Is That ‘The Good Place’ Guy Manny Jacinto Playing Qimir on ‘The Acolyte’?

The first two episodes of new Star Wars show The Acolyte debuted on Disney+ last night, taking us to parts of the Star Wars Universe we’ve never seen before. Planets like the pagoda-peppered Ueda, icy Carlac, and the forest-covered Khofar. However someone popped up in the bustling Olega who looked like he rather belonged in The Good Place. That is, the mysterious smuggler named Qimir, played by Manny Jacinto.

Yup, yup, yup, the refreshingly chill, potentially stoned weapons smuggler who hangs around with Amandla Stenberg‘s Mae — offering her help hunting Wookie Jedi and procuring bespoke poisons — is played by none other than the same guy who played Jason Mendoza on The Good Place. While Jacinto has appeared in other projects since then, like Nine Perfect Strangers, it’s hard to see his easy manner and chiseled cheekbones and not want to cry, “BORTLES!” The Good Place‘s hold on us is simply that strong.

So what’s the deal with Manny Jacinto’s character on The Acolyte? What do we know about Qimir so far? And what does Jacinto tease about his Star Wars character for the weeks ahead? Here’s what you need to know about Manny Jacinto’s smuggler character, Qimir, on The Acolyte…

Who is Qimir? Who is The Good Place Guy Playing in Star Wars’s The Acolyte?

Qimir is a former smuggler helping Mae in her quest to hunt the four Jedi who killed her family. We first meet him in The Acolyte Episode 2 “Revenge/Justice,” woken up from a drunken (or drugged out?) stupor. He supports Mae by offering her advice and access to poison. By the episode’s end, he’s even helping her escape the Jedi on her tail by tipping her off about where her next quarry is…the Wookiee Jedi Kelnacca (Joonas Suotamo) on the remote planet of Khofar.

Despite his lazy attitude, Qimir is far from inept. His council to Mae is sage, his talent for tracking Jedi remarkable, and he’s able to quickly see through “good” twin Osha’s (Amandla Stenberg) act when she attempts to trick him into thinking she’s Mae. Qimir is also devoted to Mae’s Master’s cause and reveals open contempt for the Jedi in a time they were universally respected.

So what’s Qimir’s deal? “Yeah, I mean, you definitely find out more about Qimir later on,” Manny Jacinto told Decider during a recent interview. “But I mean, it’s all kind of up in the air at that point.”

The layers of mysterious surrounding Qimir prompted Decider to share a wild theory with Jacinto: that Qimir could be Mae’s Master hiding in plain sight.

“That’d be cool. That’d be cool if he was behind that mask, kind of like, you know, pulling all the strings and yeah. But you have to stay tuned to find out,” he said.

“If he is the master or if he’s answering to a master, I think at the end of the day, he’s just pulled into this story and he just wants to survive. You know? I think it all just comes down to survival.”

We’ll have to keep tuning into The Acolyte on Tuesday nights at 6 PM PT/9 PM ET this summer to find out if Qimir has what it takes to survive.