New animated series: Star Wars Rebels

[Vympel]

http://starwars.com/news/new-animated-s ... -2014.html

Coming Fall 2014. Glad to see this, I thought Disney killing TCW was a very bad sign, I'm somewhat happy there's something to take its place.

[RogueIce]

Dave Filoni and Greg Weisman? This should be pretty awesome, as long as the Weisman Curse is averted and we can get more than two seasons.

But in all seriousness, this should be pretty awesome. Looks like they're going back to some Ralph McQuarrie concept art for designs, which is a nice touch. And I don't think there's as much explicit EU in here for fans to get all mad about. Plus 20 years to play with, so we'll see.

It'd be nice if Matt Lanter could pull off a Vader voice, or have flashbacks or whatever. And this gives me some hope that Ahsoka's fate will in fact be seen on the small screen instead of some (probably) terrible EU book, handled more or less by the crew that created and grew her as a character.

Oh and did I mention motherfucking Greg Weisman is involved with this? Fuck yeah Lucasfilm and Disney, you have renewed my flagging faith!

[Lord Insanity]

Awesome. Top guys from both Young Justice and The Clone Wars heading the project is just mind blowing. I guess this is replacing what would have been the live action TV show. At this point I am more interested in this than Episode VII.

[Arawn Fenn]

It'd be nice if Matt Lanter could pull off a Vader voice

It should be James Earl Jones, or nobody.

[The Romulan Republic]

Could be good. Like RogueIce, I want more about Ashoka. She is a character who is interesting despite the stupidity of the premise (Anakin having a teenaged apprentice who had never been mentioned) and what happens to her is unknown. And this is a period that I want to see more of. Though a live action show would have been better.

[Lord Revan]

Could be good. Like RogueIce, I want more about Ashoka. She is a character who is interesting despite the stupidity of the premise (Anakin having a teenaged apprentice who had never been mentioned) and what happens to her is unknown. And this is a period that I want to see more of. Though a live action show would have been better.

well the Toruga prosthetic looked rather heavy in the movies so it might not work all that well for action scenes especially with TV-budget (IIRC Shaak-Ti doesn't do any real fighting "on-camera" at Geonosis), granted that's for adult Toruga not children/teens

[The Romulan Republic]

Perhaps.

If Ashoka's alive after Order 66, she might end up fighting Vader. That would be interesting. Although that would probably be the end of Ashoka.

[JME2]

Glad to see a new multimedia project that's more OT-focused than PT-focused.

[DrMckay]

I am soooo tired of the Jedi/Jedi angst. Order 66 happened, they're done. The Clone Wars never really grabbed me, but if this show can focus on the pilots, soldiers and scoundrels of the Rebel Alliance, SIGN. ME. UP.

Also, It better have Wedge Antilles.

That is all.

[The Romulan Republic]

There are good stories that could be written about the Jedi. After Order 66, any surviving Jedi have lost almost everything and are struggling to survive while trying to follow their ideals (or losing them). Dark Lord covered that and it was one of my favourite Star Wars novels.

But I want all that other stuff too. One Jedi and a bunch of other rebels would be good. They can have a huge variety of characters thanks to the diversity of the rebellion, including Jedi, defectors from the Empire, criminals like Han, politicians like Bail Organa, members of oppressed alien races like the Wookies and Mon Calimari, and idealists like Luke.

[Havok]

I'm down.
I'd love to see McQuarrie Vader, which I always thought was a much more terrifying visage, running around chopping up rebels and the last of the Jedi.

Interestingly enough I finally watched the featurettes on the Star Wars DVDs a couple days ago and the one about Vader in Ep III had me wishing they had done just that and made a mask for Anakin that hadn't quite evolved into Vader of Ep IV yet.

[Adam Reynolds]

I'm down.
I'd love to see McQuarrie Vader, which I always thought was a much more terrifying visage, running around chopping up rebels and the last of the Jedi.

Interestingly enough I finally watched the featurettes on the Star Wars DVDs a couple days ago and the one about Vader in Ep III had me wishing they had done just that and made a mask for Anakin that hadn't quite evolved into Vader of Ep IV yet.

They were too worried about the nostalgia effect. The animators originally wanted to put TIE fighters in the ending scene at the almost Death Star but Lucas actually corrected them that there would be another 20 years for that to happen. It was the same logic here with Vader, that a new suit would lack the iconic image we remember from the OT.

Though actually the injuries we see in Vader in ROTJ during the lightning sequence are different from the injuries we see in ROTS. In ROTJ we can see evidence of a cybernetic replacement for his spinal chord while in ROTS he was still moving all of his limbs even as the cybernetic components were being added. While it is possible that he had minor damage that was then repaired with cybernetics instead of attempting to allow it to heal naturally, it is also possible he was injured further later. This would actually make a degree of sense in terms of Vader's progression, while Anakin was somewhat more acrobatic in his attacks Vader was much more direct and linear simply beating down the opposition with brute force that would take time to adapt to and in the meantime he would be somewhat vulnerable even against relatively weak Jedi that survived Order 66. This actually happened somewhat in the novel Dark Lord that had Vader adapting to the suit as a major theme(though the novel never went into detail on the inconsistency of his injuries).

[malguslover]

yeah it's pretty clear they won't be taking in account any of the EU stuff with Rebels. Just like how in the Clone Wars they contstatnly went against the EU.

Seeing as it's called Rebels it will probably take place closer to A New Hope for most of the series. But i'm sure they will do a lot of episodes showing the oppression of the Empire.

[The Romulan Republic]

http://ca.ign.com/articles/2013/06/20/s ... s-revealed

New information. I'm not happy that supposedly the show "...will focus on adolescent characters in order to appeal to a younger audience." But I'm thrilled that it will apparently feature Mark Hamill.

[Lord Revan]

Granted having Mark Hamill doesn't mean Luke will be in it, after all he's known for voicing good villians but still he's a damn good voice actor.

[The Romulan Republic]

I'm annoyed that they appear to be making a children's show. If there's one period in Star Wars that should be dark it's this one.

But they managed to make Ashoka tolerable, so I'll keep an open mind. And I'd watch it just for Hamill.

[RogueIce]

Well, maybe yes maybe no. After all, Ahsoka didn't hold back TCW. And hey, Spectacular Spiderman was technically about adolescents (granted one had superpowers) and that was pretty good. So we'll see. Depending on how long term they see this series going, it could 'mature' along with the characters.

I'm sure there'll be leaks from Celebration Europe, so that should tell us more.

[avatarxprime]

I would also point out that Young Justice also technically dealt with younger characters. For now, I'm still decidedly hopeful and optimistic considering the names attached to the project.

[Havok]

Star Wars was about adolescents. Geezuz guys. Luke, all the later age issues not withstanding, was taken as being like 18 when it came out in '77. I mean he wasn't 12 or 15, but he was whiner, angsty, had a crush...

[The Romulan Republic]

I think Luke is 19 in A New Hope, which seems a little bit too old to be an adolescent. He did behave in ways associated with adolescence though.

I won't mind if the main characters are Luke's age. But if they're in their early teens it could be a problem. That could lead to a lot of juvenile humour and behaviour and make the adult characters look incompetent and irresponsible because the kids are the ones doing everything.

The only reason I'm not more pessimistic is that they managed to make Ashoka not suck.

Edit:

Another concern I might normally have is that they might tone down violence (I prefer realistic depictions of war). But because of how they handled The Clone Wars I'm not very worried about that.

[Darksider]

Another concern I might normally have is that they might tone down violence (I prefer realistic depictions of war). But because of how they handled The Clone Wars I'm not very worried about that.

I'm still concerned about this for two reasons

1. Cartoon Network had previously demonstrated a willingness to allow greater leeway for on-screen character death and stuff like that with shows like JLU. Disney has never demonstrated the same willingness. If baddies are getting blasted on screen in a cartoon on a Disney channel, they're either robots or getting hit with stun rays

2. Say what you will about Lucas, he's someone who would've been willing to stick up for the creative integrity of the show to a bunch of Network execs. If CN suits had tried to push a "No on-screen deaths or shooting" rule on the series on Filoni, Filoni would have gone to Lucas and Lucas would've told CN to shove it and taken TCW on to the direct to DVD market. Now that Disney is Lucasfilms parent corporation, if the suits at Disney XD try something stupid, there's no one the writers, produces, and staff of "Rebels" can go to for help.

[The Romulan Republic]

It's true that it might be different because Disney is running things. However, I'm not sure that Disney is as adverse to violence as you think. I don't watch their cartoons much, but I've seen some pretty graphic violence in Disney movies.

It might depend on if they're intending this show to be for the teen demographic or the elementary school or preschool demographic.

[Lord Revan]

Didn't gargloyes have some pretty violent stuff and outright references to killing and death even from the good guys when that was a big no-no?

[The Romulan Republic]

Was gargoyles a Disney show? I never watched it.

[Lord Revan]

Was gargoyles a Disney show? I never watched it.

It was