Star Wars Rebels Talk With Dave Filoni #RogueOneEvent #StarWarsRebels

Wow, Rogue One was amazing!!! How many times have you watched it already? I just can’t get enough of Star Wars. As Diego Luna AKA Captain Cassian Andor and Felicity Jones AKA Jyn Erso shared during our exclusive interviews with them last month, Star Wars is about family. I can’t agree more. Most Star Wars fans not only grew up with the franchise, but also share the Star Wars experiences with family members. A great way to continue this family traditions is with Star Wars Rebels. After watching exciting new upcoming episodes,during our visit the the Lucas Film HQ has a Star Wars Rebels Talk With Dave Filoni, Executive Producer.

Exclusive Interview with Dave Filoni

As we settled into the interview, Dave Filoni commented on how growing up as a kid, he and his brother would have loved to have something like Star Wars Rebels to continue on with the story once they had left the theater.  I couldn’t agree more!  It is really cool that such a blockbuster as Star Wars always is, we do have the TV series to expand, enjoy and share as a family. As he explains, at the end of the day, we don’t see pieces as stand alone elements.  We see the movie, TV series, book as one big story.  It all seamlessly moves from big screen to small screen.  Working on Star Wars Rebels according to Filoni is where “You keep trying to find (for me as a fan) little pockets of STARS WARS that you don’t know. Which are almost treasured for me at this point. You know, but it’s all, I would be lying if I told you it’s not really fun, even 12 years later.”.

Working the Star Wars Rebels Storyline

David Filoni is not hunting for moments to have tie-ins.  He recognizes that Star Wars was great before he started working on it, and will still be great after he moves on.  Additionally, he feels privileged to be able to add to a story that is not his.  He has a job, and that is maintaining the integrity of the original story.  He continues, “I think it’s telling the stories that have been long overdue. So we’ve been telling the stories and adding dimension to these characters. That’s the great part. It’s fun when you have a tie-in, but I like it when it’s more of a wink. It’s not something that was ever missing, if it was important, they would have done it. I learned a lot of that from my years of working with George. So it’s fun to do, but you have to be careful that don’t overdo it, that your fandom doesn’t get in the way of telling a good story.”. 

The Forest Whitaker “cat” is out of the bag

We had a big reveal during our interview: Forest Whitaker will be part of the voice cast for Star Wars Rebels! He will voice Saw Guerrera Filoni explains that in their work, they want to give as much continuity as possible to the characters.  Usually, artists that have been in the film are happy to continue working on their characters.  In the case of Star Wars, the actors are big Star Wars fans and want to work on the franchise as much as they can, Forest Whitaker is an example of this.  It is always exciting when actors come in and maintain their characters.  He does add that this will not be an isolated incident.  We did not get him to tell us who, but someone else will be working their characters further on Star Wars Rebels!

Parent and Kid Friendly Animated Feature

Now this hits it right on the head.  This is what David Filoni had to say: “When I talked to George, he would always say he created Star Wars for kids. That was the big thing. When I was a kid, it was a great thing because my parents liked it. It’s not that they didn’t like everything else but they were very big into opera, very big into the symphony, very big into those types of stories. There is a great relationship between those stories and what Star Wars presented. So it wasn’t talking down, and there were a lot of things to talk about, as a family. And characters that we could relate to. I think especially in the beginning, a lot of fans would come up to me and say, “Dave, why are you making Rebels for kids?” I would say to them well, when did you first watch Star Wars? When I was six, and it was the greatest experience I ever had. So, my whole goal is never to take that experience away from kids,  It is to involve everybody in it, to make it a place where the best compliment we can give for the series is that it’s something that the family watches together.”.

 

The Darker side of Star Wars Rebels

When parents tell Dave Filoni they watch it with their kids, they also remark that some challenging moments.  It is so the case for Filoni and his team, especially when they deal with the Jedi. Filoni explains: “Things get dark at times. But you always have to monitor that. You need to remember that fairy tales have frightening moments in them too. Otherwise when you shine bright and things are good all the time, it doesn’t shine as well. I was raised reading Tolkien, THE HOBBIT and things of that nature. C.S. Lewis and there are scary parts in those books.  Darth Vader is intimidating. Everybody says, “Oh, Darth Vader, put Darth Vader on” I’m like, okay. But – he’s scary. I used to be a little kid and freak myself out just thinking of how he breathes.  I would be alone and be like, Oh my gosh. But that’s what you want – kids to be afraid of the bad guys, because they’re evil. And they recognize that. I try to make something that’s not as much for myself but for my younger self. But something my older self will still watch and be like, that’s cool. It’s a delicate balance.”.  I am sure you loved to hate Ben Mendelsohn in Rogue One.

 

George Lucas’ Educational Legacy

Dave Filoni worked closely with George Lucas,  Of course there was tons that he learned from him.  Something he shares with  his teams is Lucas’ motto “Dare to be great”.  Going beyond fear, in Star Wars as with everything, fear is the root of everything that is failure and jealousy and greed and evil.  The Force is really the biggest lesson for David Filoni

The Inner workings of Star Wars Rebels 

The animation gets in house actors as the story is being perfected.  Once that is done, then the real voice talent comes in and records the final audio.  

It was crazy to learn that at any given time the team is working on 3 seasons at a time! It is very cool to already create the immediate past and future of your project, don’t you agree?

Regarding characters, during the second half of this season, we will see how Sabine gets tremendous character development.  

 Tiya has has very positive reactions.  As a matter of fact her costume really talks to kids, and her struggle is truly perceived as real. 

Be on the look out for some one named Klick Klack, we think you are going to love him. Star Wars Rebels airs Saturday nights at 8:30pm EST on Disney XD!

Star Wars Rebels is  For the Entire Family

Family.  Over and over again we touch that point with Star Wars.  I love it. Do you watch with your family?  Did you see Rogue One together?  You must watch Star Wars Rebels together.  The seasons to come should be extraordinary based on the episodes we previewed.  Isn’t it fantastic that we enjoy Star Wars even if it is not at the movies with fresh new stories about it?

 

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