New Star Wars animated show "Rebels" coming fall 2014

The music and TIEs help.

 

Personally I've seen enough variants of that "blaster bolts chasing and hitting a TIE fighter" shot to last a lifetime -- especially when you add in the equivalent shots of Cylon Raiders that the original Galactica tended to use over and over in every space battle scene.

 

I absolutely loved the bit on Kevin Kiner. His work on CW was incredible. And I wish upon a Death Star that someday we'll get more of his work beyond the score for the cinematic release.

 

Stupid question, but is Asoka Tano going to be in this (and did she even survive the Jedi Purge?)

 

Dave Filoni just said in an interview or statement that no, none of the regular characters we saw on The Clone Wars will appear in the new series. I imagine if we even hear or see anything else about Ahsoka it'll happen in one of the live-action theatrical films.

 

I think that as Rebels finds it footing, we could get Ahsoka on the show in a guest role or even recurring, purely beacuse of fan demand. I'm sure Dave Filoni would love to do it, but wouldn't even hint at it until Rebels is a success in its own right.

Mark

 

That's possible I suppose. A lot of series say they're not going to do this or that and then go on to do just precisely those things, so who knows. He sounded pretty certain, but ratings and demographics dictate a lot in his industry.

 

Eyup. Ahsoka's story had closure enough in TCW, but the story is obviously left open for subsequent appearances in the canon and her exit seemed tailor-written to avoid the Jedi purge. TCW has been great at filling in gaps we didn't even know were there, and so with Rebels coming our way and so much of the creative team staying the same. I totally see this gap being closed off at some point in the future of the show.

Mark

 

Yeah, I think early on they'll be too focused on establishing 'Rebels' as it's own show and develop the new cast of characters to worry about cameos.

Remember that in TCW it took them until the end of the third season for Chewbacca to show up, the likes of Boba Fett, Jabba and the like appeared only a few times and by the end we had the likes of Ackbar, Tarkin, Mon Mothma making guest appearances.

Impressively, it was always in service of the story, never just for the sake of fan service. The only thing they really did make something more of was the Darth Maul arc, which shocked me as to how good it turned out. Hell, they even made Jar Jar tolerable!

As far as I'm concerned, this team has my full confidence. They don't need to revisit old stories and characters, but I would be shocked if they don't start popping up by the end of season two, once the show has hit a good stride. Ahsoka, Asajj and Rex are all prime candidates and it's seem odd if they don't bring back Bail Organa, Ackbar, Tarkin, Mon Mothma and a few other familiar faces from the Senate.

 

I'd expect to see a lot more characters from the Original Trilogy than PT or TCW. If we don't get at least one appearance from a young Leia and/or Han by the end of the show, I'd be shocked. I could see some of the characters you mentioned at the end of you post we know were active during both eras appearing, but I don't see a lot of ties back to TCW. I'm thinking this is kind of the start of the marketing push toward EPVII, so I see bigger emphasis on the OT being likely. This is all just guessing though, so I could be wrong.

 

I agree, JD. And from a marketing standpoint, no other character is more inherently identified specifically with TCW than Ahsoka and having her on Rebels at all would seem like going backwards, especially for the suits.

From what we've seen so far, it seems like Filoni and team are going for something truly new, the focus being the adventures of the new crew, exploring this mysterious era and how it ties into the OT. I've never gotten the feeling that it was meant as a continuation (or is even meant to directly foreshadow events in the OT, another assumption we shouldn't make) and thus tie-backs would serve little purpose.

As pointed out by Reverend, most of the PT/OT cameos in TCW had a narrative purpose and weren't just fanwankery.

That said, SW is now Disney's and at the end of the day it's still a business. Ahsoka is/was a title character and a not obscure one at that. Whether it be in this series, the ST or something else altogether, I don't think we've seen the last of her.

It may be nothing, but I read the fact that they haven't already given some coda to the character to mean they still have plans for her. Other than that supposed tragic ending, her fate is left kinda open, which is why we're tying ourselves in knots about it.

 

You're probably right. There's also people who are turned off by the prequels and likely didn't follow TCW--Rebels will try to take advantage of that.

 

I just hope it succeeds. Maybe it won't enjoy the kind of popularity or even ratings that The Clone Wars did due to the Disney connection and/or the channel on which it airs, but it might be a pretty great series once it gets off the ground and the lead characters establish themselves. Most shows - animated or otherwise - take a little while to bake and even TCW felt rough and partially unwatchable at first.

At least Rebels has OT nostalgia and connections going for it, and with the show premiering so close to the worldwide debut of Episode VII the excitement over a brand new movie trilogy should give the new series an added boost. TCW was a hit and flourished at a time when no other new Star Wars productions were being filmed and aired or released and proved that it could succeed in a relative vacuum of new stories.

 

Yeah, as much as I was hoping for an animated Han, Luke and Leia series, this is probably the next best thing. Still set in the same era, but with a new set of characters to explore.

And as good as TCW could often be, it still had to rely on the prequels for inspiration, which could result in some pretty dull and interminable storylines like the recent one with Padme and the banking clan... or whatever that was I gave up on halfway through. Lol

 

You missed Anakin basically murdering Clovis and getting away with it?

 

I thought the Clovis episodes were hands down the weakest of Season 6, but I got through them and found things to like. Chronologically, haven't they been established as taking place during a previous year of the series? Season 4, I believe? That would explain why they seem so out of place in the final season's lineup.

 

They were a holdover from the fourth production cycle and would have aired in Season Five but were pulled.

I seem to be the only person who actually liked those episodes. I thought Sidious' manipulation of the situation was utterly brilliant, and it was great to see Padme actually realizing Anakin is a psycho for half a second.

 

Actually, my question as to what happened to Ahsoka was answered in a video I saw on YouTube yesterday afternoon; sorry to bring it up.

 

Which video? Was it a speculation or even parody made by a fan or something along those lines?

 

I actually liked them, too. The Clone Wars actually managed to make the whole trade dispute banking nonsense from TPM somewhat interesting.