With the latest offering from Dave Filoni and the Lucasfilm Animation team reaching it’s planned conclusion, the Fantha Tracks team look back over 4 seasons of Star Wars Rebels and reflect on its impact to Star Wars, the characters and the stories from a galaxy far, far away….
Clair Henry
Rebels kind of crept up on me. I wasn’t really into as such, but then in 2016 I went to Celebration Europe in London and it was at there it became apparent to me what I was missing. People were buzzing about it. I went to the Madam Tussauds event for the 4 Clubs, 1 Force event and it was there I met and chatted to Dave Filoni, just listening to him talk about the show was amazing he was so passionate. I confessed I hadn’t watched it, he laughed, but I promised as soon as I got home I would, and I did.
I watched it with my daughter who was captivated by it and it was then I realised that Dave Filoni had stayed true to his mentor George Lucas. Star Wars is ultimately a story for children and to have something like Rebels for Sophie and I to share means a lot to me. I write this having not seen the last 2 episodes of the series yet and I’ve managed to stay spoiler free. So until then all I have to say is thanks Dave!
Mark Newbold
My choice may well be seen as an odd one, considering I love the show so much. It’s been great fun, with an awesome voice cast and some high-end storylines, but the thing I’m going to pick is the Marvel comic series Kanan.
As the main series forged on towards the formation of the Rebel Alliance as smaller rebel cells came together to fight the great fight, Kanan stepped back to the time of the Clone Wars as a young Caleb Dume was cut loose from the formality and structure of the Jedi Order as the padawan of Jedi Master Depa Billaba and into a galaxy that had been taught to hunt down and betray the Jedi.
Written by Greg Weissman, with stunning art by Pepe Larraz, Jacopo Camagni and Andrea Broccardo behind covers by Mark Brooks and Larraz the series worked brilliantly in its two arcs. The Last Padawan saw Kanan find his feet in the deep, dark recesses of the galaxy under the questionable tutelage of an exotic alien called Kasmir while First Blood took place during the Clone Wars.
When the title was announced it was certainly a surprise, and over it’s brief 12 issues proved itself to be a more than essential dip back into an era that many fans first discovered Star Wars through. And, as the series itself wound to a close and Kanan – Caleb – found resolution in Jedi Night, the series is worth a re-read more than ever.
Paul Naylor
I really enjoyed the first season but haven’t had time to stick with it, so inevitably will buy the blu-ray box set.
I have been fortunate enough to meet Steve Blum after the Celebration Orlando Rebels press event and Taylor Gray twice.
On the second occasion, not only did he remember meeting me months before, he became one of Fantha Tracks first recordings – giving us a neat promo clip.
Not too shabby, when @iamtaylorgray says hi to Fantha Tracks! pic.twitter.com/swRWCjDGFe
— Fantha Tracks: Star Wars News In A Single File (@FanthaTracks) March 25, 2018
Prior to meeting Taylor I was among a privileged few to ask Dave Filoni a question at The Celebration Europe Rebels Press Panel.
I am a fan of Dave’s work and dearly hope he gets to work on some exciting future Star Wars projects.
Brian Cameron
For me Rebels wasn’t about the TV show, in truth I rarely tuned in to watch it. It was all about the literature and one of the standout releases was A New Dawn by John Jackson Miller.
Released in September 2014, it marked the first collaborative output under the Story Group, and it also introduced to us for the first time to Kanan Jarrus and Hera Syndulla. The book predated the TV show by one month. It highlighted the kind of work a Story Group can do, combining the written word with an animated TV product. Crossing medias, and using those medias to their greatest effect. Another character to feature would be Rae Sloane, an Imperial who would later be pivotal to the Aftermath trilogy, and perhaps one of my favourite of the new generation of original creations.
It launched a new generation of Star Wars literature, and a new TV project at the same time, and with John Jackson Miller at the helm it truly delivered on quality.
Richard Hutchinson
For me, The Clone Wars took a while to get going but by the midpoint of Season 2 I was hooked. I was disappointed to see The Clone Wars end so abruptly, but excited to see what Rebels would bring as the time period is much more to my liking. I struggled with the first few episodes as it became clear early on that the characters were never going to be in danger for a long time. Even my children switched off pretty soon with the predictable storylines and characters that we didn’t really care for.
It picked up towards the end of season two and my hopes were being realised. We were hurtling towards a major epic storyline… that never appeared. I really think Rogue One cost Rebels its moment of glory. I was hoping that towards the end we’d see Rebels end after the events of A New Hope. I’d love to have seen some of the Rogue One storyline added to with animation. Four seasons, and all we managed to do was liberate an unimportant planet. It seemed way too much of an anti-climax.
Rebels suffered by bringing Ahsoka back too many times and other characters that were just not necessary. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy Ahsoka, Thrawn, Hondo Ohnaka and others in their original formats but I felt that it was becoming forced and they were trying to pay lip service to the fans. And that’s without discussing the ridiculous notion of time travel.
Star Wars is a vast galaxy with lots to explore but Rebels never really did it. I can’t say I’m excited to see the further adventures of Ezra and Ahsoka and it’d be best to just leave them be.
Carl Bayliss
Whilst mourning the abrupt end to The Clone Wars animated series, my interest was peaked by the promise of a new show – Rebels – to be set between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope (or even Rogue One now). Obviously on the one hand this was going to be ‘classic’ era Star Wars, but as an animated show to be aired on Disney XD was it going to be watered down to appeal to a younger audience?
With Dave Filoni at the helm, and him indicating early on that a large number of his creative team would be joining him, the early promise was good. Then just prior to the series launch, the casting announcements: of particular note were Freddie Prinze Jr and Vanessa Marshall, but just as interesting were the other cast members all who boast impressive CVs.
And so the first episodes aired as a hour-long special, Spark of Rebellion (a theme which has been echoed in The Last Jedi and elsewhere since) and we were fully introduced to the crew of of the Ghost – Hera, Kanan, Zeb, Sabine and Chopper – and Ezra a street kid with some pretty impressive skills. Around the same time the prequel book, A New Dawn, was released (written by John Jackson Miller) giving some back story on how Kanan and Hera met. The book was excellent and gave an insight into how jedi-in-hiding Kanan came to be part of Hera’s band of freedom fighters, but also meant that come the start of the TV show, some of the characters were more familiar.
The show itself has grown series by series, continuing the progression made on each series of the The Clone Wars in both storytelling and animation. I’d like to think that a provisional story arc was planned from the outset, and that Dave, his team and Disney/Lucasfilm were all committed to letting the show run its course, barring it bombing with audiences.
And so 3 and bit years later we’ve reached the conclusion of the series. With overlaps to the Clone Wars, films, comic series, and books we have a story arc that has helped fill out some of the ‘birth of the Rebellion’ story and give us a new group of heroes, some of whose stories are yet to be fully told and will hopefully see them feature in future properties – a film featuring these characters would surely be a hit, and maybe the voice actors could reprise their roles in a live action format.
With explorations of new concepts relating to the Force, the return of Ahsoka Tano, call backs to the much loved Mortis arc from The Clone Wars the show has been a hit with both new fans and old alike, and I hope that this paves the way for future shows and that Dave Filoni is given more opportunities to produce Star Wars stories, be they animated or live action.