Warning: This article contains spoilers from Obi-Wan Kenobi Episode 2.
Seeing Temuera Morrison was a surprise to be sure, but a welcome one. I know you might not have been expecting to see The Book of Boba Fett actor again quite so soon, but as Obi-Wan arrives on the planet Diayu we see a heavily bearded clone veteran in his armor reduced to begging for credits on the street.
His presence here raises a few questions: What unit was he a part of, what happened to all the clones, and why didn’t he recognize Obi-Wan?
Who is clone veteran in Obi-Wan Kenobi episode 2?
These are some good questions and the answer to the first one seems fairly clear. While the clone is only identified as “Clone Veteran” we can clearly see he is wearing Phase II armor with blue strips across his helmet, and chest piece. This blue and white coloration pattern is distinctive to Anakin’s 501st legion, but this answer almost raises more questions than answers.
Was this clone with Anakin during the attack on the Jedi Temple, and how did he not recognize Obi-Wan as the 501st was regularly depicted as operating with Obi-Wan’s 212th?
On to the second question, what happened to all the clones? We have part of this answer provided by the excellent series Bad Batch.
In this series we see the beginnings of the Empire phasing out the older clones to be replaced by the more loyal (though markedly less competent) recruits. In the 10 years that have passed since Order 66, the last of the quick aging clones have been pushed out of service into the streets. This sad state of affairs has left many of the clones without their brothers or anywhere to go.
The real question is why the clone was unable to recognize Obi-Wan. While it is certainly not outside the realm of possibility that the clone had never seen him in person, it is almost guaranteed that he knew of him. The clone would probably also have seen the bounties of him posted across the galaxy. While is probably just a matter of being a cool cameo this particular question may have Star Wars fans scratching their heads for years to come.