'Star Wars' Brings Back Its Best Jedi In The Latest 'The Mandalorian' Episode
He's the best around. Nothing's ever gonna keep him down anymore.
A long time ago in a galaxy Jar Jar away, Grogu needed a rescue, and he got it in Wednesday’s episode of The Mandalorian.
The episode, titled “The Foundling”, flashes back to Order 66, as is common for the franchise as such a focal point in the series’s timeline. Grogu faces off against a group of clone troopers ordered to kill him. That’s when Kelleran Beq comes in and wards the clone troopers off with his own two lightsabers, giving them time to escape together on a ship, leaving open the possibility for his return. But who is Kelleran Beq? He’s a Jedi played by Ahmed Best, the actor who previously played the incredibly maligned Jar Jar Binks in the Star Wars prequel trilogy.
Now, Beq isn’t entirely new, having debuted (with Best playing him) as the host of the online children’s game show Star Wars: Jedi Temple Challenge, which aired on the Star Wars Kids YouTube channel. In it contestants completed obstacle courses in their quest to become Jedi knights. His role as Jar Jar, first seen in 1999’s The Phantom Menace, drew controversially high unpopularity and utterly toxic backlash in the ensuing years that the role was gradually reduced in the subsequent films. The backlash had been so massive that Best had even considered suicide, which he has talked about, the depression, the exhaustion, and the racism he endured.
This is not a redemption story. Ahmed Best does not owe anyone anything, he’s just an actor. But a way like this to move away from the toxicity and end the negative views of a normal guy is a good one. He’s just the Best. While we don’t know where Beq will appear next, odds are the episode will be released on a Wednesday on Disney+… though linear shows like The Ghost and Molly McGee and Saturdays are getting next-day postings and Young Jedi Adventures’s Star Wars Day premiere falls on a Thursday. Ah well, keep on keeping on, Mr. Best.
