Well, ‘Star Wars: Rebels’ is finally over, and if you have not seen the finale yet, STOP READING NOW. This article is chock full of SPOILERS for the ending.
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Anyways, one of the happier surprises about the ending of ‘Rebels’ was the way they did a little time jump to tie up some loose ends, let us know where all the characters ended up during the Original Trilogy, and even confirm a fan theory about the character of Rex, who we can now say with confidence was the elderly gentlemen on Endor in ‘Return of the Jedi,’ as the series finale showed him there with Hera during those climactic events. Also, a big surprise for the end was the revelation that Hera was pregnant when Kanan died, and the reveal of their child in the future, which was a huge shock even for the cast.
According to the report by EW, on the subject of Kanan and Hera’s child as seen in the finale, Taylor Gray’s (Ezra) first exclamation was:
“They had a kid?”
Which was followed by Dave Filoni dryly stating:
“Yeah, people do that sometimes.”
Gray went on to say:
“Oh … baby. You guys had always asked about that relationship. I think it was pretty serious. Now we have evidence. And I had no idea.”
Filoni also revealed at last who exactly was the voice of Chopper on the serious, which, to the surprise of very few since the theory had been floated many times, was none other than Filoni himself. He went on to talk about the only person who ever knew the truth, and why he stepped in to do the voice in the first place:
“Show’s over. So it was kind of then or never. I’ll have you know, at [Star Wars] Celebration a little tiny child asked me who played Chopper. I absolutely told her the truth, and she never said anything. Probably because it was disappointing…I had a lot of people attempt to do it. But none of them were quite what he was looking for…I said, ‘Guys, guys, Chopper is a likable jerk. So let me show you what that’s like. I’m good at that. I can be likable … but a jerk. Ask my wife.”
While talking about the final fate of Kanan and Ezra in the series, Gray went on to talk about why he thinks Ezra made the sacrifice that he did:
“I followed Freddie’s lead with Kanan. He led the way with his selfless act. I just followed in his footsteps as best as I could.”
And while Freddie Prinze Jr. was not at the Q&A with EW, they reported that Filoni did share a story about Prinze asking for a “good death scene” for years:
“‘Yo, dude, you decide to kill me yet?’ He’s like, ‘I’ve been thinking about that.’ I found a good way to do it, and he was very excited about that. You need commitment on his part.”
As to the open-ended nature of the finale, with Sabine and Ahsoka heading out to search for Ezra in the future, Filona had many thoughts about his heroes “riding off into the sunset:”
“I’ve always felt the best stories end and then other stories begin, and there’s no better way to take two of my favorite characters and have them ride off into the sunset, like I’ve seen so many cowboys over the years, or Indiana Jones. One thing ends and another begins, and the story continues. That’s a saga.”
Are you sad to see ‘Rebels’ come to an end? Excited for the future and what exactly that ending could mean? Do you have any theories for the next show, based on how Filoni and company ended ‘Rebels’? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below!
