While most of Star Wars Rebels panel at San Diego Comic-Con covered familiar ground, there was a handful of clips shown (only one of them is online), some neat tidbits of info, and the stunning trailer above. It’s officially hard to not be excited for the upcoming series which launches in October.
The trailer is our first extended look at the show’s action and humor, whereas most previous clips and trailers have been light on dialogue and specific, elongated scenes. To top it off, the trailer even includes some very familiar faces not only in R2-D2 and C-3PO (which their Rebels action figures tipped us off about), but also Luminara Unduli. Last believed dead on Kashyyyk due to Order 66 (at least in the Legends world), it looks like she escaped and is being sent to an Imperial prison on Stygeon Prime. The trusty Wookieepedia is already updated, believe it or not, and it seems she might be destined for long-term keeping at the Spire, Darth Maul’s brief holding cell in the first Son of Dathomir issue. Why she was kept alive instead of killed leads to some very dark and interesting ideas and it looks like we’ll have to watch Rebels to find out more.
And if the trailer wasn’t enough, one of the three clips shown during the panel is up over at EW.com and features a lightsaber duel with the Inquisitor against Kanan and Ezra, showing off the Inquisitor’s unique lightsaber. It might not seem practical or useful, but it would sure strike fear into me. Plus, Ezra’s slingshot thing confounds me and I’d love to learn more about just how it works…and would like to know when I can get one.
There was also a bit of viral marketing taking place, where attendees to the panel got pamphlets to HoloNetNews.com, where everything is in Aurebesh (the Star Wars universe’s alphabet) and currently includes three news clips featuring a somewhat 1940’s sounding reporter. It’s a tad Imperial-slanted, but that’s what makes it fun.
As for information from the panel, StarWars.com had a live-blog and there’s some great tweet round-ups from those at the panel both at TheForce.net and ClubJade.net. I’ll sum some of the main tidbits here:
- The Inquisitor’s lightsaber design comes from unused concept art for The Force Unleashed, a game which current Rebels staff Amy Beth Christensen worked on.
- Lightsaber battles are important in this era and since the Jedi are trying to stay hidden, they won’t happen as often. But when they do…well, check out that clip at EW to see one.
- The focus on the crew of the Ghost, instead of the many characters of The Clone Wars, helps bring in the family, humor, and Original Trilogy feels.
- More Obi-Wan than what we saw in the Extended Trailer plus don’t count out some TCW character appearances.
UPDATE #1: An advance screening of the one-hour premiere episode was shown at SDCC and so far the praise has been unanimously positive for the show. There was a lot of wordlessness and amazement, plus some spoiler-free reviews from Amy at IGN and Jason Ward at MakingStarWars (positively gushing!), giving a little more detail on what seems to make it so great. Even though I try to manage my expectations, it looks like Rebels will beat them all.
UPDATE #2: You don’t have to take my word or Twitter round-ups about what was said at the Rebels panel, instead you can listen to the whole thing thanks to Rebels Report!
UPDATE #3: Or, you can just watch the entire panel (via Star Wars Underworld)
While it’s somewhat disappointing an exact date in October hasn’t been nailed down just yet for the show’s premiere, the trailer and clip MORE than make up for it. No matter when it hits, this show is coming folks and it certainly looks to be another solid addition to Star Wars.
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him on Twitter @BrushYourTeeth.
STAR WARS REBELS REVIEWS:
Season One | Season Two
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