Executive producer Simon Kinger says Star Wars Rebels will deal with serious issues while still maintaining a “swashbuckling” tone.
While recent rumors regarding the nature of Star Wars: Episode VII have left some fans a bit worried about the direction J.J. Abrams plans to take with the film, the franchise’s latest foray into television is arguably looking pretty solid. Speaking recently about Disney’s planned animated series Star Wars Rebels, executive producer Simon Kinberg offered up some fresh details to further wet the appetite of eager fans.
“The world we’re creating is an Imperial world,” said Kinberg. “You’re seeing the impact of the Empire, of stormtroopers around the galaxy, abusing and oppressing people. Thematically and politically, it goes to some dark places.” Despite this, viewers can still expect some of the “swashbucking” tone that define much of the original trilogy and especially, according to Kinberg, A New Hope. This is a sentiment that the show’s creators have expressed in the past. That said, Kinberg put forward that not every beat in Rebels will be drawn from the classic films.
“We will have characters from all the different parts of the [Star Wars] universe,” he said. To help with this, Rebels will employ the services of “resident Star Wars genius” Pablo Hidalgo who will wield an encyclopedic knowledge of the franchise to help inject bits and pieces of established lore to flesh out the show. “He will say there’s a cool cantina in this comic book from 1994, or a cool creature that not all of us know. He will bring that stuff to us.” The end result, he hopes, will be a series that gives fans a perspective on the original trilogy that shows off new elements of Star Wars while retaining the classic film feel. “[I want to start when the rebellion] was just four guys in a room,” he said. “That’s a big part of the fun of [Rebels], the little back-room dealings, the first time you see it’s possible to stand up to the Empire.” Rebels is set to begin airing in fall 2014.
Source: Entertainment Weekly
