It's been close to year since Star Wars Rebels left our screens for good, concluding a four season run on Disney XD. But just because the series is over, doesn't mean that fans--or Lucasfilm--is done with the series. A new book, titled The Art of Star Wars Rebels, from Lucasfilm publishing and Dark Horse Books was announced today. The book will highlight some of the concept art that was created for the series. The book is written by Daniel Wallace and will feature commentary from Rebels executive producers Dave Filoni, Simon Kinberg, and Carrie Beck.
Simon Kinberg, executive producer of Star Wars Rebels, spoke with Moviefone recently and hinted at some future connections between the animated series and the live action Star Wars movies. Kinberg spoke about how they went about integrating Rebels into the current Star Wars canon by including classic Star Wars characters as well as bringing in characters from the previous animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars in recurring roles in Season Two. He also alluded to the fact that you might see some characters from Rebels show up in the future movies. Kinberg said,
"What's lovely is, obviously, we've brought in characters from 'Clone Wars' in the second season, and we keep sort of bringing characters from the original movies and sort of deepening the relationships between our core characters, the Ghost crew. So it's trying to balance the two different things, like the original cast from the first season with 'Clone Wars,' with characters from the original movies, and maybe even feeding into future movies."
To be fair, Kinberg has been suggesting there are connections between Rebels and the new movies since before Season One. Which was true to an extent. There weren't any ground shaking crossovers that some fans were hoping for. This was due in large part to the fact that Rebels is set over 30 years before the events of The Force Awakens, making such crossovers difficult. However, with Rogue One being set in roughly the same time period as Rebels, it seems more likely for it to become a reality this season. There is also the groundbreaking news that Forest Whitaker is playing Saw Gerrera, a character who first appeared on The Clone Wars, in Rogue One. Having a character jump from an animated series to the films is unprecedented and opens the door for more characters to make the conversion. Could we see a cameo by the crew of The Ghost in Rogue One? Well, now more than ever, anything is possible.
The Star Wars Rebels Season Two finale, "Twilight of the Apprentice" just wrapped up on the East Coast, and now the cast and crew are finally able to speak about what went down. Be warned, if you haven't seen "Twilight of the Apprentice" stop reading now. This is you SPOILER ALERT!
First up, Club Jade has posted a video of the Q&A which took place following the screening of the episodes at Walt Disney Studios in Burbank which took place on Monday. The Q&A, moderated by StarWars.com writer Amy Ratcliffe, features executive producer Dave Filoni, executive producer Simon Kinberg, and voice actors Ashley Eckstein (Ahsoka Tano) and Taylor Gray (Ezra Bridger). Check it out below,
When asked if Ahsoka was still alive, Filoni said,
Is that what you saw? That’s so interesting. That’s so good. You know
I think it says a lot about who you are, which is great. You’re an
optimist, and I think that that’s strong, I think that that’s strong.
[Laughs] It’s an interpretation. I mean, the thing for me in this moment
in time with this story – and I was pretty clear about this from the
beginning in that Rebels is not Ahsoka Tano’s story, nor is it Darth
Vader’s story, and we worked really hard to bring those characters into
the story. But ultimately, I have to service Ezra and Kanan, and the
crew of the Ghost. So a lot of that episode is portrayed through their
eyes, and especially Ezra’s, as he witnesses this kind of titanic thing
happening.
It’s just so easy – especially in that situation –
it’s so easy to have Ahsoka and Vader take over the show. And I think
evidence of that is that even though they don’t encounter each other
until act three, you immediately get the dynamic of what’s going on. I
would say that – while I’m not a huge fan of being tremendously
ambiguous as far as what happened – I would say that this is the one
case where I think it’s alright with Ahsoka to leave things a bit
open-ended. You wondered what happened to her before, but you knew she
walked away. Now she kind of leaves in a state of conflict. I would just
say that there are probably – and I’ll give you this as we go back a
ways – there are probably more stories to tell with Ahsoka Tano, but I
would not believe that that would happen necessarily on Star Wars Rebels.
I’ve been wrong in the past, but I think that she has served the part
of the story that she needed to for our characters here. Then we’ll have
to see. I do like the character a lot, obviously, and I think that
she’s developed her own kind of fan base within the Star Wars universe.
So, you know, I think there are still more stories to be told. I think
there are stories to be told prior to Rebels with her. I think there are
a lot of stories that happen right at the end of Clone Wars that we’re
unaware of yet.
You know, I think the thing that I’ve learned is that the character has a
lot of strength to be on her own, doing things. And perhaps that means
she’s still alive. I don’t know. There are clues to the actual answer in
what I think throughout, I will say that. And some kids at the [finale]
screening were shooting pretty close to the mark, or at least were
decoding the [clues] that I have left for them. It’s one of those
mysteries then where maybe, beyond hope, maybe there is a future, but
we’ll have to wait and see.
On the potential for a Vader vs. Maul showdown next season, Filoni said,
[Laughs]I wouldn’t count on that. What I think is interesting is that
Maul has an awareness of him. I think that that’s a particularly
interesting thing. Maul obviously has been somehow keeping tabs on
what’s going on in the galaxy and probably wishes he was more a part of
it. That’s another bit of wonderful story, which is: What has Maul been
up to? How did Maul get on this desolate planet? And we obviously don’t
answer those questions at this time, but it is stuff we’ve considered
when we wrote these stories. It never came to be that he would face off
with Vader, at least not yet. Again, the main reason being that, while
that’s a fun notion in a lot of ways, the personal story of the
relationship between Ahsoka and Darth Vader as Anakin is way too
compelling and needed all the screen time. As we were working out how
this episode was going to go, it became clearer and clearer to me that I
couldn’t have all these other people in play when we got to Darth
Vader. It’s too distracting. At one point we had several of the
characters still battling Inquisitors and Darth Vader was in the mix. I
just felt like everybody kind of had to be thinned out and exhausted,
and then here comes the worst thing of all. So you really feel like you
have no chance whatsoever. So just organically, it happened that way
over a period. We’ll have to see. You never know, you never know. The
nerd-tacular obsession with Vader vs. Maul. It’s hard to say – I mean,
Vader is hard to top. Something George is pretty adamant of all the time
was that Vader, you know… You never want to do anything to diminish
him.
Filoni also addressed seeing and hearing a little from Anakin in this episode,
As far as how Vader would treat Ahsoka and react to her, I
base that interaction – the attitude, if not the dialogue – on my
conversation with George about how that would go. I asked him pretty
pointedly, “How would this conversation go? How would he feel about
her?” We both agreed that the one thing that Ahsoka can’t represent in
any way is any path of redemption for Vader, or the hope that that’s
there because Luke is the only one that’s going to be able to make that
happen. And that’s the story that we see. It was our belief that we
could have this moment, but it’s not even a moment of hesitation for
Vader. Because he says then, “You will die,” and he means it. He is
going to destroy her, and the reason that is, is that she has knowledge
of him as a good person. She represents and is a vessel for everything
that he once was, and he finds such pain in that, and hatred, and anger.
He doesn’t want to face what he’s become, but he just wants to destroy
anything that reminds him of that former self. He doesn’t even talk
about Anakin in the movies, at first, and if he is that person. “That
name no longer means anything to me.” So we have to establish that Darth
Vader and the destroyed character of Anakin. The moment you see it
reach out in hope is when he says her name finally, and you hear the
voice of Anakin. That’s the only thing, is beyond this horrible person
is this trapped person inside that calls to her.
I
believe that also in that moment, she realizes that, what can she
possibly do for him? Her strength as a character saying, “I will not
leave you. Not this time. I’m not going to abandon you, I’m going to see
how this plays out, here and now.” Whatever that means, that maybe that
show of kindness and strength towards her old friend helps.
Honestly,
and you’re the first person I’ve told this to, I have already been
looking for ways to – in whatever form – play out what happens once that
door closes. I just think it’s too compelling and too interesting, and
while it might not be something for Ezra’s story, or Kanan’s, it would
be interesting down the line if I got to show everybody what happens
once that temple closes. I think what we’ve created is an interesting
point in Star Wars history and time, and time will tell if we ever
actually get to see that. I do believe that Vader – and why he’s
fighting her at the end, which was important – is that he wants to
destroy her. So she’s really kind of stuck. And perhaps even in that
moment herself thinks, “Well maybe this is the end for me.” We’ll have
to wait and see.
He also talked a little about blind Kanan, saying,
Well, it was something that I was interested in, and Henry Gilroy was
interested in. We would talk about it. You see this type of loss via the
hand and we’ve seen that more than once. There’s something about taking
something away from your characters, really challenging them and seeing
how it affects them. I was talking to Simon [Kinberg] about this last
night – really when you see this two-parter, it’s the first half of a
story that continues to play out in Season 3. Where these characters go
through some growth. You have a character in Kanan that was really
hiding from who he was for a long time, and now has come out of that and
kind of reclaimed who he was, or who in a way he was meant to be as a
Jedi teaching the students. But that doesn’t mean that that choice comes
without a cost. Again, we’re going to face challenges in life, and now
Kanan is going to face this big challenge and what it means for him as a
crew of the Ghost that he’s suffered this injury, and can he overcome
it. It definitely plays out next season.
On Ezra touching the Dark Side, Filoni said,
I think - again going over this with the writers over the year and
the Force – our Dark Side is something everybody is challenged with. You
can access great power. It is a quick and easy path for results. Ezra’s
been raised by a group of rebels who are causing conflict and fighting
all the time. You have to start to wonder, what does that start to do to
him as a young person, where conflict is kind of the way to resolve
most of the issues? They don’t have with them the negotiators so much.
Kanan attempts this a little bit in the Mandalorian episode we did,
where he’s like, “Perhaps we should negotiate with Fenn Rau.” And
eventually he pulls that off, but after a lot of conflict. We had to
explore Ezra’s dark side, and one of the hardest things about that was
making it believable that Maul could coerce [him]. I mean, you’re not
exactly dealing with a character that doesn’t look exactly like the
devil in Maul!
I
was kind of chuckling to myself last night. I kind of wish I had a line
in there from Ezra, which is like, “Well I know he looks bad, Kanan,
but he’s not.” So Kanan’s like, “You think? He looks bad, really?” I
think that was kind of the beauty of Sam [Witwer], was his performance
in the episode. He did a great job of making the audience believe that
Ezra could believe that he’s on their side. That’s kind of the lure of
the Dark Side. A lot of what he’s saying about “Use your abilities, use
your strength, use your anger and you can overpower these enemies.” It’s
really close to a lot of the dialogue, if you notice, that Ahsoka was
saying earlier, which is sometimes, “If you want to defeat your enemies,
you have to learn about them. You have to learn about their knowledge
and what they are.” Ezra gets a little bit of his wires crossed there,
when Maul’s and Ahsoka’s teachings are coming pretty close together. But
Maul is definitely on the side of extreme, and that “We’re going to
have the power to destroy our enemies, not just defeat them.”
When asked about the voice heard in the holocron (portrayed by Nika Futterman), Filoni revealed the source of that voice, saying,
To me, that voice you hear is actually the ancient, ancient Sith Lord
that created the temple. She was a powerful Sith Lord. I like the idea
of this powerful, ancient woman that has domination that we’ve never
heard of before, that was creating this massive weapon. And in the midst
of the construction of this thing, when it was nearing completion, it
got assaulted by ancient Jedi Knights. They have this huge battle at the
foot of the temple, basically, and the weapon fires or malfunctions and
everyone gets turned to stone. We had a lot of different versions of
the story where – at one point, we see that thing fire initially when
Ezra turns it on and it sends up that sphere. We were going to show that
the one Eighth Brother had actually survived the fall and was
scrambling towards his ship. Because he could use the Force probably to
help himself land, and he was going to get hit by this wave. You would
see it turn him to stone. Maul, because he would have been on a lower
level when he saw the blast coming, would have survived it. And that’s
how Maul winds up in the Eighth Brother’s TIE Fighter. He actually feels
it and that’s when he flies out of there in the end. But yeah, there’s
this ancient Sith Lord that Nika was playing, and I’m still going over
the dos and don’ts of the continuity of all that. But I wrote the
history down, I just put it out there in case people want to pick it up
later when they’re working on things, and give some continuity. I won’t
reveal the name – I have named the character, but I have to make sure
everybody’s cool with it.
And finally, on how Maul knew Ahsoka, Filoni said,
That was somewhat of a challenge, but I kind of just put it to my
mind as if I was writing this and we had never made Clone Wars. And I
was thinking, “Well, I know these characters have met, so they have to
act like it.” I laid out for Sam and Ashley how that episode arc
actually went. It was easy because we had actually written the episodes,
so I know how they go. As you can imagine, Witwer was a rapt audience
and just wanted to soak all of that in; all that goodness in. It was
important for them because I never know when we’ll actually get to go
back and do things. So I want to make sure that points in the timeline
that I know happened – even if they haven’t been committed to a TV
series, or a film yet, or a comic book, or what have you – that it’s
represented so the continuity will all hook up much later. Kiri Hart
always knows, and we’ve gone over it and I’m like, “I do believe that
these things happened.” So everybody’s like, “Cool,” and we now how to
proceed.
They got a bit of the story, it was really an epic confrontation and it is a decent spoiler…
It
is the last story arc of the Clone Wars TV series that we were doing,
was this story about Ahsoka and how she crosses with Maul. What was
significant about that was that it was the story that was really going
to draw her possibly back into the Jedi Order, because the motivation
around this conflict with Maul was her knowing the personal history
between Maul and Obi Wan, who was their dear friend. So she was caught
up in that, and basically she says point, “The last time I saw Anakin,
he was rushing off to save the Chancellor.” She was actually planning
with Obi Wan and Anakin the capture and attack that would get them Maul,
because she had figured out where he was towards the end of the Clone
War. But before they can go through with this plan together, Obi Wan and
at one Anakin get called away to Coruscant to save the Chancellor,
which leaves her with Rex – and some other exciting characters – to
basically go and deal with Darth Maul, once and for all. That’s kind of a
good brief of what that was about.
And, just like every week, Rebels Recon offers some great insight into the episode, as well as teases for Season Three (hints about a Rogue One tie in?) and what to expect at Star Wars Celebration London this July. Check it out below,
Season Two of Star Wars Rebels comes to an end tonight with the one hour finale "Twilight of the Apprentice", which features both the long awaited confrontation between Ahsoka Tano and Darth Vader, and the return of Darth Maul. Star Wars Rebels executive producers Dave Filoni and Simon Kinberg, and Ahsoka voice actress Ashley Eckstein spoke with IGN recently to get fans set for the finale.
On the return of Maul, Filoni said,
"It had to happen. It
just seemed like one of those things -- we had to tie up some of these
threads on Clone Wars, and we've done a good job of integrating them so
they're important to our characters on Rebels. But Maul was just hanging
out there. In a lot of ways, I feel like, "Boy, I'm responsible for
that. I helped resurrect this guy, and I'm going to have to deal with
that." I talked with Story Group awhile about it, and we couldn't do it
early on, because we wanted to establish this show in its own right. But
now that we've kind of moved forward, it seemed right. Ezra's ready now
to deal with some of these characters. You couldn't put that kid up
against Sam Witwer in Season 1. There's no way! Sam would eat Taylor
[Gray] alive. So, now he's more ready."
On the showdown between Ahsoka and Vader, Kinberg said,
"We talked about whether or not to bring in Clone Wars characters. The
Ahsoka character for us was, we only wanted to bring her back if we had
real, emotional story to tell with her. And this is obviously a big,
emotional story with a potentially big, emotional reveal. So we started
to build toward what we thought was a culmination of her character
story."
Eckstein added,
I think Ahsoka has realized at this point that Anakin Skywalker is Darth
Vader. I think in the beginning of the season, she just couldn't even
comprehend it. Anakin is family, and no one wants to believe that their
family member is capable of such heinous things as killing so many
people. So she's been forced to come to terms with it, and I think now
what will be interesting to see -- and obviously I don't know the
outcome [Laughs] and I don't know how much I can say -- but, you know,
she's no longer a Jedi. So I think realizing, okay, she's no longer a
Jedi and Anakin is now Darth Vader… Anakin is gone, so what they knew is
gone. So we'll see what happens, but I think we all want to go back to
the old days of Anakin and Ahsoka, but they're not the same people
anymore. Now it's two different people facing off.
And on the extra secretive nature of this season's finale, Eckstein said,
"Usually Dave gives us answers ahead of time. He gave us no answers this
season. And that's kind of why I'm pausing with a lot of my answers! I
feel like I don't have answers, because there's actually still a lot I
don't know. So Dave has been very much on a need-to-know basis. He'll
tell you what you need to know for your performance, and the rest of it
we're discovering with everyone else here today. So I'm excited! I want
more answers."
Disney XD hosted a press conference yesterday in the LA area to preview the upcoming second season of Star Wars Rebels, which debuts on Wednesday October 14th at 9:30pm EST. The show's executive producers also sat down with some of the outlets there to discuss what's in store for the crew of The Ghost this season. First, Simon Kinberg discussed Kanan's relationship with Captain Rex and the other clone troopers that will showing up this season and what impact that has on Ezra. Kinberg told Nerdist,
"Ezra doesn’t have the same predisposition exactly that Kanan has. He
didn’t live through it the same way. So, Ezra is a little bit more open
to them. That creates some conflict between Ezra and Kanan. Ezra is just
all about taking on the Empire by any means and will take pretty much
whatever help they can get, but Kanan is more distrustful. Ezra also
struggles more with the idea of being a Jedi, and what it means, and
what the most effective way to battle the Empire is. Ezra is more open,
Kanan is more closed. That disagreement creates a lot of fodder for the
season. It’s an interesting thing to invert the dynamic so Ezra is the
one who’s a little more open and trusting, and Kanan is the one who’s
shutting down a little bit."
He also discussed the potential for cross over between the films and the series, telling Nerdist,
There’s certainly potential for it. And as a fan of everything that
Lucasfilm’s doing, it’d be fun to see different characters pop up across
different stories. But the thing we’re really focused on is just making
sure there is real continuity, that it is a unified universe from a
story perspective, where anything that happens in Rebels is canon, in the same way as the original movies or prequels, the Clone Wars,
and the movies going forward. There’s just a lot of care that’s taken
to make sure that whatever happens in whatever different story right now
is acknowledged, and that it actually feels like a coherent world or
galaxy.
The idea of characters actually popping up or transferring from
animation to live-action and live-action to animation, we’re obviously
open to because we have a lot of characters from the original movie and
actually prequels who pop up in Rebels as substantial
characters. That was true in the first season and will continue to be
true in the second season, I’d say. Our second season is more Clone Wars,
but there are lots of characters from the original movies too, like
Vader, who will be a big part of the show now. So we’ve talked about it,
and the Lucasfilm folks are–I’ve never seen anything like it, where
they’re so good at telling story over not just different media, but
completely different worlds. It’s not just TV and animation and
live-action and features, but it’s theme park attractions and comic
books and novels and games and merchandise. All of it is incredibly well
unified and planned. I’m not a part of all of that. I’m a part of some
of it, and it’s neat to watch them work.
Dave Filoni discussed Hondo Ohnaka's role this season, telling Movie Pilot,
Even Hondo ... has a purpose. It's not just that we all think he's fun, or that Jim Cummings is great. It's that Hondo -- this is a bit of a giveaway, but I'll give it to you -- Hondo in some ways can represent a future that was open to Ezra, had he not met Kanan. What was Ezra when we met him, if not a little scoundrel pirate sneaking around?
The inclusion of Hondo to me taps back into myself as a kids when I would read stories about kids that ran away with pirates. There's something very alluring about that fantasy, that magic. Look at 'Pirates of the Caribbean' when it came out, and how kids suddenly took up arms and said "oh, I want to be a pirate! It's great!"
You always want to leave those clouds to dream on with kids where they can say 'awh, I wish I could run away with a pirate', but we all know how those stories end. You know, and I think Hondo provided us a window for that type of story.
Sounds like Season Two will be a real treat for Star Wars fans. The season kicks off on October 14th at 9:30pm on Disney XD. The first two episodes of the season, however, will be screened in advance at New York Comic Con on Thursday October 8th at 5:30pm on the Empire Stage. A preview panel about the series will take place earlier in the day at 1:30pm on the same stage, with executive producer Dave Filoni, along with stars Ashley Eckstein (Ahsoka Tano), Taylor Gray (Ezra Bridger), and Sarah Michelle Gellar (Seventh Sister).
Simon Kinberg is a busy man. Not only does he work on some of the biggest superhero franchises for Fox, he is also one of the key minds behind the vision for the future of Star Wars. Kinberg, who is a consultant on Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens, and an executive producer on Star Wars Rebels, recently spoke with Entertainment Weekly about the role he played in helping map out this age for Star Wars. He described a week that he spent at Skywalker Ranch with The Force Awakens and The Empire Strikes Back writer Lawrence Kasdan and, the first man hired to write Episode VII, Michael Arndt. Over the course of a week, the three of them mapped out the plans for the entire sequel trilogy.
Kinberg told EW, “Like a TV writers room, we spent a week with a whiteboard and some pens and were in a conference room all day talking about [movies] VII, VIII, and IX,” he says. “But it’s a whiteboard covered in our notes. We had a sense of what we each wanted to write. It was the most magical time because we were writing Star Wars movies. Then we would go back to the inn at Skywalker and have dinner and drink a little bit and Larry would tell me and Michael stories about the moment in his life where he wrote Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Empire Strikes Back, The Big Chill, Body Heat all in the span of, I think, five years. So we just had this crazy, magical time together.”
As for how involved he's been in The Force Awakens since those first planning meetings, Kinberg said, “I’m like a friend of the court. I consult on the movies. I worked on VII: helped break the story, read scripts, drafts at certain points, and gave my thoughts whatever they were worth.”
It would be interesting to find out how much the story of the films changed once director JJ Abrams was brought on board. It was likely the outline that Arndt, Kasdan, and Kinberg developed that was used by Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy to lured Abrams to the project, but we do know that Abrams and Kasdan spent a year re-writing the script. My guess would be that the general thrust of Episode VII is the same as it was when Kinberg, Kasdan, and Arndt first came up with it, otherwise why would Abrams have come aboard if he didn't like the direction the film was heading in? The Abrams/Kasdan re-write was likely focused on the specific details.
Another detail I would love to know is if they planned out the Anthology films at these meetings? Kasdan and Kinberg were the first writers announced as having their own Anthology films, back in 2013. Since then we've learned that Kasdan is co-writing a young Han Solo film with his son John, that's slated for a May 25th, 2018 release date and will be directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller (The Lego Movie, 21 Jump Street). Kinberg we know was writing the film that Josh Trank was working on, though that project's status is unknown since Trank departed back in April of this year. And where does Rogue One fit in all this? It seems it wasn't in the original plan, and that it was fast tracked when ILM Chief Creative Officer John Knoll wowed Kathleen Kennedy with his idea. (Gareth Edwards has since been brought in to direct with Gary Whitta having written and first draft of the script and Chris Weitz writing the final screenplay).
And finally, I wonder how similar were these original outlines to what George Lucas came up with. Lucas has gone on record a few times saying they chose to go in a different direction from his original ideas, though Kennedy has stated while they did make changes it was nothing outside of the ordinary creative process on a film. We also know that both Kinberg and Arndt were brought in by Lucas (and it's probably safe to assume that Kasdan was as well) so they may well have had Lucas' ideas in mind when creating these outlines.
The hype around season two of Star Wars Rebels is intensifying! The hour long premiere episode "The Siege Of Lothal" is coming to Disney XD this Saturday, and in preparation for that we have been treated to an assortment of new previews. One of which is a featurette that comes from The Huffington Post where the cast and crew of the series, including executive producers Dave Filoni and Simon Kinberg, along with Tiya Sircar(Sabine), Taylor Gray(Ezra) and Vanessa Marshall(Hera), discuss how the show and it's character have progressed since season one. They also talk about acquiring some new allies in Phoenix squadron, and new a new antagonist in Darth Vader. Check it out below:
Huffington Post also spoke with Dave Filoni about working with James Earl Jones on Rebels:
"It was actually kind of funny, just before he goes into the booth, James turns to me and says 'David, I haven't done Vader in ten years. Can you remind me how?' And he's telling me this in his big deep James Earl Jones voice. So I just laugh and 'James, you're doing it already.'"
Furthermore, check out this new preview for the episode titled "Darth Vader", released by Disney:
Also, check out Geek Girl Diva's article about Kanan on Entertainment Weekly! Star Wars Rebels: The Siege Of Lothal airs this Saturday, June 20th at 9pm ET/PT on Disney XD!
Speculation and rumors have been abound lately since the announcement that Josh Trank had left his position as director of the second Star Wars Anthology film. Various reports had unfortunately painted a grim picture of The Chronicle and Fantastic Four director and what has been going on behind the scenes. Thankfully Josh Trank himself has stepped forward to set the record straight on why he left Star Wars, among other things In an interview with the LA Times, Trank explains his decision to part ways with Lucasfilm:
“I knew that this was going to be questioned and it was going to come under skepticism as to why I left ‘Star Wars... And it was hard. It was the hardest decision I've ever had to make in my life." He continued, “I want to do something original after this because I’ve been living under public scrutiny, as you’ve seen, for the last four years of my life.... And it’s not healthy for me right now in my life. I want to do something that’s below the radar... I have a great relationship with everyone at Lucasfilm and with Kari Hart... And they all understood it because this whole experience for me has been very psychologically hard.”
Trank addressed many of the other allegations levied against him in the interview, including the 4Chan Q & A hoax that happened last week. Fantastic Four producer and writer, and Star Wars Rebels executive producer, Simon Kinberg was present for the interview and supported all of Trank's words.
Head over to the LA Times to read the full interview now!
When watching other things besides Star Wars, it's always a treat to see references to our favorite Galaxy far, far away in other media. Now it seems that one film in particular, which hasn't even been released yet, will feature a cool Star Wars Easter Egg. X-Men: Apocalypse, which is slated to be released on May 27th, 2016, began filming today. Simon Kinberg, who is one of the screenwriters for the film, tweeted a photo from the set of the film confirmed the news with something extra. The caption reads; "Day 1 of the Apocalypse.... Back to the 80s." The photo shows a theater Marquee announcing "Now playing: Return Of The Jedi". You can check it out below:
The previous X-Men film Days Of Future Past was set in the 1970's. This photo confirms that the film will be set at least on or after May 25th, 1983, when Jedi was released. We can assume that this reference happened thanks Kinberg himself who is heavily involved with the Star Wars Saga as co-executive producer on Star Wars Rebels and a creative consultant on Episode VII: The Force Awakens. In addition, Oscar Isaac, who plays Poe Dameron in The Force Awakens will also be portraying the titular character in Apocalypse. This will definitely be something to look for when it hits theaters next year!
A few days ago it was announced that Gary Whitta has left the first stand alone Star Wars film, slated for a December 16, 2016. Naturally this raised a few questions about why he had left the Gareth Edwards directed film. Cinelinx may have found the answer. One of their sources told them that Whitta had only been brought in to write an initial draft of the script. The story of the film had apparently been established by the Lucasfilm Story Group and Whitta's job was to take their story treatment and turn it into an actual script. In addition, it was also part of the original plan for Whitta to leave the project after a year of work and have someone else come in and finish the script off.
Cinelinx's source also confirms the report that Simon Kinberg was taking over writing duties on the film. The source says that Kinberg's key job to do in the re-write is to make the story more manageable budget-wise. This is due to the fact that Whitta's script was reportedly too expensive. That being said, it is expected that Whitta's script will remain largely intact with the story more-or-less the same.
As always this is just a rumor until confirmed or denied by Lucasfilm or Disney.
News broke last week that Gary Whitta was no longer working on the first Star Wars stand alone film, to be released on December 16, 2016. While the departure seemed amicable, the question that most fans were asking was who would be taking over the script writing duties on the Gareth Edwards directed film. /Film believe they have found the answer. According to their sources, Simon Kinberg (Star Wars Rebels, X-Men Days of Future Past) has replaced Whitta on the film. /Film did reach out to Lucasfilm and Kinberg's representatives about this story, but both declined to comment.
This move seems to make a lot of sense. Kinberg has played a huge role behind the scenes at Lucasfilm since the Disney takeover, serving as consultant on The Force Awakens, executive producer on Star Wars Rebels, and is writing his own spin off film (other than the 2016 one). In addition to that, Kinberg was approved by George Lucas to be one of the filmmakers taking Star Wars into the future right before the big change.
With Kinberg taking over, it appears he is now writing both stand alone films due out in 2016 and 2018. Kinberg, along with Lawrence Kasdan (who has since transitioned to The Force Awakens writing duties), was part of the original announcement of the stand alones and it was believed that he helped pick Josh Trank to direct the 2018 film which he is believed to be writing.
As always this is just a rumor until confirmed or denied by Lucasfilm or Disney.
To celebrate tonight's premiere Star Wars Rebels (at 9pm on Disney Channel), Dan Brooks over at StarWars.com, the official Lucasfilm website for all things Star Wars, was able to sit down Rebels executive producer and Episode VII consultant Simon Kinberg. They discuss a variety of topics related to the new series. We've selected an except from the interview wich you'll find below, and you find the rest of interview here.
StarWars.com: Before we delve into “Spark of Rebellion,” can you talk about how you came to Lucasfilm and got involved with Star Wars Rebels?
Simon Kinberg: Forever, I’ve been a fan of Star Wars and I’ve been a huge fan of [Lucasfilm president] Kathy Kennedy. Star Wars,
I never had access to, but Kathy I’d met a bit over the years, and had
always wanted to work with her just because I’ve loved so many of her
films.
When she was coming to work at Lucasfilm we had a meeting. She said, ‘I’m going to be working on Star Wars,
and is it something you might be interested in?’ And I said, ‘Uh,
yeah.’ We just started having casual conversations, which led to a
meeting with George Lucas.
StarWars.com: Oh, wow.
Simon Kinberg: Yeah. It was one of the most
thrilling and daunting meetings of my life, as you can imagine. That
meeting was about working on the films. I was really excited about it,
and signed on to write one of the movies, which I’m gonna do, and to be
part of the community of writers who were talking generally about what
to do with the new Lucasfilm and Star Wars properties. That’s how I ended up a consultant on [Star Wars:] Episode VII.
It was about a few months after that — I’d been meeting with them,
talking about the movies — that Kiri Hart, who heads up the Story Group,
actually e-mailed me. ‘Hey, one of the first things we’re going to do
is an animated show for Disney networks.’ She knew that I had a five-
and nine-year-old. Two boys. And she knows that Star Wars is a
big point of connection for me and my kids. She thought, because of
that, it might be a great, fun thing to work on that could access my
love for Star Wars, and also theirs.
At [San Diego] Comic-Con [this year], I was standing on the convention floor where they had the huge booth for Rebels.
A massive video screen in the middle, huge posters of all the
characters, life-size models of the characters. It was really the
biggest footprint at Comic-Con this year. It was kind of astounding. I
was standing there, in awe of it, just looking up at these characters
that hadn’t existed a year and a half before, and suddenly were the new
generation of Star Wars characters. I scrolled back to find that initial e-mail from Kiri that sort of set it all in motion, at least for me.
At the time, when I first read that e-mail, they had a general sense
of the show, but none of the specifics in terms of the characters and
stories, and really, the world of it. So, yeah, I wrote back to that
e-mail, ‘Absolutely, anything with Star Wars, I’m interested
in. I really like the idea of being able to do something that would be
targeted toward my kids and a new generation of Star Wars
fans.’ And then we just started meeting: me, and Kiri, and [creative
executive] Rayne Roberts, the Story Group, and [associate producer]
Carrie Beck. We just built it from the ground up, together.
One of the first things they said was, they had the paradigm of the A-Team,
where they wanted it to be a group. We [agreed], from the beginning,
that we wanted it to be the origin story of the Rebel Alliance. So, they
really loved the structure of the ensemble crew doing missions week to
week, and being a little bit on the outskirts of the law the way that
the A-Team was. I think the thing I brought to it, initially, was
focusing those characters as a family. The A-Team is a different model,
because they’re all roughly the same age. They’re all adults, and their
dynamic is as friends and peers. I thought it would be great if this
crew could be built around the different archetypes of family members.
So you have the father, the mother, the older brother, the middle
sister, the little brother who’s the sort of runt of the litter, and the
pet. I mean, Chopper is the family dog or cat.
Star Wars Rebels executive producer, and Episode VII consultant Simon Kinberg spoke with Empire Online about a variety of topics related to the upcoming animated series including the series villain The Inquisitor (voiced by Jason Isaacs), as well as connections between the series and Star Wars Episodes VII
When asked about the Inquisitor's state of mind, Kinberg said he is "less of a believer in the Empire and the cause of the Empire than perhaps Darth Vader, and more of a hunting dog." He also danced around the question about the Inquisitor seen in Rebels will appear in Episode VII (there have been rumors about Inquisitors in Episode VII) saying, "On Star Wars I get a Force Choke when I start saying things I shouldn't say."
Kinberg didn't dismiss the possibilities of Episode VII connections in Rebels. He told Empire, he "always felt it would lead into IV and potentially set up characters you might not meet until V, or VI, or even VII, but the notion was that this would stand alone from Episode VII. That doesn't mean that we can't introduce Easter eggs that will pay off in VII, VIII, IX."
Like I said, there are rumors about Inquisitors in Episode VII so, while I doubt that the Inquisitor we will see in the series will appear in Episode VII, I could definitely see them establishing what the Inquisitors are, and exploring what they've been doing during the Original Trilogy era, in Rebels. But that's just speculation on my part.
Ever since the Lucasfilm story group took charge and Star Wars canon was redefined, there has been a great deal of speculation about how everything will fit together in the future. The soon-to-premiere animated series Star Wars Rebels is canon alongside all the Star Wars films and The Clone Wars. With Episode VII and Rebels in production at the same time time, and only about forty in-universe years separating the two, major connections between both productions are viable. Today, Entertainment Weekly all but confirmed this speculation while talking with Rebels Executive producer and Episode VII creative consult Simon Kinberg:
"“It’s a very integrated process, there’s real communication between all the filmmakers because we’re all part of a larger timeline,” says Rebels executive producer Simon Kinberg, who is also a creative consultant on Episode VII. “There is absolutely communication and integration between the different stories. We are very aware of what they’re doing in VII, and we also have to click into place with Episode IV.... There are characters, vehicles, imagery that are introduced in the show before we’ve ever seen them in the movies, possibly including VII,” he said."
Consider this alongside many of the rumors we've heard recently which included (spoiler alert!) Sith Inquisitors. If true, the Inquisitor in Rebels could set the stage for himself or other Inquisitors to appear in the Sequel Trilogy. And that's just one example of what could be many connections in the future. Season two of Star Wars Rebels will be in full swing by the time Episode VII hits theaters on December 18th, 2015. Having them tie together at that point would be amazing and brilliant. Here's to hoping Kinerg's teasing comes to fruition!
Also, be sure to head over to EW.com to check out some exclusive images from Rebels!
Clevver Movies recently sat down with two of the three executive producers of Star Wars Rebels and they revealed some interesting details about the series. In the video below Dave Filoni and Simon Kinberg discuss the premise of the story, which classic characters might be appearing, and even the special look of the Lightsabers in the show.
On this week's show The SWU is excited to present the entire Star Wars Rebels panel from San Diego Comic Con. But first, Dominic and Ben break down all the latest news and rumors about Episode VII and Rebels. What do they think of the Episode VII X-Wing? Do they believe the latest rumors? What do they think of the (first) new Rebels trailer? Then Chris drops by to give his report from Day One at San Diego Comic Con. After that, sit back, relax, and enjoy the Rebels panel featuring Executive Producers Dave Filoni and Simon Kinberg, cast members Vanessa Marshall, Freddie Prinze Jr, Taylor Grey, Tiya Sircar, and Steve Blum as they discuss the show with the audience and host David Collins. Stay tuned after the panel to hear Dominic and Ben's immediate reaction/freak out about the panel and the (second) new trailer! All this and much more!
Star Wars Rebels executive producer Simon Kinberg spoke with Collider recently about the upcoming animated series. Kinberg covered many topics and made a few reveals. First off he revealed that season one will 16 episodes long, and that he is not only writing the two-part premiere, but the season finale as well. He also suggested that this pattern would be repeated in future seasons, with him writing the premiere and the finale.
He was also asked about writing dialogue for original trilogy characters, specifically Lando. While he didn't confirm whether or not Lando would be in the series, he did discuss the process of writing for characters from the original trilogy saying,
"Writing dialogue for any of the legacy characters is as big a thrill as anything I’ve ever had in my life. I said this to [producer Kathleen Kennedy] that when I open up a Final Draft document, and I tab over to “Character” and it’s a character from the original films—to be nameless until people see them—but if it’s a character from the original films, just typing in those letters and then that being the recorded name in that name database for that script is as surreal, and perhaps more so, than anything I’ve experienced in my career."
You can watch the entire interview with Kinberg below,
Star Wars spin-off film writer, Episode VII consultant, and Rebels executive producer spoke with IGN this past weekend. When asked about the potential of the Expanded Universe being mined for inspiration for projects. Kinberg said that while Rebels would "take inspiration from everywhere", when it came to the films he said, "the canon is the canon, and the Canon is the six films."
Watch the interview with Kinberg below,
I think that finally puts to bed the idea that the new films will have anything to do with the current expanded universe material. Don't be fooled by the title of the video, Kinberg clearly says "Canon is the six films." There's not much wiggle room there.
Lucasfilm has yet to reveal the names of the main hero characters of Star Wars Rebels, which leaves us to find them out for ourselves through unconventional sources. A few weeks ago the names Ezra Bridger and Zeb were revealed in descriptions for some upcoming Rebels Lego sets. Now we have two more to add to the list. Yakface.com reports that a German site called Toy Palace has revealed a list of titles for some upcoming 31'' Giant & Big size figures from Jakks Pacific, and included were some previously unheard of characters from Rebels:
Inquisitor
Kanan
Ezra
Green Stormtrooper
Obviously, the new names here are Kanan and the Green Stormtrooper. Recently, Executive Producer Simon Kinberg confirmed that main characters in Rebels will be brand new, Kanan could be one of them. It will also be interesting to find out what exactly a green Stormtrooper is.
Also, a while back our good friend Andy posted this screen capture from a video on his Star Wars Rebels page on Facebook. The description at the top of the photo(where the arrow points to) reads: "Please note: these are pegs that attach the rifle to the back of Kallus's costume..."
Could Kallus also be a main character? We'll just have to wait and see. Remember, nothing is official until Lucasfilm says so. We'll keep you posted on any further developments.
Star Wars Rebels will hit TV screens this fall on Disney XD!
Simon Kinberg, executive producer of the upcoming Star Wars Rebels animated series coming to Disney XD this fall was recently interviewed about the series by Entertainment Weekly. Kinberg discussed many issues on, how he scored the job, the tone of the series, and hinted at some of the characters.
First off, Kinberg confirmed that the main characters will be new characters,
There’s a lot of new characters in the show. The prequels were centered around the origin of familiar characters, there’s a lot of new characters in this show. The main characters are new characters.
Kinberg addressed how he got the job,
They wanted to do an animated show and I loved [Cartoon Network's] Clone Wars and grew up with a lot of animated shows. So we just started to talk about where it would fall in the general Star Wars timeline. Really there was no predetermination going in. It could have been a prequel, sequel, a stand-alone universe. The main thing for us is how do we tell a story that enhances this universe, that answers questions that audiences may or may not have had but at least will make it feel like the world is fuller after watching the show. We pretty quickly got to this idea that though Rebel Alliance that was such an integral part of the movies, we know next to nothing about the formation of at least in terms of the movies and The Clone Wars. There was nothing in the canon that had delved deep into it. That’s where it started — let’s tell the story of the formation of the heroes in the original movies. And that put us in a time line between episode III and IV. You don’t want to be too close to New Hope so that it feels like it’s repetitive, you want to feel like you’re watching the earliest seeds of what will sprout into a full-blown rebellion.
When asked about the tone of the series Kinberg said,
You’re seeing the impact of the Empire, of stormtroopers around the galaxy, abusing and oppressing people. Thematically and politically, it goes to some dark places. But for the tone of the show we took our cues from the original movies, which had fun and adventure and swashbuckling with emotion and grounded human characters. We took all our cues from the original films. Obviously there are slight tonal differences between New Hope, Empire and Jedi. But I think the closest intended voice of the show is A New Hope. So there are places where we get into darker backstories, there are places we see how cruel and malevolent the Empire can be, but for the most part it’s a fun and character-driven story. Again taking our cues from the original films, it’s less maybe political than the prequels and more personal. It starts with a few character introductions that will precede the show. I wrote the first two episodes, they’re like a one-hour story across two episodes where we introduce the main characters in the show.
Kinberg also touched on the series villain, The Inquisitor,
That was probably the most daunting part of this process. George obviously created the best villain of our time. So we spent a lot of time brainstorming and working with the artists to come up with the Inquisitor. You’ve seen that image of him. We wanted somebody terrifying, a nightmare character for a kid but not somebody too foreign, too creature-ly. We didn’t want him to have a helmet for obvious reasons — the comparison [to Darth Vader]. We talked about a character who was cold and calculating and could tap into people’s emotional weaknesses as much as their physical weaknesses, and had a specific relationship to Jedi and the ways of the force. He would be somebody that the remaining Jedi would be especially scared of.
You can read the entire interview over at EW, where Kinberg discusses the differences between Rebels and The Clone Wars, discusses the influence of Lucasfilm’s Pablo Hidalgo, and drops some hints about the characters.
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