This May the 4th, I want to shine a spotlight on one of my all-time favourite Star Wars characters. Someone from the Expanded Universe (EU) who’s since been allowed to re-enter Star Wars canon. It’s not Grand Admiral Thrawn or Jaxxon the frighteningly tall, green rabbit — it’s Siri Tachi, a young Jedi who strongly resembles pop star Britney Spears.
Siri Tachi was first introduced in 2000 spin-off novel Jedi Apprentice: The Captive Temple as a rival and love interest of Obi-Wan Kenobi. Jedi can’t actually fall in love, so their story was always destined to end sadly — but not before Obi-Wan admitted he wished to “touch hands under the table” with Tachi.
Their forbidden love was short-lived, but luckily it did survive the separation between the EU and the modern Star Wars chronology. While Tachi was briefly nuked from Star Wars canon, she was reintroduced in 2020 via short story collection From a Certain Point of View: The Empire Strikes Back — meaning yes, the Britney Spears Jedi is still, thankfully, canon to modern Star Wars stories.
So why has she become the Britney Spears Jedi?
Well, that’s down to artist Tommy Lee Edwards, who used a reference image of the famous singer to create his vision of Siri Tachi for Star Wars: The New Essential Chronology, a book detailing the EU history of the franchise.
Love this! Also I think it came from this photo which is my FAVE of Britney ???? pic.twitter.com/v3Mxt0cYWt
— Georgia #FreeBritney (@georgiabloy) March 24, 2021
The similarities between the two characters were pointed out as early as 2006, but it was Twitter user @topherflorence who recently identified the connection, and @georgiabloy who found the exact photo shoot Edwards clearly used for his depiction of Siri Tachi. When you compare the two images you can see Edwards event chose to replicate Spears’ hair, make-up and facial expression, not just her general likeness.
The resemblance between the pair is uncanny. And while it’s just a simple matter of an artist using a real-life person as a reference (which is common when artists are on deadline) it’s intriguing to think about Britney Spears as a Jedi. I think she’d absolutely slay in the Jedi Order. Heck, introduce her in the Obi-Wan Kenobi spin-off TV show.
Let’s give the Britney Spears Jedi the attention she deserves.
While Tachi has (understandably) been given a new face since her Britney Spears debut, we should never forget her origins. When Tommy Lee Edwards chose to base the character on Britney Spears, he knew exactly what he was doing. On the one hand, he was giving life to a Jedi who’d previously only appeared in books — but on the other, he was creating a legend.
This Star Wars day we should all remember Siri Tachi, the greatest and most talented Jedi that ever lived. Here’s to hoping she makes her live-action debut one of these days so we can see her shine on the big screen.
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