Star Wars Rebels Returns with a Bit of Rogue One

You may remember a few years back I interviewed the cast and producer Dave Filoni before. Well a month ago I got to interview Dave Filoni again for the Winter return of Star Wars Rebels that airs on Disney XD. This is a show that my family loves to watch. I did get a bit behind with all out travels but hope to catch up because things have changed and new characters are coming. Plus there is a fun tie into Rogue One A Star Wars Story. It’s a small tie in but it’s there and it’s really a bid deal. Dave Filoni said,

it’s neat when we can have things kind of coexist, which is really fun. And for me at least, it continues the adventure…..For kids especially..

Forest Whitaker is going to be on Rebels. Forest Whitaker is an amazing actor that plays Saw Gerrera in Rogue One and will be bringing the character to Star Wars Rebels. Saw is a rugged Rebel that plays by his own dangerous rules and he’s going to be bringing that excitement to Rebels. I got to see the first two episodes that play tonight. His character was first introduced in 2002 in The Clone Wars and he was seen fighting with Anakin.

Dave Filoni told us a little bit about Forest Whitaker taking on the role and bringing it to Rebels…

….it’s like when you have a very big STARS WARS fan and a lot of these actors do as much because of the opportunity, because they love it. And so when their character’s gonna continue, they absolutely would like to continue being the character. They don’t really care what form it’s in. And so it’s always exciting when we have people come and maintain their character. You have great continuity. They’re always incredibly gracious and super fun to work with. It might not be the last one you see in that regard, on REBELS, afraid of a spoiler. But I can say that.

Right. But he was fantastic, it’s one of the secrets to, when you are a very good director, you just have a really great actor. He doesn’t need a lot of advice. I just gotta put him into place and tell him what’s going on. And he’s just fantastic.

So it was great to work with him and it’s added to a long list of incredibly wonderful performances that we’ve had in STARS WARS across the board. Not just on REBELS. But across the board. I just love that they want to do it, it’s my favorite thing…..

When working with Star Wars everything has to gel, having a character like Saw he has to fit in and be true to who he was created to be. We asked Dave Filoni what it was like to collaborate on such a level and he said he loves this process. He helped create Saw when he worked on The Clone Wars so long ago so he knew what he was working with. He loves sitting with everyone and listening to ideas and collaborating.

It’s a bunch of people having discussions and talking about the things they like, things they don’t like. Getting different opinions, and then, I always feel strongly about them going off and making their choices. And I did Saw for the part that I had to do him. And CLONE WARS set him up and, but I was excited that anybody could see where that went. So if anything, you’re more involved and that has huge pluses. ‘Cause you get to see it. But at the same time it’s like you’ve seen it and you’ve read it.

And then you work on it. So you keep trying to find for me as a fan, a little pockets of STARS WARS that you don’t know. Which are almost treasured for me at this point. ‘Cause, as opposed like, so that’s how that went. You know, but it’s all, I would be lying if I told you it’s not really fun, even 12 years later.

We also wanted to know how he keeps the Rebels series so balanced for families. Rebels is a show that we can all sit down and watch together and we are all entertained. The content keeps us all interested. Star Wars is a family franchise it always has been George Lucas made Star Wars originally for kids but adults ended up linking it as well. Dave describes it as being like an opera o a very big symphony. The stories and relationships do not talk down to anyone but have aspects that we can all relate to. Things get dark at times but some of the best story tellers also have dark parts to them it’s what makes stories interesting. When he’s working on a story he likes to make it more for his younger self than for his older self. He said it’s a “delicate balance”. We think he takes this delicate balance and makes great stories that fit into the Star Wars universe quite well. We’re super excited about the return of Star Wars Rebels returns January 7th.

‘Star Wars: Rebels’ stars Taylor Gray, Freddie Prinze Jr, Vanessa Marshall, Tiya Sircar, and Steven Blum. The series will return from its hiatus on January 7, 2017, when it will once again begin airing on Disney XD.