Star Wars Resistance Producers Discuss Connecting to the Bigger Galaxy and Upcoming Adventures

The upcoming season of Star Wars Resistance is set to conclude the series, seemingly wrapping up the stories of characters like Kaz, Torra, and Yeager after having only met them last year. Despite the animated adventures of these characters coming to a close, the galaxy far, far away often manages to find ways to bring back its most popular characters with new storytelling opportunities, so it’s hard to say that they’ll be gone forever. Luckily, producers of the series Athena Portillo, Justin Ridge, and Brandon Auman feel just as passionately about the characters, who won’t be surprised if the series’ stars make an eventual return.

In Season Two of the series, the story picks up after a harrowing escape from the First Order, as the Colossus and all its residents find themselves lost in space, pursued by Agent Tierny and Commander Pyre. Kaz and team also face a myriad of new dangers along the way including bounty hunters, a suspicious Hutt, General Hux, and Supreme Leader Kylo Ren. Meanwhile, Tam grapples with her future and where her true allegiance lies, with her friends or the First Order. The thrilling final season will showcase how the unlikeliest of heroes can help spark hope across the galaxy.

ComicBook.com recently caught up with the producers to discuss what to expect in the new season, their favorite characters, and what the future holds.

ComicBook.com: Your show obviously takes place at an interesting time in the saga, with Season One set before the events of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which allows characters like Kylo Ren and General Hux to make appearances. As you’re developing the story for the season, how did you balance telling your own narrative while also incorporating bigger elements that fans saw in the films?

Athena Portillo: The good news is that we always have our writers conferences at the head of the season and we always do them with the Lucasfilm story group in the conferences to help guide us in terms of continuity or in terms of where the stories are going, whether it’s in live action, other animated series, publications, games, or in the parks. So we always have someone to look forward to telling us if we’re going down the right path, when we’re creating our story back in the beginning.

Justin Ridge: And we had a specific story we wanted to tell with these characters, but because obviously the First Order is connected to the movies and we wanted to have some connectivity throughout, it does make it a little bit challenging, but it’s very important to us that it feels like it’s part of the same universe.

When developing this new season, did you actively try to include more of those references to bigger themes or would you realize retroactively that certain roles could be more effective when portrayed as a more familiar character?

Brandon Auman: That was definitely more of an organic process. When we’re going in and we’re developing a storyline, we’re usually thinking more about our characters because they’re related. We’re thinking more about Commander Pyre, but obviously we consider, “Oh, this would be great if we have a General Hux here or if we have Kylo Ren.” It’s an organic process, for sure.

Ridge: We never want to shoehorn in something that doesn’t fit the story that we’re trying to tell.

Auman: Just for the sake of fan service. That feels like weak storytelling, like when you’re just trying to wedge something in for the sake of fan service.

Compared to other animated series, Resistance is ending earlier than some fans expected. When the show was being developed, was it always intended to be two seasons or was it just the realization that this is how long it would take to tell this specific story with some genuine closure?

Portillo: It’s exactly what you just said, as far as the genuine closure, because when we’re developing the roadmap, it was something that we felt, “Okay, we’ll do this, while Season Two takes place in between [Star Wars:] The Last Jedi and [Star Wars:] The Rise of Skywalker.” We wanted to make sure that Rise of Skywalker ends the saga appropriately, so where we fit in, it fits in nicely.

Ridge: We were hoping that we could just tell our story and it would feel complete and unto itself and then we could, obviously, the whole thing would be capped off with Rise of Skywalker.

Were there characters you began working with who you were surprised by and realized you wish you could tell a lot more of their story?

Ridge: That’s a very difficult one. I think we have such a fun, eclectic cast of characters and actors. I would love to see more Flix and Orka. I’d love to see more team Fireball. It’s hard to choose.

Portillo: Everybody has a backstory. You can do a backstory on Yeager, Tam. Everybody.

Ridge: Captain Doza, even the janitor.

Auman: It would be great to tell pretty cool stories with Captain Doza or Jarek Yeager. We just love all these characters and we would love to see more of them.

Lucasfilm always has things in motion, and maybe it’s too early to tell, but is there anything in the works where we can see these characters again once Resistance is over?

Portillo: I believe there’s always potential for that. Whether it’s in publications or the games or anything else that’s being developed. I can’t say that there is at the moment, in terms of what I know, because I only know to a certain extent, but I know there’s always potential possibilities for that.

Ridge: We’re still in production wrapping up Season Two, so our mindset is still on the show and we’re not really familiar with anything else at the moment.

Portillo: I was actually going to ask you that because you knew about Snoke being Kaz.

Well George Lucas and I text a lot and he keeps demanding more Star Wars Resistance adventures so this might work out.

Auman: We can make that work. We’ll be talking to him through MySpace and Friendster.

Without giving anything away specifically, are there any episodes that you can’t wait for fans to see, either because of dramatic twists or you’re really proud of the animated action?

Ridge: My non-spoiler answer to that is Season Two is chock full of all kinds of fun moments and scenarios and characters that we meet. So I’m just excited for audiences to see the entire season.

Portillo: I feel the same way. But specifically for me, I can’t wait for episode 208 to come out. And once it comes out, you’ll know why.

Auman: We have a really amazing two-part mid-season episode, which I think is going to be really exciting. But that’s all I can say.

*****

Star Wars Resistance Season Two debuts Sunday, October 6th at 10 p.m. ET on the Disney Channel.