SDCC: Heroes Of Star Wars Rebels Panel Recap

On the first full day of Comic-Con International: San Diego, a "heroes of Star Wars Rebels panel was held," featuring executive producers Dave Filoni and Simon Kinberg, an the entire principal cast: Freddie Prinze Jr., Venessa Marshall, Steve Blum, Taylor Gray, and Tiya Sircar.

The panel opened with a video clip showing a lightsaber duel between Kanan and the Inquisitor. Ezra is there, trying to help his master. The Inquisitor gets the best of Kanan and draws out his second lightsaber blade. Ezra quips "does yours do that?" before they run.

The panel marks the first time the entire principal cast of the shows has been assembled together. Prinze (Kanan) revealed that the scar on his chin came from him playing Star Wars make believe as a kid, but Marshall (Hera) is said to be the biggest Star Wars fan on the cast.

Dave Filoni notes that this setting, between Episodes III and IV, is unique. Unlike The Clone Wars, you won't see lightsabers all over the place in every episode. Force sensitive persons, like Ezra, are still being born, but the Jedi are all deep in hiding.

Another clip is shown. This one has Ezra on the run from a group of stormtroopers. Zeb comes to his rescue, flying a tie fighter, but makes Ezra say that "they're even" before he lets him onboard.

Kinberg says the characters on the show are like a family. Filoni talks about the "gang mentality" of the characters in the original trilogy. He mentions a scene where Han, Chewie and Leia all agree to go to Endor and Luke comes in and says "I'm with you," and you can spot an annoyed rebel soldier in the background.

The cast all talks about how, over the past year of recording, they've come to know each other organically. Prinze says Kanan is a "cocky Jedi," which is like "jumbo shrimp," and having other actors to play off of helps make sense of difficult characters. Marshall adds that it helps the Original Trilogy style humor as well. Blum says it makes for much more effective slap fights. Sircar talks about how the cast has all come to embody their characters in the roles they play behind-the-scenes.

Prinze says there's not too much improv with the dialog, that you don't need to add much with Star Wars, but they're free to try. Blum does the most. Blum also gets to play stormtroopers because he's played so many in videogames in the past. Filoni said the first time he heard Blum do a stormtrooper, he thought "I swear, I've killed you before."

They discuss how Filoni loves Star Wars, and when he speaks about it a room can go silent. Prinze talks about how Filoni can paint a whole picture of the world or galaxy before each episode, to help realize the world. Filoni said it was a dream come true to get to animate a Tie Fighter and work on a show with stormtroopers, which are similar to but different from the clones of The Clone Wars. He says all of their designs lean toward Ralph McQuarrie's originals, which may be a bit different from the new movies, which might not be as stylized. Kinberg says he never would have imagined writing new dialog for Obi-Wan "Ben" Kenobi.

Kinberg relates that he never dreamed of creating a new Star Wars; that he only ever dreamed of seeing a new Star Wars. Even after working on other stuff he loves, like the X-Men, Star Wars is special, almost a religion.

Tia and Vanessa have been inducting into the "Mandalorian Mercs," which was a huge honor for them. Marshall says that if you read A New Dawn, the first novel of the new Star Wars canon, you get a great understanding for Kanan and Hera's relationship.

A third clip, featuring what Filoni says is a continuation of Star Wars' tradition of strong female characters, shows Hera and Sabine exploring an abandoned base. They examine some wrecked supplies and realize that it was done by some sort of animal. They are set upon by a pack of large feline beasts.

Filoni mentions how important it is to balance the humor and seriousness, as George Lucas did, in Star Wars. Fun is fun, but a villain like Darth Vader should always be scary. He says it will take some "levelling up" for their new characters.

Kingberg says it's the very beginning of the Rebel Alliance. It's the origin story. It's about rebels who aren't even part of an alliance yet, they can't even imagine. They're just trying to take a little bit of the galaxy back from the Empire. It's like telling an origin story of the American Revolution, but it's just some people in a farmhouse. But we know that, one day, maybe after these characters are gone, they'll win.

Filoni says there's an assumption that as soon as there's a Empire there's a Rebellion, but that's not the case. People see the Empire as new order replacing old weakness, and the Jedi are traitors and villains rather than heroes. Prinze says you'll actually see the abuses of the Empire and understand why some people stand up and fight, and what difference they're able to make. Sircar says the characters all come to the rebellion for very different reasons. Marshall mentions that, as high-minded as that sounds, in the end they're still just looking for food and gas. Blum says they've got nothing better to do, and nothing left to lose.

Prinze says he tries to bring the mentality of old westerns and samurai movies, but hints that something in his past created an "adolescent dark side" to his otherwise ordered being, which is something he struggles with. Gray says that Ezra has complete faith in Kanan, and Prinze says he's glad someone does, and reminds Gray that Kanan just got his butt kicked by the Inquisitor in that first clip.

When asked about how much of Obi-wan they can expect to see, Filoni says "more than you see in the trailer" but that they're not allowed to say more than that.

Filoni wouldn't officially comment on the possibility of characters from The Clone Wars making appearances, but says he appreciates that people ask because it means you love those character. He then says that it would be "absolutely crazy" for those characters he helped create to not make at least a cameo.

Kinberg says, in response to a question about the defunct expanded universe, they're drawing from everywhere, mostly McQuarrie's art and trying to do something completely different. Kinberg wants a new generation of Star Wars fans to fall in love with it through this show.

Filoni says Rebels is more contained that Clone Wars. The show will mostly take place in one, local system, rather than jumping systems and building whole civilizations for only four episodes like in Clone Wars.