Ahmed Best returns to Star Wars once again
Ahmed Best has returned to the Star Wars universe once again, although not in the role that he is most famous for.
Jar Jar Binks’ actor showed up in the fourth episode of season 3 of the The Mandalorian entitled “The Foundling”. He appeared in a flashback, portraying the Jedi Master Kelleran Beq. Beq first appeared in the children’s game show Star Wars: Jedi Temple Challenge. On Jedi Temple Challenge, which released its first (and thus far only) season in the summer of 2020 on YouTube, Best portrayed the Jedi Master and acted as the host of the show.
In “The Foundling” the question of who saved Grogu (informally known as Baby Yoda) was finally answered, as we see that it was Master Beq who rescued the Jedi initiate during Order 66. During the episode, Grogu remembers the massacre at the Jedi Temple. A number of Jedi sacrifice their lives to get Grogu to Beq, who, wielding duel lightsabers, defeats a number of clone troopers before speeding off with the youngster. After a high speed chase through the of skies of Coruscant, they meet up with some “friends” of Beq who turn out to be members of the Royal Naboo Security Force. The guards sacrifice themselves and allow Beq and Grogu to fly away in their ship.
It’s a relatively short sequence, lasting around 5 minutes, but it’s very impactful and fills in some major pieces of Grogu’s backstory. Beq doesn’t appear again for the rest of the season, but it seems likely that if Grogu’s history is explored further that we’ll get to see Ahmed Best on the show again. Online speculation suggests that the ship they fly off in might actually be Jar Jar’s, and if that is true, it wouldn’t be completely out of the realm of possibilities that Jar Jar could appear on the show as well.
In a recent interview on Entertainment Weekly’s Star Wars podcast Dagobah Dispatch, Mandalorian executive producers Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni discussed how Ahmed Best came to be on the show. They talked about how, when they considered who would be the one to rescue Grogu, Kelleran Beq “just made sense.” When asked if there could be more to Beq and Grogu’s story, Filoni said it was “always a possibility.” Favreau added that “I wanna learn more about that character!”
For his part, Ahmed Best seems to happy to be back in Star Wars once again stating in various Instagram posts: “Gratitude! Good to be back.” and “I’m so overwhelmed and grateful for all the messages, comments and art! #jedikelleranbeq means so much to me and the fact that he’s being so well received touches me so deeply. I can’t say thank you enough.”
Although Best is ‘best’ known for portraying Jar Jar Binks, he has also appeared as a third character in the Star Wars galaxy. Best appeared briefly in the Attack of the Clones as Achk Med-Beq, a human male present in the Outlander Club on Coruscant when Obi-Wan and Anakin Skywalker tracked Zam Wesell. Best has said in interviews that the two Beqs are related, although how exactly hasn’t been specified.
With no announced premiere date for Season 4 of The Mandalorian, it’ll probably be a while before we get another episode of the show, but we’re certainly hoping we get to see more Kelleran Beq (fingers crossed, Jar Jar Binks) when it does return.
Tags: ahmed best, jedi master, Kelleran Beq, star wars, the mandalorian