An Early Look at Star Wars: Rebels

So what can I tell you about the upcoming animated series Star Wars Rebels? A heck of a lot more then I can tell you about Star Wars – Episode VII! While Disney has been very tight lipped about much of anything regarding their first installment of the new Star Wars trilogy, they certainly haven’t been shy about releasing info on Rebels! There have been several press releases, a set of six very cool Imperial propaganda posters sent out to the press, and a slew of videos have hit the internet featuring cast, crew, and introducing the six main characters.

As I had mentioned in my review of the Clone Wars animated series, Dave Filoni jumped right from working on the Clone Wars and into the Rebels. That fact alone tells me that this series is going to be a lot of fun. Joining Dave is Executive Producer Simon Kinberg. Kinberg is responsible for producing action films like Mr. and Mrs. Smith, X-Men: First Class, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, and the upcoming X-Men: Days of Future Past. Simon is also working on one of the yet to be announced Star Wars standalone films. Finally, Greg Weisman will also be an Executive Producer on the series. If you’re a fan of the Disney animated series Gargoyles, you know his name and his work speaks for itself. I am certainly a fan of this guys work and was ecstatic when I heard that he was involved with this new series! Also on hand is Pablo Hidalgo with the Lucasfilm Story Group, one of the guys tasked with deciding what is and isn’t canon within the Star Wars universe, so he should help keep things on track story wise.

Speaking of story, Rebels kicks off five-ish years before the events of Star Wars – Episode IV. I say “five-ish” simply because the folks sending out the press releases and tweets from Lucasfilm can’t seem to figure out if this thing is starting off four or five years pre Episode IV. The six characters that make up “The Rebels” are Ezra, voiced by Taylor Gray. Ezra can best be described as the Aladdin of Rebels. Only this time Aladdin can harness the powers of the Force. Kanan, voiced by Freddie Prinze, Jr. Kanan is one of the few Jedi that managed to escape Order 66. He’s a bit of a cowboy, as comfortable using a blaster as he is using his light saber. Hera, voiced by Vanessa Marshall. This Twi’lek also happens to be the pilot of the groups ship “The Ghost”. Sabine, voiced by Tiya Sircar. Sabine is a female Mandalorian, and wears a helmet and armor reminiscent of Boba and Jango Fett. She is also an explosives expert and an artist fond of graffiti. She enjoys leaving her mark, and may be responsible for creating the symbol that will eventually identify the rebellion. Zeb, voiced by Steve Blum is the teams muscle. Zeb is closely modeled from early Ralph McQuarrie concept art for Chewbacca. And finally the grumpy astromech droid Chopper, also designed to look like McQuarrie’s initial concept for R2-D2.

The series villain is a new light saber wielding character identified as the “Inquisitor”. This sinister looking character has been tasked by Darth Vader in hunting down all remaining Jedi Knights. So, since the Inquisitor is working for Vader, does that mean that we’ll be seeing the dark lord of the Sith in this series? It’s possible. Based on the fact that the Empire is in full swing at this point, it’s pretty safe to say that we’ll be seeing Tarkin, Vader, and the Emperor. Who else will show up? You’re guess is as good as mine. Series producer Dave Filoni certainly wasn’t shy about bringing characters like Chewbacca, Anakins mother, Qui Gon Jinn, and Darth Maul into the Clone Wars fold, and I have no reason to not expect the same over the course of this new series. You can almost certainly expect the return of Clone Wars favorite Ahsoka Tano at some point as well.

When Star Wars Rebels premiers this fall it will begin with an hour long episode on the Disney Channel, and them make the jump over to Disney XD which will be the series home. We’ll keep you posted as new info becomes available, and as we approach the series premier you can count on some product reviews. All in all, I couldn’t be more excited for the premier of this series!

Until next time, may the Force be with you!