With ‘Rogue One’ finally in theaters, it’s time to turn our attention once again to the future of ‘Star Wars’. No, not ‘Episode VIII’ – though that is now less than a year away. I’m talking about ‘Star Wars Rebels’, the animated series that chronicles the early days of the Rebel Alliance.
While ‘Rebels’ takes place a few years before both ‘Rogue One’ and the original ‘Star Wars’, they are set close enough together that the ‘Rebels’ timeline could easily overlap with the live action productions at some point down the road. Indeed, the groundwork for a narrative connection between the projects has already been laid, as many eagle-eyed fans spotted the Ghost (the series’ signature spaceship) on a landing pad in ‘Rogue One’, and the film also made a point of name checking a “General Syndulla”.
In a rundown on ‘Rogue One’ Easter eggs published by Entertainment Weekly, ‘Rebels’ executive producer Dave Filoni had this to say:
“I already have some theories about the story behind it… I can imagine doing that entire battle [on Scarif] from their point of view, whoever is on the Ghost at that point.”
Filoni certainly has a history of drawing plot ideas from all corners of the ‘Star Wars’ universe, having done so with his work on both ‘Rebels’ and the preceding series ‘The Clone Wars’. And regardless of if or when ‘Rebels’ might begin to incorporate direct links to ‘Rogue One’ into its narrative, we have already learned that Forest Whitaker will be reprising his ‘Rogue One’ role as Saw Gerrera (a character introduced by Filoni on ‘The Clone Wars’) later this season.
‘Star Wars: Rebels’ stars Taylor Gray, Freddie Prinze Jr, Vanessa Marshall, Tiya Sircar and Steven Blum. The series is currently on hiatus, but will resume airing on Disney XD on January 7, 2017.
