Home Events Star Wars Celebration 2016 – Key Points From The Star Wars Rebels Panel

Star Wars Celebration 2016 – Key Points From The Star Wars Rebels Panel

by Dave Elliott

This weekend we are down in London at Star Wars Celebration Europe 2016, and we had the opportunity to join in the Star Wars Rebels Panel, hosted by the great Warwick Davies. Guests were showrunner Dave Filoni and stars Sam Witwer (Darth Maul) and Tiya Sircar (Sabine Wren).

You can watch the panel above as part of the larger ‘Star Wars Live’ feed, but I will just point out a few key things they mentioned that you can keep an eye out for:

Grand Admiral Thrawn Is Rejoining The Star Wars Canon!

thrawn

For many, one of the big changes when Disney took over the Star Wars franchise was the downgrading of the ‘Expanded Universe’ properties. We understand why it had to be done. They needed to clear away anything that told stories pre or post the films so they could write their own history. However, it did seem a little unfair on author Timothy Zahn, who’s Thrawn trilogy, starting with Heir to the Empire, was responsible for for keeping Star Wars alive in those lean years when there were no movies or tv shows.

Now Thrawn has been folded back into the Canon as part of the Rebels tv show! The character will appear as a major antagonist in the 3rd season, and will be voiced by Lars Mikkelsen (House of Cards, Sherlock, and brother to Mads Mikkelsen, who is playing Galen Erso in Rogue One!)

Zahn has been on hand to develop this new take on Thrawn with Disney, and has written a new in-canon book called Star Wars: Thrawn based around this new version of the character.

Ashoka Might Be Alive…

ashoka

Although showrunner Dave Filoni obviously didn’t want to come out and say exactly what happened to Ashoka following her battle with Vader, he did hint she could still see her again… He seems to say that way is unlikely to be her being there as a force ghost, and described using her in flashback as being ‘lazy’, so there’s clearly something else going on. We did get to see the first 2 episodes of season 3 at the panel, but they didn’t show any resolution to the battle. There is one reference made about how Ezra felt responsible for what had happened to Ashoka and Kanan. We know Kanan lost his sight, but we won’t know what happened to Ashoka till the show airs…

Ghost Crew Get A Makeover

starwarsrebels-season3-crew-hallway

There’s a few tweaks and changes coming to the look of the Ghost crew. Ezra is growing up, and has lost his scruffy hair cut. Sabine also has a new do, Kanan has a beard and plate that covers his eyes, and Zeb has a more streamlined look with less armour.

Most of these changes have been made to pull the look of the characters closer to the look of Rogue One and A New Hope, which makes sense, as the timeline moves closer to those events.

Tom Baker Is Voicing A Character!

baker

Legendary Doctor Tom Baker is providing a voice for a character called Bendu who is an entirely new type of force user. Neither light or dark, Kanan encounters Bendu who teaches him how to see through the force.

There’s a lot more info in the panel, including info about Sabine’s new tech (she FINALLY gets a jetpack!), and more info on what’s happening with Darth Maul… Just hit play on the video at the top of the page to jump straight to the Star Wars Rebels panel. You can also click below to watch the trailer…

You may also like

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments