Pablo Hidalgo Addresses Rumors About Seminar Discussion.

It’s not every day when your message board becomes the subject of focus for one of the key creators involved with the Star Wars universe! Recently, a fellow Star Wars reporter posted a screencap of a recent rumors based on a seminar held by the Lucasfilm Story Group’s Pablo Hidalgo. Hidalgo verified that some of the things he talked about are true, but some details were misinterpreted. Here’s our take on the situation.

 

Some of you who have followed Pablo Hidalgo’s Twitter Feed will know that he’s recently been on vacation – and he’s evidently hitched a ride on a Disney Cruise Line. During one of the Star Wars At Sea events, Hidalgo apparently had a seminar followed by a Q&A session. A little while later, someone posted about what they heard at The Cantina, our message boards. Furious Fanboys writer Jeremy Conrad screencapped the post and sent it to Mr. Hidalgo, who replied with the following:

 

 

We were trying to get these rumors verified before making a post about them, but it seems that there’s no point to it now that the story’s out there and the man himself has mentioned some of this. The text of the posts is as follows:

My pal was on one of those Star Wars cruises. Pablo gave a seminar. Check this out.

So, I got to attend a seminar/ Q&A with Pablo Hidalgo a couple of days ago. I know these points I’m about to cover would go in a lot of different threads, but I thought it would be easier to just condense them all here. Keep in mind I’ve been incommunicado for the last week, so if any of this has been announced or anything, I apologize.

1: The fourth season is definitely the last season of Rebels.
2: I asked how closely events that happen in Rebels/ Clone Wars would tie into future events that would happen in Saga movies such as The Last Jedi. He said very much so.
3: Our favorite storylines in Clone Wars (Yoda arc, Mortiss, Seventh Sister…) were all Lucas stories, and are absolutely integral to the understanding of the Force going forward.
4: I asked him privately when the new cartoon was set, he wouldn’t tell me. He said “go to Celebration.”
5: They are VERY much aware of Yoda’s line in ROTJ regarding Luke being the last of the Jedi and the fact stragglers like Kanan and Ezra are roaming around the galaxy. They have no plans to make Yoda a liar.
6: Episode 8 will answer A LOT of questions about the Jedi and what happened with Ben turning to the Dark Side. He did accidentally hint that info regarding Rey would be answered as well.
7: The time between ROTJ and TFA is definitely a fertile area for exploration and he gave the impression that there absolutely will be projects set in that time frame.
8: He really explained the different movements/affiliations in TFA. So, the new Republic that is significantly smaller than the Empire was just as the Empire was smaller than the Old Republic. When the Old Republic went down, there were still all those factions left is the Seperatists that never joined the Empire and the never joined the new Republic. So it wasn’t some huge galaxy-spanning organization. Since the fall of the Empire, remnants of it have been coalescing and eventually became the First Order. While they were building in power, Leia was trying to get the Republic to open its eyes and see what’s happening. They wouldn’t (reminiscent of the Jedi before the Clone Wars) so she and others created the Resistance to publicly oppose the First Order. I was glad he explained this. It makes much more sense now.

That’s a lot to take in at once. Given what we know, however, it’s worth looking into these claims individually since Pablo Hidalgo basically said that not all of these are accurate. Here are my thoughts on each point:

  1. Difficult to say, as this could go either way, but I’m going to lean toward the side of “not likely to be true”. The only reasons that I think that the show could end with Season 4 is that that’s how long Disney XD shows generally last, at least as far as their most successful programs go. Rebels is about to have a big panel for Star Wars Celebration Orlando, and if such an announcement were to be made, it would be made either there or when the season was first announced – not on a tiny public event in the middle of the ocean. I seriously doubt that Mr. Hidalgo would be so loose in his language about this sort of thing, considering how tight-lipped he is about future content in general. Furthermore, Freddie Prinze Junior has previously made the statement that Dave Filoni has a blank check on the series by Disney on his various podcast appearances, and there are plans for as many as seven seasons. Syndication is also a big factor in how long a cartoon runs, and that magic number is 100 episodes. This Saturday, they’ll be up to 59, so for the series to reach syndication, it would necessitate not only a full fourth season of 22 episodes, but a full fifth season as well before they could safely put an end to the series. My personal guess is that they’ll go for six seasons, as in that scenario, the show would wrap up shortly before Episode IX is released on home video (provided that they go for a December 2019 release window for the movie itself). Lastly, the other Star Wars animated projects that Dave Filoni got a promotion to make most likely won’t be completed for a long while – at most, we might see a small teaser of what’s to come at Celebration, but for now, Rebels remains to be the primary focus of Star Wars television.
  2. Seems a bit like wishful thinking as far as substantive connections that the television shows would have on the movies (at least insofar as, say, Ahsoka Tano showing up out of nowhere), but Saw Gerrera and the big Rebels Easter Eggs at the end of Rogue One stand against that line of thinking. It certainly seems as though the ideas about the Force that are touched upon in both shows will carry over into the film, especially since there’s speculation about a certain scene that was shown in Disney’s investor’s conference sizzle reel which is tied to the way the Force is shown in the cartoons. (That Dave Filoni also visited the set of The Last Jedi makes it pretty likely that there’s fire to this smoke.)
  3. This has long since been confirmed, on both counts – The Clone Wars is largely George Lucas’s baby when it comes to matters of the nature of the Force, and while he came up with some ideas that weren’t exactly universally-adored (IE: the Jar Jar episodes and Jabba having Truman Capote as his uncle), he came up with a lot of the stuff that’s regarded as the best material in the series (Cad Bane being based off of Lee Van Cleef and Darth Maul’s surprisingly-effective return among them). There’s only one problem with this particular account that I can recognize – and that’s the fact that there is no Seventh Sister storyline in The Clone Wars. She doesn’t show up until Rebels, at which point Lucas more or less retired from working on Star Wars.
  4. I don’t find it incredibly likely that someone asked Pablo Hidalgo any questions up close, but still. Again, I don’t expect any mind-blowing full preview to happen at Celebration considering that Rebels is in for an entire season before they’re going to set anything else for a release date. The lack of a Celebration event next year makes me think that they won’t be able to fully preview what they’re currently working on until 2019, because I don’t see it as being too likely that they’d use someone else’s convention now that Celebration is a near-annual event.
  5. To my understanding, Dave Filoni’s been in favor of the whole “Yoda was speaking relatively” thing up until this point, and I don’t see that suddenly changing, much less a not-so-subtle signal that two characters are going to die. There will definitely be a reason why we don’t see Kanan and Ezra around the Rebel Alliance by the time that Luke Skywalker shows up, but for all we know, it’ll be for the same reason that we didn’t see Ahsoka in A New Hope. But they do pay attention to existing continuity (notice how Obi-Wan was never addressed as such in last week’s episode of Rebels), and that much has always been clear.
  6. Both of these are a given, particularly in regards to Luke. Next!
  7. Ditto. The only reason they aren’t exploring more of it now is because it would inadvertently give stuff about how The Last Jedi is going to play out away.
  8. This is consistent with what he – and other in Lucasfilm – have stated in regards to the lead-up to The Force Awakens. The First Order isn’t a standard system of government, it’s a military junta that’s vying to restore the Galactic Empire.

So the only things that are really questionable with this particular rumor dump is the first one, while there are some other details that feel off about the others. If there’s stuff that isn’t immediately clear right now, then I suspect that some of it is going to be corrected in the near-future. As we said earlier, we’re still waiting for verification on some of these details. We’ll be back to provide it once we get word one way or the other.

 

+ posts

Grant has been a fan of Star Wars for as long as he can remember, having seen every movie on the big screen. When he’s not hard at work with his college studies, he keeps himself busy by reporting on all kinds of Star Wars news for SWNN and general movie news on the sister site, Movie News Net. He served as a frequent commentator on SWNN’s The Resistance Broadcast.

Grant Davis (Pomojema)

Grant has been a fan of Star Wars for as long as he can remember, having seen every movie on the big screen. When he’s not hard at work with his college studies, he keeps himself busy by reporting on all kinds of Star Wars news for SWNN and general movie news on the sister site, Movie News Net. He served as a frequent commentator on SWNN’s The Resistance Broadcast.

24 thoughts on “Pablo Hidalgo Addresses Rumors About Seminar Discussion.

  • March 24, 2017 at 7:59 am
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    I’d be more surprised to see rebels last seven seasons than four. I think they want get to post Jedi sooner rather than later. Five seasons would be my guess.

    You need to give a better explanation than “a certain point of view” if you keep ahsoka, kanan and Ezra alive into the OT. Luke being the last Jedi is too important to the overall plot.

    The last bit about the size of the empire is interesting. I knew they were waging a protracted war in the outer rim after the republic fell, but I didn’t realize they were still smaller after all that. And of course the splintered galaxy after the empire fell creates a ton of possibilities.

    • March 24, 2017 at 9:03 am
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      You need to give a better explanation than “a certain point of view” if
      you keep ahsoka, kanan and Ezra alive into the OT. Luke being the last
      Jedi is too important to the overall plot.< Jedi is both singular and plural. Also in the old EU they were dozens of knight and master level Jedi running around llike X1, Rahm Kota, Starkiller clone(maybe), and even that one cat/bunny jedi

      • March 24, 2017 at 2:27 pm
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        It’s not a certain point of view. You are either a Jedi or you are not.

      • March 24, 2017 at 5:15 pm
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        citing TFU which wasn’t even considered canon when it came out isn’t helping your case. besides, thats pre ANH, just like rebels. my issue is if kanan and ezra survive beyond that.

    • March 24, 2017 at 11:11 am
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      Well, actually, that’s only true for Kanan and Ezra, Ahsoka has been repeatedly described as no longer a Jedi.

      • March 24, 2017 at 1:09 pm
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        I believe Ezra or (more likely (Kanan) will become a Bendu (if thats the correct title). I believe the Bendu will likely die in season finale, and it will revealed is role in the galaxy will be important.
        I believe Kanan will take his place.

        As for Rebels ending at season 4 I find it doubtful
        (a) Clone Wars was planned for 7-8 seasons all of which took place in a timeperiod of 3 years in universe.
        Rebels (assuming it ends at ANH) takes place over 5 years,
        (b) There is no rush to end it. It is successful + we have to remember Star Wars content is going to be released forever now, why would they need to rush to finish it, there is no end point in Star Wars content.

        • March 24, 2017 at 2:51 pm
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          I’d say it has at least 5 seasons. Anything beyond that depends on how the series would handle overlapping with ‘Rogue One’ and ANH.

        • March 24, 2017 at 7:59 pm
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          Remember: clone wars covered pretty much every type of story under the sun. The Jedi, sith, clones, bounty hunters, hutts, politics, the nature of the force itself along with the war. It also had a much bigger cast to follow. Rebels is bound at the hip to the ghost crew and that drastically limits the stories available(as we’ve already started to see).

    • March 24, 2017 at 2:25 pm
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      Luke being the last of the Jedi doesn’t mean Ezra and/or Kanan are not alive during the OT. It may mean simply that they have become something else other than Jedi.

      • March 24, 2017 at 7:35 pm
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        Well Kanan was knighted a Jedi at the end of season 2 so he can’t be alive. I don’t think Ezra will get killed off but I don’t think he can be apart of the Rebel Alliance either.

  • March 24, 2017 at 9:00 am
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    You can read Leia’s concern about the First Order and the creation of the Resistance in the novel “Bloodline”.
    The book is set five or six years before TFA.

  • March 24, 2017 at 5:24 pm
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    God, I love this guy.

    Pablo is the Milton of the Lucasfilm Office Space — no one ever told him he was laid off after the Disney buy-out, but he trudges on.

    Keep drawing those Transformers sketches, buddy — the check is in the mail.

    • March 24, 2017 at 5:41 pm
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      What?

      • March 24, 2017 at 6:34 pm
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        Yep, I’m breaking up with Pablo:

        Strike 3 is his face-punchable line “Not really interested in clarifying.”

        Strike 2 was his even douchier tweet, “As far as I know, there’s only one person who could make this happen and he hasn’t seemed all that interested.” (In reference to a pre-SE Star Wars release).

        Strike 1 was the time in 3rd grade when he raised his hand at the end of class and shouted “Teacher, you forgot to collect the homework!”.

        Not a fan.

        • March 24, 2017 at 7:06 pm
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          You seem to have a great misconception about what he does there, lol, judging from your first comment.

          As for your strikes, he is done with answering Star Wars stuff b/c it doesn’t matter: people will ignore it and think what they want.

          As for Strike 2, I don’t see how telling you the truth, despite it being what you don’t want to hear, is douchey.

          Pablo is the ultimate fan who got a job in Star Wars. He is one of us.

          • March 24, 2017 at 7:28 pm
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            That first comment was just me blowing off some satirical steam. He may have started as one of us, but lately he shows more signs of contempt for the fans (while laughing his way to the bank).

            Now he’s at a point where he’ll dole out info on a fancy, expensive Star Wars cruise, but then be snarky about it to those who didn’t attend his public speaking engagement. None of this stuff is even spoiler-worthy.

          • March 24, 2017 at 7:32 pm
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            Ah, I hear ya. Yeah, he does, but I mean, I feel the same way sometimes. Some fans are just entirely annoying haha.

            They ask questions and get answers and then refuse to accept them bc it doesn’t make their theories work.

            They can be exhausting haha

          • March 24, 2017 at 7:33 pm
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            You feel the same way?

            (I never noticed.) 😉

          • March 24, 2017 at 7:35 pm
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            To be fair, Disney Cruises aren’t that much more expensive than a regular cruise line. 🙂 But I get the point.

    • March 24, 2017 at 5:53 pm
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      Laid-off after Disney? Uh, you know they promoted him, right?

      • March 24, 2017 at 6:23 pm
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        I know it all too well.

  • March 24, 2017 at 6:14 pm
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    Couple of clarifying points on the OP:

    I also know the guy who posted the original info. He’s a member of a message board that I post on frequently. He posted those 8 points without having any idea they’d be picked up by and spread across the internet. He feels kinda badly about all of this.

    First of all, he posted from his phone at the airport having arrived back from the cruise and just wanted to jot down what he could remember for a bunch of us who are big fans and wanted to hear all about the cruise. The post wasn’t especially thorough or as clear as it could have been. And again, he didn’t expect it to get around.

    The bit about Rebels being the final season was a slip up. Pablo was answering a question and said something like “we have one more season of Rebels… oops… I mean ANOTHER season of Rebels is coming.” Then he said something like “don’t tell anyone I said that.” The Poster thought it was funny and admitted that it wasn’t confirmation of anything; he just wanted to share it with us because we’re big fans of Rebels and have been speculating on whether or not the show will end after next season. Again, he didn’t know this would go viral at any level and really feels badly that it’s gone as far as it has.

    As far as the “talked to Pablo privately” thing… here’s what happened according to the guy who was on the cruise: “It wasn’t really private. He was shaking hands and snapping pics after the Q&A. When it came my turn, we chatted briefly about our ages and how cool all this would’ve been when we were kids, just general stuff like that. Then, I said something like “any hints on the timeline on the new cartoon?” And, with a chuckle, he replied “go to Celebration.” There were about 15-20 other people around that could’ve heard it if any of them were listening to our conversation.”

    I’m only posting all of this on his behalf because I know he feels weird about all of it and he doesn’t want to make things worse. He respects Pablo and never had any intention of “leaking” anything or bringing on this kind of speculation. He wants to drop the whole thing but I thought it was only right to post something that explained the context a little more clearly. Hope all of this makes sense.

    Thanks for all your great work. Keep the news/rumors coming.

    • March 24, 2017 at 6:18 pm
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      He also clarified that “Seventh Sister” should have been “Nightsisters.” FWIW

  • March 24, 2017 at 7:41 pm
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    I think its far more likely that Rebels will end after Season 4 than it going on for 7-8 seasons. That is crazy sauce, there would be far too many stories in such a small time frame. We are a year and half away from RO/ANH right now. I really hope that whatever is coming next will be set between ROTJ and TFA. Adventures of Luke and young Ben Solo. I heard once that the guy who plays Luke in the movies likes to do voice over work on the occasion, but I can’t confirm that.

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