'Star Wars Rebels' Producer Dave Filoni Weighs In On SPOILER's Death

The mid-season premiere of Star Wars Rebels brought with it some fatal consequences for one of the members of the Ghost crew, reminding audiences that all bets are off for the series' final season. The show's executive producer, Dave Filoni, shared some insight into the decision and how difficult it was to bring the sequence to life.

***WARNING: Spoilers below for Star Wars Rebels***

Just when we think our heroes had saved the day, an explosion puts Kanan, Hera, Ezra, and Sabine in jeopardy, with Kanan using his Force abilities to temporarily hold back the explosion. Ultimately, Kanan could only hold back for so long, using his last ounce of strength to push the rest of the crew to safety before succumbing to the explosion.

"When I was drawing that scene, it was getting depressing. I'm in my office, I'm by myself. I called [Kanan actor] Freddie [Prinze Jr], and I was like, 'Man, what are we doing? This is depressing.' And he was like, 'You gotta do it. Go on. Kill me,'" Filoni shared at a recent Lucasfilm event. "He was so sure about it from years ago. When we would first talk about the character, he was resolute about the fact that his character needed to die. And he's right. But it was really difficult. It was a challenging thing to do, and I didn't take it lightly."

The Jedi was blinded at the end of Season 2 by Maul, forcing Kanan to rely even more heavily on his Force abilities. In the character's final moments, he briefly regained his sight, which paid off something that had been hinted at much earlier in the series.

"In that moment he's not bound as this material thing that the physicality of sight would be a limitation to him," Filoni noted of Kanan's sight coming back. "He tells Hera at one point before they go to Malachor, 'We'll see each other again.' I felt that this was a follow through. And it happened because when I was drawing the storyboards for that scene at my desk–a lot of those scenes I'll sit there and personally pick all the shots and how I want it–I was drawing Kanan and I had drawn his eyes in. I was looking at it and thought, 'Yeah, he should look at her.' It happened that way. You have to seize the moment when you're telling stories, and it was just a fluid thing."

This episode might be the end of the line for Kanan, but the adventures of the Ghost crew continue in the series. Catch new episodes of Star Wars Rebels on Monday nights at 9:00 PM ET on Disney XD.

[H/T Nerdist]