Dave Filoni On Which ‘Star Wars Rebels’ Character Surprised Him Most

The latest animated series in the Star Wars universe has introduced a lot of new characters, but few have caught on like the Mandalorian rebel known as Sabine Wren.

The sharpshooting weapons expert and graffiti artist has taken a long and emotional journey over the course of four seasons on Star Wars Rebels, and has since become a fan favorite.

Series creator Dave Filoni spoke with ComicBook.com’s Patrick Cavanaugh about Sabine and how she surprised him the most out of all the characters on Rebels.

“I think that she kind of had a broader, blank slate when we began,” said Filoni. “We knew that she was Mandalorian and a warrior, but we didn’t have as many things about her history nailed down and nor, like, her future, but I think she’s risen up to the point where she’s as much the hero in some ways as Ezra. Especially of her own story, with her family. That was surprising, I think.”

Though Ezra’s journey has pushed a lot of the show’s major plot points, Sabine has emerged as one of the driving forces in the show’s later seasons. Her running away from and then embracing her Mandalorian culture and coming to wield the Darksaber expanded significantly on the events of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. It also made Sabine one of the most important figures in the fledgling Rebellion.

“All the characters have evolved in exciting ways that we wouldn’t necessarily have predicted,” Filoni added. “Some elements were just inevitable, but Sabine always stands out because when trying to explain to Tiya [Sircar, voice of Sabine] early on, her character, it was a challenge, even for me because we had been working on Ezra and Kanan and Hera, as the core family dynamic.”

Filoni credited Sircar’s acting performance as one of the reasons why she became so prominent in the later episodes.

“She had been just as fast as we were going and maybe perhaps a little neglected in the beginning but we quickly were able to bring her into focus, and a big part of that was, once you had the actors performing, they just so became the characters to me, that I was able to take things from them,” Filoni said. “Watching them and listening to them, and what they were capable of and where they were … maybe had strengths and exploited those. I think with Tiya, especially, that led to some really strong episodes.”

Sabine has had a major impact on every episode in Season Four thus far, first helping Mandalore fight off the Empire’s domination and then helping Saw Gerrera in a crucial mission that tied to the events of Rogue One.

Fans will get to see more of the warrior in Star Wars Rebels final season, airing Mondays on Disney XD.