New Star Wars animated show "Rebels" coming fall 2014

Rebels is supposed to begin in 5 BBY. Will someone here remind me what the Expanded Universe established as the clear founding date for the Rebel Alliance as we saw it in A New Hope? Was it in one of The Force Unleashed games?

 

Not a clue. Deleted scenes from Episode III show the first embryonic stirrings of the Rebellion before Palpatine even declared the existence of the Galactic Empire, but that's far from an official launch date for the Alliance. I imagine it can't have been all that many years before the start of the original film.

 

IIRC Lucas had initially planned for a very young Han Solo to show up on Kashyyyk during the battle in Ep3. His idea being that he was raised by Wookies, rather than befriending one later in life.

Given that the EU has gone bye-bye, then perhaps this is the closest thing there is to a canon narrative for Solo's early years.

Not sure if that'd make Chewie his step father/brother or just platonic life-mate, but it'd certainly put a new spin on the relationship.

 

Oh lord no. Thankfully that's one bad idea Lucas actually thought better of.

 

Honestly....I like it a lot better than the deserter Imperial Cadet idea. Han never struck me as the sort who had ever had *any* desire to wear a uniform or follow orders.

Plus, it's not as if the Wookiees are really as primitive as they were originally conceived, they just have a very techno-indigenous oriented civilization. They have blasters and starships, but they can maintain their natural environment.

The more I think about it, the more I can sort of picture Han as growing up as a scrappy streetwise urchin type kid.

 

In the Crispin novels that is how he grew up - and being that way made him yearn for some legitimacy - that's what led him to the Imperial Academy. It didn't last long, though...

 

From what I can tell based on what I've read of his backstory, he was an orphan raised by smugglers and pirates who eventually got to the point in his young life where a career in the Imperial Navy seemed like it might be promising and give him a level of professional stability, so he gave it a shot, entered the Academy (on Carida?), did well enough to graduate and receive an Imperial military commission. During his brief time in uniform he witnessed some of the Empire's more hidden cruelty (including Chewbacca's enslavement) and grew disaffected. After the freeing of Chewie and being drummed out of uniform he struck out on his own with his new Wookiee friend and pursued a more independent course where he could be his own man without others forcing him to follow orders.

As that stands, I like that background. Han tried to fit in when he was still young and impressionable and looking for structure, it didn't work out and he realized his true calling was being a rogue and scoundrel with a sidekick. He tried the system, it didn't fit and so he knew it wasn't for him.

 

That's basically the first two books of AC Crispin's "Han Solo Trilogy".

Actually, the first and the first few pages of the second.

 

My problem with that backstory is it makes him seem a little too noble and heroic, for not only rescuing Chewie from slavery but walking away from the military once he realized the truth about them.

Watching ANH, my impression of Han was of a guy who had lived a pretty hardscrabble life, never had any interest or respect for authority figures, and was probably even more of a greedy scoundrel at heart than he let on.

 

I've never read those books so I can't comment directly but while I'm sure they're entertaining, that is entirely inconsistent if not outright contradictory to his portrayal in the films.

He doesn't start out a noble, heroic figure living a robin hood lifestyle on the raggedy edge of the law. He's a low life, greedy criminal who's personal honour extends the length of a credit chit. Don't forget that when we first meet him, his last job was smuggling spice (which we are want to assume are some for of exotic narcotic) for a slave owning gangster kingpin at the arse-end of the galaxy.

Obviously he wasn't irredeemable and he had a substantial conscience (about 7'3" and covered in hair) which won out in the end. Still, until he took that shot at Vader's fighter, this is not a man who's ever risked his own neck to take a serious moral stand before. If he were, it'd invalidate his whole character arc.

So yeah, to my mind "raised by Wookiees" beats out "slave liberating Imperial" as a credible background IMO.

^This, pretty much.

 

Unfortunately I have a feeling the upcoming Han Solo spinoff movie won't be able to resist giving him the same kind of tragic and heroic backstory. Or making Young Han just as "plucky and loveable" as they made Young Indy in Last Crusade.

Even though you get the sense they were both actually just a couple of delinquents and troublemakers in their youth.

 

Have they actually *confirmed* that there's a Han Solo spin-off? Last I heard that was just fan speculation and all Disney/Lucasfilm had said was that there would be standalone spin-offs to supplement the new trilogy.

Honestly, I'd be fine with young Han being somewhat more idealistic and naive and having adventures. I just don't see him sighing up for Imperial service. it just doesn't fit.

 

The rumors have been pretty strong for a while now that two of the standalone films will focus on Boba and Han, but Lucasfilm and Disney have been tight-lipped about everything but the identities of the directors of the first two movies. My guess is we'll get a "Young Han Solo" film set a number of years prior to the events of Episode IV since Han is one of the most popular and beloved of all Star Wars characters, but who really knows.

 

Well there was a Disney conference call mentioning spinoffs for Han, Yoda, Boba Fett, and Red Five, but nothing more official than that. But a Han spinoff is such an obvious no-brainer that I'd be surprised if they didn't make one.

 

The Yoda idea intrigues me a lot since we know he trained Jedi for 800 years before the fall of the Republic and his exile on Dagobah, and his incredibly long lifespan opens up a vast array of storytelling possibilities that could predate anything we've seen on the big or small screens by centuries. An opportunity to see what the Old Republic was like long before the Prequel Era and the rapid decay of its democratic institutions during that timeframe.

Also, one has to wonder what a "young" Yoda looked and acted like during his early days as a Jedi, centuries before the Jedi Order or the wider galaxy ever heard the names Skywalker, Kenobi or Windu. I hope we eventually get a Yoda project of some kind.

 

^ Maybe young Yoda was 6' tall before age took it's toll.

 

I don't know. We know what "wonders" seeing a young Darth Vader did for the legacy of that character, do we really want Yoda given the same treatment?

Personally I think it's best to leave him with some mystery. Same goes for Palpatine. I have no interest in finding out how the Jedi missed him as a child, despite being from a "civilized", not terribly overcrowded planet or how he was recruited by a Sith Lord. They're both way more interesting with their mystique intact.

As for Boba....could go either way. Honestly his appearances on TCW game him more depth than all the films combined. Hell, in the OT he barely qualifies as a character. Mostly he's just a very cool and mysterious looking extra.

 

A helluva drug....Space Cocaine is.

 

Good point. Although thankfully I have a hard time seeing any of awful prequel character in the Vader of the OT anyway, so it's becoming more and more easy for me to separate the two as time goes on.

Still, much as I like the spinoff idea, I really hope we're only going to be seeing these characters in standalone adventures, and they won't be attempting to explain their entire life stories.

 

Or better yet, not build them around already established characters at all and come up with something new.

If not totally original then maybe draw a little from the EU like say a Mara Jade movie (think 'Salt' but with blasters) or maybe even an adaptation of KotOR? An OT or even ST era Ahsoka movie could work. Hell, I'd even go so far as to suggest that the Rogue Squadron books would be a pretty good basis for a live action TV series.

I mean *anything* has to be better than the Star Wars equivalent of 'X-Men Origins: Wolverine' no?