Star Wars Celebration Anaheim day three I’m going to do a bit different by updating this as they day progresses since I have some time before the Star Wars Rebels Season Two global premiere. For starters, let’s begin with the New Allies & New Villains: Star Wars Rebels Season 2 panel.
As usual, there’s a bit of fun with the preshow, and I think it’s worth noting so people can get the full experience of Celebration. Mark Daniels read, in jest, a Chewbacca poem, then had young volunteer come up so they could play a game. The game involved several helmets on podiums (stormtrooper helmets, etc) and some big, stuff Star Wars angry birds. They kids threw the angry birds at the helmets to knock them off and win a prize.
The really little kids got some assistance from a giant, oversized Chewbacca angry bird which helped even the odds.
Then host James Arnold Taylor came in with a humorous altered The Force Awakens teaser trailer that had him inserted into the scenes. Once the cast and crew came out on stage, they talked about being on a Star Wars show, Dave talked about selecting the cast, and then they put out the big guns with the trailer for season two. We hear the Emperor’s voice, we see Vader in space combat in his TIE fighter, commanding operations, and in a lightsaber fight with Kanan and Ezra. The crowd went nuts for Captain Rex as we see him on a mysterious planet winding up in a fight with Imperial walkers and with fellow clonetroopers at his side. We also see Hondo and what looks to be two new Inquisitor, possibly a male and a female (Sarah Michelle Gellar?). On top of that, Dee Bradley Baker is back as the clones and Rex. During the Q&A, a kid asked Dave how Rex survived and Dave actually gave him an answer saying it had to do with the Season Six episode where Fives told Rex about the Order 66 chip. Dave said Rex’s story was something he and George worked out. Part of it, as Dave put it, is that the truth can break any spell. Yet Dave also elaborated that as soon as Rex were to disobey Order 66, he’d be a traitor and would be killed, so there’s an untold story of how Rex escaped that. He also mentioned that Kanan doesn’t like Rex, which has to do with Kanan’s master being killed by clonetroopers during Order 66.
While Dave dodged the return of Cad Bane, he did whisper to a little girl who does the voice of Chopper, joking to the crowd that he told her the truth. Pretty funny.
Later they did a press conference which I was able to attend and was really cool. The cast and crew was there minus Ashley Eckstein and Dee Bradley Baker. Here’s some of the highlights: Vader will be voiced by James Earl Jones, there will be no Porkins in Season Two, Ezra’s parents will be addressed to some degree, and Season Two will take a deeper look into all of the characters backstories, even Chopper. Dave said they’d keep making seasons as long as they’re in demand, they said the choice of biblical names for the characters was coincidence, but he chose Ezra because it was similar to Luke and was a real world name. He said there’s a power to names and they shouldn’t just be chosen because they sound spacey. Case in point, Bridger falls into a bridging between eras. As for the theme of Season Two, expect new outside challenges for the Rebels family and how they grow and stay together.
Each of the crew was asked about what we can look forward to in Season Two. Zeb = dancing, cooking and piloting, Steve Blum joked. Sabine = why is she angry and where did she get her skills? Ezra = we see him grow up, become more powerful, and if you look at the trailer, you’ll notice he has a scar now. Hera = she’s formed the cell, now she gets to let them do what the do. Kanan = will have growing pains with Ezra and will have to deal with Rex who he doesn’t like. Dave said each character will struggle and be confronted by their pasts. Ezra will be tested to be selfless.
Simon Kinberg commented how he’s never seen integration in any other franchise like he’s seen in Star Wars with the story group. Upon season the pilot for Star Wars Rebels, George Lucas commented “It’s terrific”. Dave also said they’re very conscious of safeguarding Vader’s legacy by not making him faster and more acrobatic just because they can. Instead he’s going to be a mountain of fear.
Following the press conference, I went to the Del Rey Star Wars panel where the big news is that Alan Dean Foster will be writing the novelization for The Force Awakens. The eBook version will be out the day of release for the movie, and the hardcover format will be out in January, so, to an extent, there will be some control on spoilers sparing any leaks via the net. Aside from the big news, they talked about the canon books that are currently out with each author talking about their books (John Jackson Miller on A New Dawn, James Luceno on Tarkin), Shelly covered Heir to the Jedi. Then they moved to upcoming books like Lords of the Sith, and Christie Golden spoke about Dark Disciple. She was able to draw upon not just the scripts, but animatics as well. Jennifer Heddle talked about Aftermath and they touched on Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens which will, according to Jen, only have like six or seven important stories, with the others filling out the announced 20 being sticker books and the like. All of those books will be out September.
More to come later!
Posted By: Skuldren for Roqoo Depot.
