Dave Filoni Talks: The Fate of The Jedi Rebels, Classic Characters, Inquisitors, and More!
IGN‘s Eric Goldman recently sat down with Rebels executive producer Dave Filoni to talk about the new Inquisitors, how he’s handling where Ahsoka and Rex were since we last saw them in Clone Wars, the question of where Jedi (or near-Jedi) characters like Kanan, Ahsoka and Ezra are during the original trilogy’s events and much more.
Here are some segments from the Filoni the interview:
(IGN) It’s very interesting to see Star Wars Rebels change, because the whole first season was based around Lothal. Now, you’ve added so many more elements: the bigger Rebel Alliance, Ahsoka, Rex… Did you know going in that was the path you wanted to take?
(DF) Yeah, it’s been by design, and it works on several levels. It works on a storytelling level because it lets you familiarize with this boy’s home, where he’s from. You get to know him. You get to see the culture that he lived in. You get to see the Empire’s day-to-day effect on a city.
It also, to be perfectly honest, helped with production. Because when we started Rebels we had to start from a completely new asset base. So I’m on the same planet a lot because I don’t have a lot of things to put on different planets. We finally go to some different planets and find some different things this year, and we have a pipeline now that can also support that. But it matches the story development, because I wanted it to be small. We all wanted it to be small and personal.
(IGN) We’ve seen a little bit of Bail Organa, but will we maybe get a better idea of the hierarchy of the Rebellion, whether that directly involves the Mon Mothmas and Ackbars of the world or new elements? And inevitably at some point might we see Bail Organa’s daughter… a burgeoning rebel?
(DF) [Laughs] You know, anything’s possible when it comes to the Rebellion. I think we’ve shown our interest in bringing characters in. We brought Lando in, and there were some reasons for that — better reasons in Season 2 — to establish that connection. There are obviously a lot more direct reasons why that would make sense with the Rebellion specifically. I think over time it’s reasonable, but we do want to be careful of that “Small Galaxy Syndrome,” which is why we introduced Commander Sato as sort of their Phoenix Squadron group leader — a character that we’d never seen before, but an important one as a leader.
(IGN) With these past couple of episodes, there’s a couple things that I’m curious about regarding the backstory of Rex and Ahsoka, which was their future on Clone Wars…how much of that has deviated from what you had in mind for the end of The Clone Wars? And also, how much might we get specifics on Rebels?
(DF) We’re always kind of delicately walking the line between how much we reveal in one show, because that might make a really good story somewhere in its own right. I can say, the things that Rex is referencing in this story are absolutely based on scripts we’ve actually written. They’re not even like vague outline guesses. I have a lot of what he talks about shot and prepared in my head, ready to go. But I just don’t have the ability to do those stories right now.
(IGN) Now you’ve got three people running around with lightsabers…And then that begs the question, “Well, does that mean they all have to be dead by the Original Trilogy”? At this point now, because you’ve got the Story Group, is it interesting for you guys to really see how it’s all going to fit?
(DF) Well, only Sith deal in absolutes, right? So how much of any of this absolutely has to be?…In a galaxy, even when there were 10,000 Jedi Knights, most people never even met them. So the Inquisitors hunting them down is another thing. I get the feeling that when you get to A New Hope you are at a very desperate point. It’s now or never for the Light Side of the Force. So we’re aware of it, and we work at it to make it make sense. Of course, I think it’s reasonable for a lot of people to assume that some of our favorite characters meet an untimely end or, frankly, a well-timed end in continuity. But we’ll have to see.
(IGN) Let me ask a little more about the Inquisitors. There are some intriguing things about the name “Seventh Sister.” Will we learn more about the hierarchy and how that works? Because there was a question of, “So are they Sith?” “No, they’re not Sith.” “But how are they found? Who are they?” Will we get into that?
(DF) You learn a little bit more about it. You definitely learn more about Jason Isaacs’ Inquisitor this year through the two Inquisitors that we do have. Once you’ve got two Inquisitors, you never know, there’s may be more.
Jordan Pate is Co-Lead Editor and Senior Writer for Star Wars News Net, of which he is also a member of the book and comic review team. He loves all things Star Wars, but when he's not spending time in the galaxy far far away, he might be found in our own galaxy hanging out in Gotham City or at 1407 Graymalkin Lane, Salem Center, NY.
Looks like Filoni finally has a idea of what a TIE Fighter is supposed to look like.
He said in the Rebels Recon that the Grand Inquisitor was in The Clone Wars… we’ve seen him, but didn’t know it was him.
He must mean the “bonus content” where they go to Utapau since that’s the only time you ever see his species in the series. Unless he’s a shapeshifter which we would have known by now.
The Inqisitor is the Son from Mortis. Most definitely
Great theory but I hope it’s not true since he was nearly as powerful as Anakin and got spanked pretty hard by a rookiee like Kanan. I can’t see him ever being subserviant to anyone either.
Not a very informative review but not really surprising considering how tight Disney’s locked down TFA.
Also not a fan of overdoing the Inquisitor “Dark Sider Of The Week”, I know they can’t make Vader or Palpatine look stupid but maybe throw in some bounty hunters, Mandos, Pirates, etc. to keep things interesting as the villains. In the old EU, Sidious did train a lot of Inquisitors but it doesn’t line up with the character from what we know of the PT in that he’d be paranoid about having so many potentially powerful force users even if they were supposedly on his side.
I always felt that in many ways, there were still Jedi around, just not on the planets that were shown in the OT. They were just in hiding, and probably don’t even want to go back to be a Jedi. Just my 2 cents.
Sort of brings us (in a very roundabout way) to the question – were all remnants wiped out/passed away by the time of ESB? Obi Wan suggests Luke is the last (only hope), Yoda refutes (there is another) and then states (in ROTJ) that Luke is the last of the Jedi…
Exactly. And Yoda knows Kanan and Ezra exist! He communed with them! They can’t be around. This is what I feared the most that in order to sell toys and make their tv show work that they retcon and deminish the OT and Luke’s story.
Unless they die which I hope happens and there’s no Clone Wars-esque gaps due to cancellation. Ashoka needs to go too. Would be no better way to set up the OT.
I feel that would undermine he power of Yoda, because they way it seems, is that Luke truly is their last hope.
I assume Ezra will survive and wiili be somehow tied to TFA.
i have a bad feeling about this……man i hope they do not let Filoni completely rewrite Star Wars Canon like they let him do in the lost episodes of TCW that totally conflicted with the end of revenge of the sith . ( Episodes where Yoda talked to Qui Gon and was put in the hospital that totally contradicted the end of revenge of the sith when he REALLY had his first talks to Qui Gon ) He ALREADY showed us that Yoda can see all of the Jedi in the galaxy,( since yoda talked to Kanan and Ezra in the temple). and in Return of the Jedi Yoda already said Luke was the last, and even KYLO REN say’s he will destroy the “last Jedi” in TFA. i can only see three scenerio’s resulting in what Filoni said…1: All three Jedi turn to the darkside (unlikely) 2: Ahsoka dies at the hand of Vader, Ezra turns to the darkside connecting him to the Knight’s of Ren and Kanan is either killed by Vader or Ezra. or 3: Filoni takes a cue from George Lucas and attempts to take a dump all over Star Wars and just does what he wants, no matter how dumb it is..like letting them all live .
Pretty sure we were led to believe that Yoda was communing with Qui Gon during AotC, as Anakin was slaughtering the Sandpeople.
It’s been long confirmed that it was Liam Neeson shouting his name, and then “Nooo!”. It seemed clear that Yoda was on the up and up with that.
So, as they say…from a certain point of view. 😉
Scenario # 2 is the most likely: Ahsoka and Kanan are gone; Ezra turns to the dark side, goes into seclusion during the events of the OT and secretly creates the Knights of Ren.
You’re just an angry, know it all – asshole aren’t ya?
It’s my understanding that Lucas approved all of that.
Yeah, Filoni hasn’t dumped on anything. He is perhaps the best person there is within LucasFilm to help carry on this legacy.
If they live then they’ll just say they are not fully Jedi. They are something else. Not Jedi but not Sith either. Kind of like the inquisitors only they use the light side.
yeah, they have name for that: Wannabe.
or, alternatively:
BUM
I have a theory that somewhere down the line, Ezra will end up dying, causing Kanan to forever abandon the Force and quit being a Jedi out of guilt. Ahsoka may be killed by Vader, like everyone keeps saying. This way Yoda’s words in Return of the Jedi about Luke being the last Jedi will remain true.
Yoda may not have known about Ahsoka, but even if he did he didn’t consider her a Jedi.
He’s able to force-talk to Kanan, but doesn’t know if Ahsoka is still alive? No way. And it’s not really about being called a “jedi.” Luke didn’t resemble anything like the jedi from the Old Republic.
Yoda was only able to do that from a Jedi temple, right?
Max Von Sydow is playing a character named Lor San Tekka. He would be 15-20 years older than Luke Skywalker. I’m curious if he’s introduced in Rebels after the movie. Generally speaking, very few characters are revealed in a TV show before showing up on the big screen.
General Greivous….
There better be no bloody force users left by Star Wars,other than Obi,Yoda,Vader,Palps and the twins or I’ll shat and thats a promise.
Wipe them out…..all of them.
But I’m stoked that he has more Rex stories to go,save them for the Filoni live action movies that this legend has earned the right to make.
I love that Filoni used “only a Sith deals in absolutes” when talking about whether or not Ezra, Kanan, and Ahsoka need to die before A New Hope. I used the exact phrase in my piece on the same topic yesterday. No, they don’t all have to die.