Red Hot Chilli Peppers bassist Flea among star cameos in Star War spin-off Obi-Wan Kenobi

Any stifling is a result of the casting of Pakistani-born actor and comedian Kumail Nanjiani in the role of a fake Jedi.

Nanjiani is well known for his breakout role as the Tesla-loving Dinesh in the hit HBO mini-series Silicon Valley, the hilarious, must-watch parody of a start-up tech company.

In 2018, he was named one of the world's 100 most influential individuals by Time magazine.

Nanjiani's cameo in Obi-Wan leaves the viewer uncertain as to whether or not he's playing this role with tongue firmly in cheek. But either way, he does it well.

He's in part-jester mode as Haja Estree and wryly admits he's a fake - but one with the best of intentions - when confronted on his chicanery by a real Jedi and the central character to the series, Obi-Wan Kenobi, played by Ewan McGregor.

"[You are] so judgmental!" he declares when Kenobi puts a blaster to his chest and strips him of his showman's gimmicks.

Nanjiani's character re-emerges to play a critical role in helping Obi-Wan escape a dogged and determined Inquisitor, Third Sister Reva (Moses Ingram), intent on following the dictum of her lord, Darth Vader, in capturing the elusive Jedi master.

"I'm trying to make amends," he says, handing the Jedi and the fiesty Princess Leia a safe passage off-planet. Somehow, the viewer has the impression this isn't the last we'll see of him.

The newest Disney+ galactic space opera is set 10 years after the dramatic events of Revenge of the Sith, where Obi-Wan Kenobi faced his greatest defeat and fled to live in a cave on dry, barren Tatooine where his primary role is to keep watch over the promising young Jedi talent Luke Skywalker.

Unexpected cameos abound in the great new spin-off series, and a few key ones are Aussies.

Melbourne-born Red Hot Chilli Peppers bass player Flea, aka Michael Balzary, plays a character named Vect Nokru, a bounty hunter.

The former owner of a luxury beachside pad at Congo on the NSW South Coast, Flea plays his Star Wars bad guy role with an easy, swaggering style.

Vect becomes a co-conspirator with Third Sister Reva in kidnapping a 10-year-old Princess Leia so as to lure Obi-Wan away from Tatooine in a rescue attempt.

When the cunning plan succeeds and Obi-Wan is pinned to a cell wall by his bounty hunter henchman, Flea-Vect enjoys his gloating moment of triumph.

"You're not getting out of here. You're not a Jedi anymore, Kenobi, you're just a man, and you're bleeding all over my floor," he says.

But appropriately enough for a rock star, Vect and his mates are abruptly rendered senseless by the Jedi master's timely flourish of a stolen vaporous drug, and Obi-Wan makes his escape with the young princess.

Sadly, we're unlikely to see Flea again in the series because the scheme's failure (spoiler alert) brings about his demise.

The mega rock star is not the first muso to have a cameo in the Star Wars sagas.

Ed Sheeran played an unlikely storm trooper in The Rise of Skywalker, Broadway stage actor Lin Manuel Miranda - of Hamilton fame - had a bit part as a Resistance fighter, and the man whose haunting, brass-laden scores are a trademark of the series, composer John Williams, was a bartender in the same movie.

Blacktown-born Joel Edgerton is another Aussie actor who plays a small but important role in Obi-Wan Kenobi.

In a flashback to one of the critical foundation pieces to the Star Wars franchise and reprising his role in the 2002's Attack of the Clones, he's again cast as Luke Skywalker's uncle Owen Lars, who tries to keep the Force-gifted youngster down on the farm.

In Obi-Wan, he coolly faces down the Inquisitors - one of whom puts a light sabre to his neck - hunting the Jedi Master.

It's a classy, albeit all-too-brief appearance by Edgerton, leaving the fans wanting more.