Dave Filoni hints Star Wars Rebels characters might appear on The Mandalorian. While the franchise is only now getting into the realm of live-action TV, Star Wars has long had a presence in animation. Filoni spearheaded two separate series, Clone Wars and Rebels, which both helped flesh out the canon in interesting ways and introduce a bevy of new characters for fans to fall in love with. After four seasons, Rebels signed off the air in 2018; Clone Wars is returning for a seventh season next February on the Disney+ streaming service.
Since all areas of Star Wars media are part of the same continuity, it opens the door for TV show elements to be brought into the films. Most prominently, Rogue One featured Saw Gerrera in a supporting role, and Maul made a rather infamous cameo at the end of Solo. With so much more Star Wars content on the way, fans are curious to see if there will be more crossovers in the future. Of course, nobody involved with the projects is going to reveal anything now, but they could be hinting at something special.
Click the button below to start this article in quick view.
Speaking with EW, Filoni talked about what it was like working on the Mandalorian set and made an interesting comment about his experience:
“Having a character you wrote walk up and talk to you in full costume on a set that you imagined that was a wonderful thing.”
What’s fascinating about this is there’s been no official confirmation Filoni did any writing on The Mandalorian. When the show was originally announced, it was said Favreau was writing and executive producing, so at first glance it would appear Filoni is referring to one of the animated characters he created for Rebels or Clone Wars. However, it’s also possible Filoni lent a hand on the Mandalorian scripts, since he’s heavily involved with the series as an executive producer himself. Unfortunately, Filoni’s comments are very vague, making it difficult to gauge what he means. But since it’s known he wrote multiple episodes of Rebels, fans should be open to the possibility characters from that show will appear in live-action. Lucasfilm hasn’t revealed the names of everyone the cast is playing, so they’re keeping some roles under wraps.
It’s also important to keep in mind a Lucasfilm veteran like Filoni knows very well what he can and cannot say to the press. He isn’t going to drop any massive spoilers in a pre-release interview. Additionally, The Mandalorian is his first live-action Star Wars experience, following a successful career in the animation department. Seeing any Star Wars character (not necessarily Sabine or Hera) walk up to you and start talking in that context is going to be a cool moment. Filoni may have just been talking about the live-action sandbox in general and how different it is from working in computer animation. Fans will learn more when The Mandalorian premieres in November.
Source: EW