The Disney+ Obi-Wan Kenobi series has garnered a mixed reception from fans but most will agree that it does have some great moments. Out of the entire series, Kenobi featured a breakout character in Reva. While actress Moses Ingram did get some nasty racist comments, most sane fans will agree that she was one of the better parts of this show.
Despite fan adoration for the emotionally torn character, many were surprised to see her live until the end. As it turns out, that surprise ending was a huge change from the original, as writer Stuart Beattie confirmed that Reva was supposed to die at the end of Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Reva’s planned death
Speaking with The Direct, Beattie reveals that Reva was originally going to be killed by Vader to save Obi-Wan. Originally, Reva would have no idea that Vader is Anakin, and she would have believed that The Empire was right about the Jedi attempting a coup. Considering how many fans were upset that she knew Vader was Anakin, Beattie probably had the right idea here.
"Yeah, except the only little difference in mine was she didn't know Darth Vader was Anakin. Cause I was like, 'How'd she know that?' All she saw was Anakin as Anakin because he hadn't changed in the suit yet, right? So Anakin killed her friends, put the scar on her, almost killed her, left her for dead, basically,” Beattie explains. “So, in her mind, the Jedi Council were the biggest villains in the galaxy. She believed the lies that they were plotting a coup to overtake and get power and all that, but they were stopped by the Clones. So she believed that's why she's hunting Jedi, because she believed the Jedi are the worst, basically."
For the finale, Reva would have told Vader that she killed Obi-Wan, which would lead to the Sith Lord killing her and then ending his obsession with his former Jedi master. Apparently, Reva does this knowing that Vader would kill her, making this a noble sacrifice on her end.
"Yeah, killed by Vader at the end of it. Yeah, I wanted this story, I wanted her story to end,” Beattie explains. “I wanted Reva to play her part in the Kenobi-Vader story, which was, essentially, at the end, she was the one that allowed Vader, basically told Vader to stop hunting Kenobi. You know, she ended the obsession Vader had with Kenobi. She claimed it was over, it's done. So that was, that was her role to play. And she'd done so many terrible things, I felt she had to die [laughs]. You can only redeem so much."
Read More: Obi-Wan Kenobi was supposed to be a movie trilogy before Disney Plus
No Inquisitors?
Beattie reveals even more interesting ideas from his original Obi-Wan Kenobi draft. According to the writer, we wouldn’t have gotten the other Inquisitors from Rebels, with most of the villainous spotlight only going to Reva and Vader. Considering how much modern Star Wars loves to do fanservice, we’re not surprised that Disney decided to add the Inquisitors.
"So no other plans to include any other Inquisitors... I knew I wanted Darth Vader, obviously, as the big overall villain in this story, and I see him as an antagonist who was going to be more one-on-one with Obi-Wan throughout the show,” says Beattie. “So Reva really was the result of that, I knew I needed that character."
Overall, there are a lot of interesting details revealed here, and we would have liked to have seen some of them in the final product. That doesn’t make Obi-Wan Kenobi less entertaining since it’s a silly Star Wars show with solid emotional moments. Definitely better than all of the prequel movies and we could get a second season, given the open-ended nature of that ending.
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