At New York Comic-Con today, Pablo Hidalgo gave a presentation on what Star Wars Rebels is.
Here’s the blurb Lucasfilm sent out on Friday:
STAR WARS REBELS continues the epic tradition of the legendary Star Wars saga with all-new exciting, action-packed adventures. It is a dark time in the galaxy, as the evil Galactic Empire tightens its grip of power from world to world. As the series begins, Imperial forces have occupied a remote planet, ruling with an iron fist and ruining the lives of its people. But there are a select few who are brave enough to stand up against the endless Stormtroopers and TIE fighters of the Empire: the clever and motley crew of the starship Ghost. Together, this ragtag group will face threatening new villains, have thrilling adventures, and become heroes.
The first bit of new info we saw come out of New York is that it’s set 14 years after Revenge of the Sith, thereby removing much of the speculation that many of the dangling plot threads left open from The Clone Wars will be resolved. They’ll be settled history by the time the show opens.
Much of the show will take place on Lothar, a planet on the frontier of space. It seems as though the show will focus on the expansion of the Empire into the outer rim.
The next bit of news involves this recruitment poster that Lucasfilm and Entertainment Weekly premiered:
This is actually a recruitment poster. Stormtroopers will, indeed, be individuals and not clones. Perhaps the death of Jango Fett really did put a damper in the production of Clones. Or perhaps it was too expensive. Hopefully, we’ll find out on the show soon enough. It also seems as though Lothal will set the scene for an Imperial recruitment center, where all of these posters will appear.
Aaron Goins (@avgoins on Twitter) took to Twitter to post pictures of many of the new assets from the show. First, there were pictures of the planet Lothal, the Stormtrooper models, and even a new troop transport that might look familiar. It was a toy made for A New Hope for a vehicle that was never actually in the movie. There’s also interiors of TIE Fighters, Imperial Freighters, and even a speeder.
The panel was also used to reiterate the fact that as much as possible everything will look like a Ralph McQuarrie painting. So much drastically is the look of the show that they’re unable to reuse any assets from The Clone Wars. It seems as though we are very much getting the message that this show is getting back to the roots of A New Hope
Perhaps the most shocking revelation was the villain: An Imperial Inquisitor brought in to hunt down the remaining Jedi.
Aaron Goins tweeted this picture of him:
According to Twitter reports of the panel, the Inquisitor will carry a lightsaber and there will be a Jedi presence on the show, which makes me very happy.
Further reports go on to say some of the Clones will be training Stormtroopers, others will be disgruntled. Hopefully, this leaves an opening for Dee Bradley Baker to return to the world of Star Wars.
New York Comic-Con also saw reveals of the packaging for Rebels that will appear next year on Star Wars toys:
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Again, this hearkens back to a more original look and the Stormtroopers we know and love from A New Hope.
There were more production tidbits about the show revealed. It’s too soon to talk about music. It doesn’t have the production lead time Clone Wars did, partly because they learned a lot of lessons from The Clone Wars and can get it into production faster. Bounty Hunters might well appear on the show. The story will be released chronologically and we’ll be introduced to one group of characters and stick with them.
It’s telling that they chose to focus this panel on the Empire, since we know, essentially, about all of these things. The newest and most important part of the show is who we’ll be experiencing it through. Who are the rebels?
The official Star Wars website has a recap of the panel here as well.
Be sure to watch this space (and listen to Full of Sith) for the most up to date information about Star Wars.