Kumail Nanjiani

"It's all I've thought about. I don't know what that does, but yeah, I would love to play this character again. Not just because of Star Wars, but it's a really, really, really fun character to play. I've never gotten to play a character like this before. I think it's a type of character that we haven't exactly seen in Star Wars either – with a con man, you know?"

―Kumail Nanjiani addressing playing Haja Estree again^[2]

Kumail Ali Nanjiani is a comedian, actor, screenwriter, and podcaster who appears in Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi as Haja Estree.

Biography[]

When Kumail Ali Nanjiani was a kid, he loved Star Wars and science fiction. He collected many of the action figures and his favorite Star Wars character was Han Solo. Nanjiani's favorite Star Wars movie is Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope because it's the first movie in the franchise. He found the scale of the movie to be much bigger than anything he'd seen before.^[2]

Nanjiani received a call from his agents and after waiting an hour, the callers told Nanjiani that he was wanted in the Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi television series. The callers told Nanjiani they couldn't tell him about his character or anything else, and they asked him to speak with director Deborah Chow. In a Zoom meeting, Chow pitched the idea to Nanjiani to convinvce him to join the project. Nanjiani quickly agreed to joining and he said it was a very easy decison. He also wanted to meet Ewan McGregor, the actor who plays Obi-Wan Kenobi in the show.^[2]

Nanjiani ended up playing the con man Haja Estree in the series.^[3] To prepare for his role, Nanjiani did a lot of research on con men and magicians.^[2] When Nanjiani met McGregor, he found him to be wonderful and was overwhelmed by being in a scene with Kenobi. Nanjiani tried to get past the amazement and turn the show into just another job, but he found this to be challenging because much of the show was done with practical effects. When Nanjiani was in^[2] the virtual LED set known as the Volume,^[4] he tried to think about the scene and his character as well as try to focus on what he was doing. He noticed that the entire crew was a fan of Star Wars, which Nanjiani said sets Star Wars apart from other jobs he's done.^[2]

On March 29, 2021, Lucasfilm confirmed Nanjiani as a cast member of the live-action Obi-Wan Kenobi.^[1] Nanjiani has said that he'd like to play Estree again because he was a fun character to play. He liked that his character was someone that people haven't seen in Star Wars before.^[2]