Simon Kinberg is Writing a Spin-Off Movie. No Connections Between Rebels and Star Wars: Episode 7? Plus Dave Filoni on the Inquisitor and Darth Vader.
This is a continuation of the Simon Kinberg interview with /Film we posted last week. Then Kinberg revealed that he was partly responsible for the involvement of Josh Trank with the second Star Wars spin-off movie. In this second part of the interview the producer talks about the upcoming Star Wars: Rebels show, it’s great season finale and if it will connect with A New Hope. He also briefly touched on Episode VII and confirmed that he is writing and producing a Star Wars movie. Also it looks like there won’t be any connection between Rebels and Episode VII as some rumors suggested before. Hit the jump to find out more…
Excerpts from /Film:
/Film: What’s crazy about this show (Rebels) is that it’s canon. Everything you do is set in stone. So what are some of the challenges that it poses where you know the history, things going on around the galaxy, plus knowing this is now committed to Star Wars history?
SK: Well look, I mean, the responsibility of writing anything that is a Star Wars story is immense. And it’s immense to do the same thing with X-Men or Fantastic Four or Sherlock Holmes. Anything that has an esteemed lineage. Star Wars is different though. I think Star Wars is a religion in a way that no other story of the last century has been. And it is for so many generations and really global, it doesn’t make a difference what your gender is, it is the popular story of, really, the medium of film. So it’s interesting. In a way it’s easy to fit into the canon, because it’s not as dense a canon. It’s Clone Wars and six movies.
/Film: But in saying that, in New Hope and Empire, we’re led to believe Luke is the New Hope and then there’s Obi Wan and Yoda and they’re the last Jedi. Does that sort of back you guys into an ending because now we have Ezra and we have Kanan, so can we assume they have to die at some point? Have you guys thought about that?
SK: We have definitely thought about how it fits into the larger canon, yeah. And part of what you get to do when you’re working these kinds of worlds, we did with X-Men too as well, is sometimes change. I mean, obviously Days of Future Past is a perfect example of this. Because of things you do in the past, you know, you can’t change some of the canon, but you can surprise people inside of the canon. And so some of the show will try to do that. But for the most part it’ll fit very snugly into the original trilogy.
/Film: Okay, so what is the difference between producing this show and your role producing Episode VII?
SK: I’m not a producer of Episode VII. I’m a consultant on VII. I’m writing and producing one of the other movies. (All other movies have writers except the 2nd and the 3rd spin-offs). On VII I think my title is “Creative Consultant” or something like that. And it’s totally different responsibilities. I didn’t write anything on VII. Obviously on Rebels I wrote a bunch of episodes. I wrote the first two. I wrote the season finale of this first season. Which I’m really proud of. The season finale turned out great. And on Rebels, I’m very involved day to day. Like I read every draft of the scripts, I look at cuts of the shows, I give notes on everything. I come for writers’ conferences. It’s essentially a full time job. I have a lot of full time jobs.
But on VII, it’s more of a consultant role where I will come in at specific points to give my thoughts creatively on whatever they want me to look at. So I was involved in the beginning of talking about possible directions for it. I spent a lot of time with Lucasfilm guys before J.J. was hired. Then I spent a lot of time with Lucasfilm guys and J.J. and I read scripts as they come in. Give my notes, thoughts, they take them or leave them. And that’s how that goes.
/Film: Last thing. With Rebels being the first thing out of the gate for Disney and Star Wars, this is a big thing. And obviously this first season is going to be its own thing. However, moving ahead, have you guys thought about the potential you basically have a half hour Star Wars commercial on TV every week leading up to Episode VII. Will that use or influence anything at all?
SK: I don’t know. It’s its own thing. I mean, there’s gonna be so much Star Wars material the next 10 years or our lives, maybe more than 10 years. They’re all kind of distinct. There’s a lot of synergy, I can say, at Lucasfilm having everybody know the information from the other stories. So I do think there is, in the same way that there’s an overall plan and a communication within Marvel Studios. I think Lucasfilm has a similar kind of synergy happening. But in terms of a responsibility for the Rebels to sort of connect to Episode VII? We haven’t really talked about that. And there is such a huge time gap between them that really what we focus on is the connection and responsibility to Episode IV.
This last sentence is particularly interesting. It puts to rest the rumors about characters from Rebels to appear in Episode VII.
In another interview again by /Film, Dave Filoni shared his thoughts on the Inquisitor:
/Film: In Star Wars lore, Obi Wan says Darth Vader hunted down the Jedi. But you guys have introduced another villain, The Inquisitor. Why introduce a whole new character to do the same thing? Especially when we already have a Sith Lord apprentice thing with Vader and the Emperor. Now you add a third character into the mix. Talk about why and how it’s going to work.
DF: I think for me the main idea is that when Obi Wan’s saying these things to Luke, he’s trying to get them explained. And he knows it’s gonna come from Vader. And it’s very specific to Luke. And that’s his destiny. The Inquisitor, is he even around at that point? Who knows?
At the point we are, so many years later, they are so few and far between that I don’t think he would follow up every lead. Because one of the things that’s muddled the whole operation, in my mind, is kids being born that can use the Force. The Emperor and Vader don’t really want them around either. But they’re so unnoticeable, you needed a group of hunters, attack dogs. And so we have an Inquisitor that goes out and hunts these guys down. Now if he was to hunt a guy down, let’s say he’s somewhere on Tatooine and he runs into Obi-Wan Kenobi, probably the Inquisitor won’t survive that. But if he did, he would call Vader up and go “You better get out here.”
For the full interviews go to /Film links above.
Founder of SWNN, MNN and The Cantina forums.
Born on April 24, 1980.
The Inquisitor is sounding kind of like Sith-Thrawn. Interesting.
Actually the Inquisitor sounds like medieval spanish Inquisition 🙂 really original 🙂
…You’re seriously making that criticism? Star Wars has been nothing if not a science-fiction series based on real-world wars and cultures. That complaint makes no sense.
I’m getting sick of people saying Vader has to be the major killer of the Jedi. It was never said that he was. Obi-Wan didn’t say Vader “hunted down the Jedi.” He said he “helped the Empire hunt down and destroy the Jedi Knights.” “Hunted down” and “HELPED the Empire hunt down” are different things. The former “may” imply that he did all the hunting himself, while the latter implies that agents of the Empire did the hunting with Vader assisting in the hunt.
Obi-Wan believes objective truth is a matter of point of view. In other words you can’t trust much of anything he says.
Plus, if you consider it from another angle, Vader did hunt down and kill a large amount of Jedi in Episode III, with his massacre at the Jedi Temple. That could be what Obi-Wan meant, if Lucas/Disney wanted it tied in that way.
Of course he had help, but we don’t want to see that – we want Vader. Besides fighting Obi-Wan, we only saw him take out children and Federation extras.
Pathetic.
Agreed! Why then is Vader feared across the entire galaxy?
He didn’t have help, he WAS the help.
They never said he won’t be hunting Jedi. They are likely saving him for the important moments, but they need an ongoing antagonist that is focused on taking down our main heroes. When Vader shows up, then we will know our heroes are doomed. Using Vader to follow after one small crew the whole time would cheapen him. He needs to be the shadowy figure that everyone fears will come after them. Our heroes need to escape the Inquisitor every time he shows up. Making Vader lose that often would also cheapen his menace.
“Curse you! I’ll get you next time, He-Ma… I mean Kanan!”
Hmm. Fair enough. We’re taking a awful big risk with this. It had better work.
I´m sorry for people who worship every star wars fart out there. It was a good point – perfect time and place for Vader…..and they invent a medieval spanish Inquisitor..
I would like the Inquisitor more if he spoke like Antonio Banderas.
You mean Puss in Boots? No thanks, I’d rather he sound like anyone OTHER THAN Antonio Banderas.
It would be both hilarious and intimidating.
Woody Allen, maybe? ;^)
Or perhaps Paul Giamatti?
I think the Inquisitor should sound like Michael Palin.
“I think Star Wars is a religion in a way that no other story of the last century has been.”
Nope.
LOTR anyone?
The books. Yes.
Simon Kinberg lacks talent. He is a mediocre writer at best and the Star Wars franchise would be better off without someone like him.
Come on, let’s not forget that it’s insanely difficult to write a decent screenplay. There are far better writers out there but Kinberg does deserve credit.
Only for X-Men Days of Future Past , but that doesn’t out weight a’lot of the garbage he helped make. Plus if you haven’t noticed in Hollywood there are a’lot bad screenplay writers that keep getting jobs for some reason. Maybe because they help make financially successful but really lack in artistic quality, talent, intelligence, & believably.
Let’s not forget Kasdan who helped write Empire’s screenplay also did “the bodyguard”. I do like the new X men movies.
Unfortunately, Larry Kasdan may have lost his touch with his writing talent over the years, it happens.
Actually the bodyguard is completely different to Lawrence’s first script. It was made about 20 years after it was sold and was tampered with by about a million people. I think even Kasdan’s brother changed it or something. If it was enough to get sold then it must have originally been pretty good.
uhhh….
I hope you go to see Ep7 and that everyone that sits around you is black.
You ain’t nothing but a bigot.
your not a writer nor a member of the film community and your opinion is retarded
We’re doomed…
Wow, the guy writes one of the best films of the year and people are still moaning. Yeah he’s written some weak stuff, but he has said he has gone out of his way to make up for that with the new x-men. People get better. Get over it. Equally, it’s all the stuff that he has written behind the scenes which he won’t get credit for… such as fixing lame scripts and consulting… which are why people like him get hired. Want to bump him off the credits? Then write good stuff and get noticed.
“Write good stuff and get noticed” Sure maybe 30% of the time that works , but Hollywood is so illogical on the way they operate its ridiculous.
Not impressed with this Kinberg guy who talks out of his ass half the time and circles questions rather than answer them.
Duke… Thirty percent? Never tell me the odds!
I hope the statement is fact coming straight from Kinberg’s mouth. In other recent interviews concerning Marvel productions, even he’s very been confused about how the Marvel TV rights actually work.
Yikes…..
I think the Inquisitor was trained by Vader with that purpose to hunt the rest of the Jedi and offspring down. Also the Bounty Hunters which in Empire Vader was very familiar with them and acted like they had worked for him before. I think he also hired them to hunt the Jedi as well. I think this point will be explained in the spin offs and possibly in Rebels some…;)
So Obiwan was telling the truth…. from a certain point of view
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYuqfy2IkAg
I think the Inquisitor was trained by Vader with that purpose to hunt the rest of the Jedi and offspring down. Also the Bounty Hunters which in Empire Vader was very familiar with them and acted like they had worked for him before. I think he also hired them to hunt the Jedi as well. I think this point will be explained in the spin offs and possibly in Rebels some…;)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYuqfy2IkAg
And that 1978 Cartoon is Cannon Folks…;)
I enjoyed this nine minute cartoon more than the seven minutes of Star Wars Rebels i saw.
I enjoyed this 9 minute cartoon more than your 900 pointless comments.
If they had Vader as the main antagonist, it would be a very short series, like one episode and everyone is dead.
You can’t let Vader loose all the time or he would turn into a joke like Grievous…
My theory was all along that the Inquisitor’s main duty was collecting/killing all the force sensitive kids that previously the Jedi enlisted. Which is an exercise far below Vader’s standards. In case one of those force sensitives puts up a fight, you have the dark side trained Inquisitor… No problem for me.
While I like this site very much and visit it daily; you will never find a more wretched hive of whiners and pessimists…
@DKDent77
By the Force! Is that a man of reason I see?
Hardly.
The galaxy is a humongous place. As “badass” as Vader is, he still needed help and several decades to almost finish the job.
I’m excited about this show. It’s nice to hear DF talk about the awesomeness of Vader over the Inquisitor. I’m sure Vader will be in the show for those “never send a boy to do a man’s job” moments. Let’s not forget that the galaxy is immense. There are planets we have never even heard of yet. It was pretty obvious to me from watching the Rebels clip that Kanan is probably not the calibur of Jedi that Yoda and Obi-Wan are. In a world spanning across an entire galaxy, it’s hard to believe that there are only two people left with the ability to use the force or even to be familiar with the old Jedi code. There are no doubt force sensitive beings and pseudo-Jedi out there. And Vader can’t do it all. He needs to delegate the small stuff. I think it is possible though that they may even show an encounter or multiple encounters between Vader and Obi-Wan throughout the series. Vader’s comments about the last time they faced each other in A New Hope do not necessarily mean that he was talking about that fateful confrontation on Mustafar. Obi-Wan (even the old one) would own the Inquisitor. The Inquisitor may be a threat to the cowboy Jedi and our rebel heroes but he might have to get help from his daddy for someone like Obi-Wan or another Jedi from the Old Republic. I like the idea of using bounty hunters as well. I would love to see them give a reasoning behind Vader’s comment to Boba Fett in TESB. Boba Fett disentegrating Jedi might be too much for a kids show, but I would welcome it. 🙂