Warning: contains SPOILERS for episodes 1 and 2 of Obi-Wan Kenobi.
What is Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea doing in the Star Wars show Obi-Wan Kenobi? Taking place 10 years after Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, the show sees the return of Ewan McGregor as the titular character. Living on Tatooine to watch over young Luke Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi has taken the name Ben and has denounced his old Jedi ways after his failure with Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen). Jedis are all but extinct after Order 66, yet Star Wars‘ Inquisitors still search the galaxy intently for any remaining survivors. Ben Kenobi, then, has all the more reason to stray from the Jedi Order.
Born Michael Peter Balzary, the musician and actor known as Flea is primarily famous for playing the bass in the band Red Hot Chili Peppers, starting with their formation in 1983. But his acting career also spans decades. Flea’s notable movie roles include Needles in two installments of the Back to the Future trilogy, a nihilist in the Coen brothers’ cult classic The Big Lebowski, and Eddie in Baby Driver. In the Disney+ Star Wars show Obi-Wan Kenobi, Flea plays a mercenary named Vect Nokru.
The character works for Third Sister Reva (Moses Ingram), an Inquisitor who is fiercely ambitious in her hunt to find Obi-Wan Kenobi and deliver him to Darth Vader. Obi-Wan Kenobi’s Inquisitor Reva was a former Jedi corrupted by the dark side, just like Anakin/Vader. However, because of the Rule of Two dictating that only two Sith Lords can exist at the time — during the events of Obi-Wan Kenobi, this pair is Darth Vader and Darth Sidious — corrupted Jedis like Reva join the Inquisitorius to hunt their former kind. To find Obi-Wan, Reva resorts to unorthodox and obsessive measures, which the Grand Inquisitor frequently reprimands her for, stunting her search. Nonetheless, Reva continues her hunt and hires a group of mercenaries, the leader of which is Flea’s Vect Nokru. Vect kidnaps Obi-Wan Kenobi’s young Princess Leia Organa (Vivien Lyra Blair) and takes her to Daiyu as bait for Obi-Wan. However, the mercenaries fail this mission, leading Reva to then set a bounty on Obi-Wan’s head.
There had been rumors of a Flea cameo about three weeks prior to the release of Obi-Wan Kenobi (via Star Wars News Net). Star Wars has included celebrity cameos before in its Disney+ shows, such as Bill Burr as Migs Mayfeld in The Mandalorian, Thundercat as the Modifier in The Book of Boba Fett, Taika Waititi as the voice of assassin droid-turned-sacrificial nanny IG-11, and a nearly unrecognizable Temuera Morrison in Obi-Wan Kenobi, playing a veteran clone. Flea is no different in that regard. Additionally, though, Deborah Chow, who directed all six episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi and serves as an executive producer of the show, also worked with Flea on the 2022 music video for the Red Hot Chili Peppers song “Black Summer.”
Star Wars rarely looks to musicians for cameo appearances, so it’s still a bit unusual to find the Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist in Obi-Wan Kenobi. However, given Flea’s previous acting experience playing typically scummy characters, coupled with his prior collaboration with Chow, his appearance as Vect Nokru is appropriate. After his likely demise at the hands of the Grand Inquisitor in the second episode, it seems like Flea’s time in Star Wars is already at an end. However, his acting career will continue this year with a part in the Damien Chazelle movie Babylon. Meanwhile, with Hayden Christensen as Vader in Obi-Wan Kenobi episode 2, there surely will be more surprises coming in the next four episodes.
Obi-Wan Kenobi continues Wednesday on Disney+.
