Streaming
Obi-Wan Kenobi’s Vivien Lyra Blair Has Been In Several Netflix Projects
One was an iconic role where she was just named “Girl.”
Long before Rey and Luke Skywalker wielded a lightsaber, there was Obi-Wan. The focus of Disney+’s Obi-Wan Kenobi, the series follows Obi-Wan as he lives in hiding 10 years after Order 66, when the Jedi Order was destroyed by Darth Vader’s regime. Obi-Wan goes under the name Ben and watches over Anakin’s son, Luke, on Tatooine, unwilling to reveal his identity even when a young Jedi runs to him for help. But when Anakin’s daughter, Leia, is kidnapped by the Empire’s Jedi-hunting Inquisitors, Obi-Wan is forced to fight once again.
When we first meet the young Leia, played by Vivien Lyra Blair, she’s a mischievous 10-year-old running away from the palace and shirking her duties with her robot Lola. “If you behaved as well as you climbed, you’d be a senator already,” her mother tells her when she finds her in a tree. Leia complains that “all I ever do is wave,” but she heads back in regardless. She’s later teased by her cousin that she’s “not even a real Organa,” and is reprimanded for not “rising above” the insults when she’s quick to put him in his place. (Clearly, the young Leia is just as clever and bold as her older counterpart.)
She does listen to her dad when he says she’ll one day be the person that the planet looks to for guidance. But she’s also just 10 years old, and as soon as she gets the chance, she runs out of the palace once more. Only this time, when she escapes, she finds a group of mercenaries waiting for her. They kidnap her, forcing Bail Organa to seek out Obi-Wan and beg him to help her. Though he initially refuses, Obi-Wan eventually digs up his lightsaber and sets off.
Young as she is, Blair’s a longtime Star Wars fan. In a May 30 Instagram post, Blair wrote that she grew up listening to her parents read her the Star Wars books, and that “like most little girls, I was drawn to Leia.” She said she first went to Disneyland when she was 6, and she got “hooked” after flying in the Millennium Falcon. “So when [director] Deborah [Chow] offered me the role I was speechless,” she explained. “I got to spend the summer playing with droids, meeting an amazing crew, acting with a cast that made me feel special and respected and learning so much ... thank you to everyone that helped make this happen and thank you for believing in me.”
Despite only being 10 years old, Blair has featured in a number of other projects. Many viewers will recognize her as the girl — literally just named “Girl” — that Sandra Bullock’s character protects in the horror movie Bird Box. She’s also appeared in the TV series Waco and Indebted, and was Guppy in the Netflix film We Can Be Heroes, the follow-up to The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl.
Beyond that, she’s set to appear in the upcoming drama Dear Zoe (which stars Stranger Things actor Sadie Sink) and an adaptation of Stephen King’s The Boogeyman (alongside Yellowjackets and Mandalorian actor Sophie Thatcher). And considering that many of the Disney+ Star Wars projects are crossing over, it won’t be surprising if we end up seeing her cameo in a galaxy far, far away once more.
