Obi-Wan Kenobi introduced fans to a few new faces during its six-episode run on Disney+. The most prominent new character that the show featured was Moses Ingram’s Reva, the Third Sister. Reva spent the majority of the show tracking down Ewan McGregor’s Obi-Wan Kenobi, using Vivien Lyra Blair’s Princess Leia to lure him out. Eventually, it was revealed that her hate for the Jedi Master originated during Order 66 when she was just a youngling.
The finale saw Reva seeking out Luke Skywalker, only for the Inquisitor to return the boy back to the hands of Owen and Beru and tell Obi-Wan she didn’t want to turn in to Vader.
Reva’s story in Obi-Wan Kenobi was left open-ended, but this wasn’t always the case. Spoiler-filled plot details rumored prior to the show's finale that Reva's fate was changed in order to accommodate a Season 2. Now, one of the project's writers has revealed just what Lucasfilm had initially planned.
Reva's Original Fate in Obi-Wan Kenobi
In an exclusive interview with The Direct's Nathan Johnson, Obi-Wan Kenobi writer Stuart Beattie discussed the original plans for Reva's character arc in the draft for his Obi-Wan Kenobi film.
When asked if Reva was in the early drafts of the movie script, Beattie said "She was my creation... I created Reva all the way through." He continued by discussing Reva's view on the Jedi as villains and how the character originally had no knowledge of Anakin being Darth Vader:
"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. 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."
Beattie went on to talk about Reva's original fate, with the story ending with her dying at the hands of Vader in order to save Obi-Wan:
"Because I figured, 'How would she know that this thing in a mechanical suit that everyone calls Darth Vader is the guy who killed her, or tried to kill her?' So, it was Obi-Wan kind of letting her in on that secret and that revelation that makes her kind of go, 'Oh my god, I've been wrong this whole time.' And so she goes and basically saved Kenobi by sacrificing herself, telling Vader, 'I killed Kenobi.' And then Vader killed her, [with her] knowing that Vader would kill her. So, that kind of completed her arc. So just a little bit different that she was, yeah, absolutely, the Inquisitor hunting Kenobi all the way through and driven by her own personal demons."
Beattie also mentioned that while he thought the Third Sister had a vital role to play in the story, he "felt she had to die:"
"Yeah, killed by Vader at the end of it. Yeah, I wanted this story, I wanted her story to end. 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."
The writer also confirmed that the original plans for Obi-Wan Kenobi didn't include the other Inquisitors, just Reva:
"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. So Reva really was the result of that, I knew I needed that character."
Beattie continued by describing how exploring the fallout of Order 66 helped to inform Reva's character and "take her to a place of understanding:"
"And, of course, there are so many great characters from The Purge, the Great Purge of the Temple and everything, it just was like, 'Okay, let's see what she was doing at the Purge. What if she saw everything that went down? What if... Anakin/Vader killed her, left her for dead and sent her on this path? So all that kind of stuff just kind of made sense and allowed me to create a very confused, conflicted, blinded character filled with hate and rage and all the stuff that makes people want to be Sith and Sith Acolytes. And take her to a place of understanding. Understanding truth, understanding who Obi-Wan is, who Vader really is, and what her path is in the galaxy."
The Obi-Wan Kenobi writer also touched on the struggle of bringing stakes to a prequel project involving Darth Vader and Obi-Wan, and how Reva could allow for McGregor's character to have "someone to defeat or someone to save:"
"... We were always faced with the fact that Obi-Wan could never kill Darth Vader. So he needed to defeat someone. And so Reva was my attempt to give him someone to defeat or someone to save, because he's not going to save Darth. The Darth Vader storyline is going to end in a downer, so I wanted to save someone, and that's why I created Reva."
Some fans have drawn the comparison between the Third Sister with one of her fellow Inquisitors, Second Sister, from Jedi: Fallen Order, who has a similar backstory and arc to Reva.
When asked about Reva's potential connection to Trilla Suduri, Beattie revealed that the Third Sister was created before the video game was even released:
"So I hadn't played Fallen Order. I wrote this initially in 2017, so that was before I played Fallen Order. I then played Fallen Order and was like, 'Oh, wow, this is Reva!' No, look, it's just coincidence. I wanted to create a new character because I didn't want to be bound by any canon with any of the others that have already been discussed. And I wanted freedom to take her where I wanted to take her. So that's why I created her, for this story. And that's the other thing too, we're already using so many characters in established canon with Obi, Darth, Owen, Beru... So I was looking to create someone new. I even had Cody in mind. You know, so I was looking to create someone new."
Does Reva's Survival Confirm Obi-Wan Kenobi Season 2?
Now that it has been revealed that Reva was originally going to sacrifice herself for Obi-Wan and be killed by Darth Vader, the change to keep her alive could possibly be hinting that there will be a Season 2.
Many fans expected her to be killed at the hands of Vader or the Grand Inquisitor in the show's final episode. But since she didn't even have another interaction with either character and was instead let go by Obi-Wan, it is clear that she has more to her story.
If there is a Season 2 of Obi-Wan Kenobi, Reva will likely be along for the ride. She has now built a relationship with Obi-Wan and would probably come to his aid if he needed help, providing an opportunity for her to prove herself to him.
The fact that Beattie also briefly mentions that Commander Cody was in consideration potentially adds credence to previous rumors that the Clone trooper was set to appear in the show. Perhaps these thoughts will be taken into consideration if Lucasfilm decides to bring the show back for a second round.
For now, Obi-Wan Kenobi is streaming now on Disney+.
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