New York Comic Con was the site of many revelations as far as “Star Wars Rebels” was concerned. There was a panel, a press conference, and a screening of the next two episodes of the series.
First, Sarah Michelle Gellar was on hand to discuss her new character, the Seventh Sister. The Seventh Sister is an Inquisitor and she’s evil. “She’s the sort of villain who will toy with you before taking you down,” Gellar said.
Dave Filoni mentioned that the design of Gellar’s character was based on a very early Tusken Raider concept painting done by Ralph McQuarrie, reinforcing the idea that “Star Wars” is mining every stray bit of influence from Ralph McQuarrie. The character also has probe droids that she utilizes that huddle around her, a nod, Filoni stated, to the owls Snake-Eyes had on “G.I. Joe.”
Ashley Eckstein, the voice of Ahsoka Tano, was also on hand and the panel spoke of the changing nature of Ahsoka’s role. “It was a different role for me with Ahsoka. It was a tough adjustment at first. Now, she’s in her early 30s, but she’s different. She’s like Obi-wan. I was used to reading her like Ezra, the snippy padawan, now she’s like Yoda. I’d have to do extra takes because I’d do it like Clone Wars Ahsoka.”
“She’s still good,” Filoni added, “but she’s aware of the Jedi’s role in their own downfall and that they’d all somehow succumbed to the dark side.”
When he spoke of her role with the rebels themselves, Filoni offered a tantalizing tease, “Ahsoka is their Gandalf. She’s their buffer between Vader and gives them that slim chance, but even then.. I mean, we see Vader in the fourth movie, but not the rest of these characters…”
And he tried to set expectations of how she would appear: “She doesn’t stay with the crew all the time. She comes in and out of the story. I read a lot of ‘Lord of the Rings’ and Gandalf was there to guide people. She’s there to help people with the bigger darker problems. Our characters are working to learn how to strike against the Empire, we get into characters and backstory, but you learn about Ahsoka’s too. There are all kinds of clues of what she did in the years between. It’ll be stuff with Rex or Ahsoka only casually mentioning it.”
He was also sure to mention that George Lucas was involved in the discussions of what Ahsoka’s fate will be.
A number of clips were played as well as and I would have to say my favorite was a beautiful homage to “The Phantom Menace.” The Inquisitors, including Gellar’s Seventh Sister, have battled Kanan and Ezra to a stand still when the double door behind them opens at a center seam, revealing Ahsoka.
Ahsoka, accompanied by a piece of music that can only be described as Kevin Kiner’s lightside version of “Duel of the Fates,” dives into the fray with both of her lightsabers, standing on her own against the Inquisitors.
It was beautiful.
I was also able to do some one on one interviews with Filoni, Eckstein and Taylor Gray (Ezra.) They’re in the episode of Full of Sith embedded below (or found on the website here.)
The second season of “Star Wars Rebels” kicks off on Wednesday night.