inquisitor" in the first season, the character is posthumously rebranded "The Grand Inquisitor" in the second season and all subsequent media featuring the character, where-in his former subordinates, the Inquisitorius, compete to succeed him as the group's leader, establishing the group to hold an "acolyte, monastic sensibility where they're stripped of their names, but they know, in order, which one they are."

Characterization and portrayal

The Grand Inquisitor is voiced by Jason Isaacs in the first two seasons of the Disney XD animated series Star Wars Rebels (2014–2018). Despite Isaacs' interest in reprising the role in live-action, Rupert Friend was cast to portray the Grand Inquisitor in the Disney+ live-action limited series Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022).

Appearances

Television series

The Clone Wars (2008–2014; 2020)

Main article: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008 TV series)

In October 2015, Dave Filoni revealed that the Grand Inquisitor had first appeared in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, although the audience watching was unaware of it. At a later press conference to promote the Star Wars Rebels second season finale "Twilight of the Apprentice", Filoni confirmed the character had previously appeared in The Clone Wars fifth season finale "The Wrong Jedi," as one of the Jedi Temple Guards who escorted Ahsoka Tano from the Jedi Temple and brought Barriss Offee to trial before Palpatine (after the Rebels episode "Shroud of Darkness" had established him as a former Jedi Temple Guard). Barris' speech on the Jedi Council's culpability in the Clone Wars and injustice Ahsoka faced causes the future Grand Inquisitor to begin questioning the actions of the Jedi Order, ultimately leading him to lose all faith in the Order and join the Empire.

Rebels (2014–2016)

Main article: Star Wars Rebels

In the 2014–2015 first season of Rebels, the Pau'an known as "The Grand Inquisitor" first appears in the extended cold opening of the series premiere "Spark of Rebellion", where he is ordered by Darth Vader on behalf of the Emperor to hunt down "the children of the Force" in addition to the Jedi survivors of Order 66 he had been hunting, after the Emperor had foreseen that one such child could be responsible for his own defeat. After learning of the existence of Kanan Jarrus and Ezra Bridger, the Grand Inquisitor personally elects to hunt the two Jedi down, enlisting Imperial Agent Kallus to help him capture the rebels in their company. After failing to do so several times, the Inquisitor finally manages to capture Kanan. He tortures him and interrogates him about the Rebels' whereabouts, but to no avail, prompting Grand Moff Tarkin to suggest that they take him to Mustafar, where Vader's castle is located. In the first season finale "Fire Across the Galaxy", Kanan is rescued by Ezra, and the Jedi engage in a lightsaber duel with the Inquisitor, who scars Bridger. After being defeated by Kanan, the Grand Inquisitor commits suicide by allowing himself to fall into an exploding reactor core after Kanan refuses to kill him, as he feared Vader's punishment for his failure.

In the 2015–2016 second season of Rebels, the Grand Inquisitor's death is revealed in "Always Two There Are" to have caused his former subordinates, the Inquisitorius, to compete to take his former position as leader, each seeking to hunt down Kanan due to him being the one to have defeated him. In "Shroud of Darkness", the redeemed spirit of the Grand Inquisitor (summoned by Yoda) — now known as The Sentinel — appears to Kanan in the Jedi Temple on Lothal, revealed to have once been a member of the Temple Guard, and a fallen Jedi Knight. After defeating Kanan in lightsaber combat and helping him realize that he cannot protect Ezra from "everything" forever, the Sentinel dubs Kanan a Jedi Knight before calling upon the spirits of other Temple Guards to hamper the Inquisitors "Fifth Brother" and "Seventh Sister" in their pursuit of Kanan, Ezra, and Ahsoka Tano, who are surprised to see their former leader's spirit facing them in combat.

Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022)

Main article: Obi-Wan Kenobi (TV series)

In February 2022, Rupert Friend was announced to have been cast as the Grand Inquisitor in the live-action limited series Obi-Wan Kenobi, set five years before Star Wars Rebels and ten years after Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith.

The Grand Inquisitor, along with the Fifth Brother and Reva Sevander, the Third Sister, hunt for any remaining Jedi they can find, arriving on Tatooine, where they execute a young human who revealed himself to be a fugitive Jedi after using the Force to save a civilian. Later on the planet Daiyu, the Grand Inquisitor is furious to discover that Reva has kidnapped a young Leia Organa for use as bait to lure Obi-Wan Kenobi out of hiding. Eventually Reva confronts Kenobi in a cargo bay before he can escape with Leia in a shuttle. The Grand Inquisitor arrives right before Reva engages Kenobi, ordering her to stand down, so he can take care of Kenobi himself. Angry that he would take credit for Kenobi's capture, Reva impales the Grand Inquisitor in the stomach with her lightsaber, although this allows Kenobi to escape with Leia. Believing the Grand Inquisitor to have succumbed to his injury, Reva pins his death on Kenobi when she later reports back to Darth Vader. Vader dismisses the Grand Inquisitor as unimportant, and offers Reva his former position if she succeeds in finding Kenobi. After tracking Kenobi and a group of Force-sensitive refugees to the planet Jabiim, Reva is given the title of Grand Inquisitor by Vader. However, the original Grand Inquisitor is revealed to have survived Reva's betrayal, attributed to his thirst for revenge. After Reva is seriously wounded by Vader when she attempts to assassinate the Dark Lord, he retakes his position as leader of the Inquisitorius and leaves Reva for dead after mocking her. The Grand Inquisitor then joined Vader in pursuing the refugees, though Vader discarded them to pursue Kenobi against his protest.

Literature

Ahsoka (2016)

Main article: Ahsoka (novel)

In the 2016 novel Ahsoka, the Grand Inquisitor dispatches a member of his Inquisitorius — the Sixth Brother — to the farming moon of Raada to investigate claims of an unknown Force-sensitive resistance leader — Ahsoka Tano — after the Empire learns of their presence. In the epilogue, after learning of the Sixth Brother's death at Ahsoka's hands upon traveling to Raada himself, the Grand Inquisitor leaves to inform Darth Vader that they had found evidence of another survivor of Order 66, unaware of her identity.

Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith (2017–2018)

Main article: Star Wars: Darth Vader

In the 2017–2018 comic book series Star Wars: Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith, set immediately after the events of The Clone Wars and Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, Darth Sidious recruits the former Temple Guard as Grand Inquisitor of the Inquisitorius, sparing him from Order 66, promising the former Jedi Knight the chance to read through the secrets of the Jedi Archives, which Jedi librarian Jocasta Nu had kept from him. Weeks later, after finding the newly-armoured Darth Vader in the archives, the Grand Inquisitor mistaking him for a Jedi and Vader mistaking the Grand Inquisitor for another secret apprentice of Sidious', the pair begin dueling, before Vader damages the Grand Inquisitor's lightsaber and the duel is broken up by Sidious, who brings Vader to the Inquisitorius Headquarters to meet with the other Inquisitors. Sometime later, Nu, having remained hidden in the library, confronts the Grand Inquisitor upon finding him going through the archives, who almost kills her before Vader intervenes and apprehends her; after Nu reveals Vader's identity as Anakin Skywalker to nearby clones, Vader kills them all (then Nu) to prevent this information from becoming public knowledge, leaving the secretly-watching Grand Inquisitor in awe of his power. Over the following years, the Grand Inquisitor is trained by Vader and leads the Inquisitorius in hunting down various Jedi survivors, standing by as Vader later purges dissenters from within the Inquisitorius ranks, declaring his eternal loyalty to the Dark Lord of the Sith.

Force Collector (2019)

In the 2019 young adult novel Force Collector, set sometime before the events of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, a Force-sensitive boy, Karr Nuq Sin, discovers the Grand inquisitor's former lightsaber, consequentially experiencing visions of himself as the Grand Inquisitor hunting down and killing Jedi, before having a vision of facing himself. Upon confiding in his great-grandfather, Naq Med, Karr learns he was the Jedi Padawan the Grand Inquisitor had been facing, having left the Jedi Order years before the Clone Wars in order to start a family. Despite this, he was nonetheless tracked down by the Empire after Order 66, who sent the Grand Inquisitor to kill him. Naq Med managed to break the Grand Inquisitor's lightsaber during their duel and fled to the planet Pam'ba, where he lived out the rest of his life in peace, away from his family in order to guarantee their protection.

"The Orphanage" (2020)

In the 2020 short story "The Orphanage" in the Dark Legends collection, an in-universe "ghost story" of ambiguous continuity, the Grand Inquisitor is prevented from taking Force-sensitive children from an orphanage on the planet Gaaten by a surviving Jedi, Kira Vantala, and a refugee named Elish, before fleeing the planet, never to return.

The Destiny Path (2020)

Main article: Star Wars (2015 comic book)

In the 2020 fourteenth volume of Marvel's Star Wars comic book series, The Destiny Path, set immediately after the events of The Empire Strikes Back, the Grand Inquisitor's spirit — now eternally burning in the flames which consumed him — is revealed to have since been trapped on the Outer Rim planet of Tempes by Darth Vader, serving as a guardian over an abandoned High Republic-era Jedi outpost. When Luke Skywalker arrives at the temple looking for an ancient lightsaber, having lost his own, he encounters and duels the Grand Inquisitor, defeating him. Vader arrives shortly afterward and expresses his displeasure with the Grand Inquisitor's failure. Before leaving, the Grand Inquisitor asks Vader whether there is any chance that he could be released, only to be dismissed, as Vader calls the Grand Inquisitor a "tool" for his own purposes. Lamenting over his fate, the Grand Inquisitor speaks of how "There are worse things than death" as he fades away into the flames.

Inquisitor: Rise of the Red Blade (2023)

In the 2023 novel Inquisitor: Rise of the Red Blade, following Order 66, the newly-appointed Grand Inquisitor duels Iskat Akaris to test her abilities as a prospective Inquisitor.

Video games

The Grand Inquisitor also appears in several Star Wars video games, as described below:

• The Grand Inquisitor is an antagonist in the now-defunct game Star Wars Rebels: Recon Missions, released by Disney Mobile on iOS, Android and Windows Store, a side-scrolling, run-and-gun platform game.
• The Grand Inquisitor is represented as a pig in Angry Birds Star Wars II, in its Rebels level set.
• The Grand Inquisitor is a collectible add-on character for the toys-to-life video game Disney Infinity 3.0.
• The Grand Inquisitor is one of the several bonus characters available as downloadable content for Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens, as part of the Star Wars Rebels character pack.
• The Grand Inquisitor appears in the mobile MOBA Star Wars: Force Arena as a playable Dark Side squad leader.
• While not appearing in person or heard by the player, the Grand Inquisitor is spoken to by the Inquisitor Ninth Sister in Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.
• The Grand Inquisitor is an unlockable character in the turn-based role-playing game Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes, as the last of six Inquisitor characters introduced in early 2022 that must be unlocked with all the other five.
• The Grand Inquisitor is a bonus playable character available as downloadable content for Lego Star Wars The Skywalker Saga, as part of the Obi-Wan Kenobi character pack.

Merchandising

Hasbro released a 3.75-inch (95 mm) Grand Inquisitor action figure as part of its Rebels Saga Legends series of figures in 2013 and 2014, ahead of the series premiere of Star Wars Rebels.

References

Sources

• Bray, Adam (2014). Star Wars Rebels: The Visual Guide. DK Publishing. ISBN 978-1409353300. Search this book on
• Wallace, Daniel (2020). Star Wars: The Lightsaber Collection. Insight Editions. ISBN 978-1683839781. Search this book on
• Soule, Charles (2017–2018). Star Wars: Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith. Marvel Comics. ISBN 978-1302907440. Search this book on
• Sumerak, Marc (2021). Star Wars: The Secrets of the Sith. Insight Kids. ISBN 978-1789099416. Search this book on

Further reading

• Yang, Paul (March 2, 2020). "Star Wars: The Grand Inquisitor, From Devoted Jedi... to Jedi Hunter". Comic Book Resources. Retrieved March 2, 2020.

External links

• The Grand Inquisitor in the StarWars.com Databank
• The Grand Inquisitor on Wookieepedia, a Star Wars wiki

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