As the dust settles from yesterday’s Star Wars Rebels panel from New York Comic Con, let’s look at some of the information that came out of the panel and what it could mean.
The Executive Producer Triumvirate:
One of the interesting things to try to figure out is the relationship of the new show’s leadership. We have 
three executive producers in place on the show. Pablo Hidalgo who is involved in the show as part of the Lucasfilm Ltd. Story Group (LFL Story Group) discussed the division of labor among the three show runners. Greg Weisman appears to be taking the lead on stories, as Pablo mentioned that he was writing scripts and working with a team of writers. Dave Filoni appears to be more focused on the production aspects of the show, traveling to Lucasfilm Singapore currently to ensure that the overseas artists fully understood the look and feel of the show. Simon Kinberg wrote the 1-hour season premier and is consulting on the other episode scripts. Kinberg because he is involved in a consultant on Episode VII and is working on the spin-off movies (writing at least one) as well as working on various other feature film projects for other studios is probably the most spread thin of the three executive producers.
In terms of sheer quantity most of the art we got at the panel was vehicle concept art, we saw art for the Star 
Destroyers, TIE Fighters, an Imperial Freighter, the AT-DP walker, the Imperial Troop Transport and a new speeder bike. The freighter, AT-DP, Troop transport are designs based on previously created ideas. In the case of the freighter it was concept art created for Episode I by Doug Chiang and the AT-DP is based on concept art by Joe Johnston. The funny thing is that the Troop transport (ITT) is based on an old Kenner toy design, which was a design that Kenner made up.
The Star Destroyer design on the show incorporates elements from Episode IV and concept art from Ralph McQuarrie for Episode V. There is a larger x-shape on the top of the conning tower which Pablo mentions was present on Vader’s Star Destroyer in Episode IV but not present in Episode V. It was also noted that the engine design on Rebels is smoother than the film models and based on McQuarrie’s concept art for Episode V.
The TIE fighter gets a bit of a redesign for the show as the cockpit is enlarged and wings are smaller. This fits closer in proportions to McQuarrie’s concept art. They have also established that the hatch on the TIE fighters on the show is on the top of the cockpit. The TIE fighters we will see on the show are a different/earlier production model than we see in the films, so any continuity hiccups on design are explained away that way.
The Imperial Freighter is very cool looking, featuring Star Destroyer like wings added to Chiang’s concept art and some other modifications. The freighter has the ability to transport four TIE fighters on its underside and is a way to transport these smaller (non-hyperspace capable ships) and troops through space.
The AT-DP looks a lot like the AT-ST from Episode VI, the big feature is the large blaster cannon on the chin. It looks like based on design of the blaster cannon that it has a large firing radius.
The ITT is a bit of fan service for older toy collectors that serves a purpose on the show by transporting troops, recruits and possibly prisoners. The concept art for the show looks cooler than the toy itself which is rather blocky and as Pablo mentioned has the most adorable guns in the galaxy.
The Speeder bike looks very cool and includes telescoping steering vanes. Pablo mentions that the design allows for easy storage, but I also wonder if it makes the bike more maneuverable in a tight urban environment.
It looks like my speculation for the show was partially right and partially wrong. The planet that we see in the concept art was heavily influenced by Ralph McQuarrie’s concept art for the planet Sicemon which was designed by not used for Episode VI. In Rebels the planet will be called Lothal, which is also the name of an ancient city in north-west India.
Lothal is described as a frontier world in the Outer Rim Territories. A planet that has been long settled but has not been part of the Republic. While it is a world that is well populated and mineral rich, it is poor and not good at exploiting the resources it does have. Initially many Lothal citizens are excited for the Empire, because of the economic development. It is possible that the Empire removed Lothal’s leader and replaced that person with someone more accommodating. Since the Empire doesn’t have enough forces to conquer every planet in the galaxy they have to weasel their way into control and use the promise of modernity and jobs from Sienar Fleet Systems to get the locals excited to join the greater galactic civilization for the first time. However fairly quickly the Imperial rule goes from reasonable to unreasonable to difficult to crushing.
According to Pablo in addition to a Sienar Fleet systems factory in Lothal’s capital, we will also see Imperial Stormtrooper and TIE fighter academies. The Empire will be recruiting the population for these three modes of employment.
Before we get to the big news, we did get some interesting new information about character design in the series at the panel. We will see Stormtroopers and TIE Pilots frequently, the look of the Stormtroopers in particular looks to be heavily influenced by Ralph McQuarrie’s concept art. The Stormtroopers will also feature blaster rifles that are slightly stylized to reflect the design of the Kenner toys instead of the movie props.
Direct from George Lucas, Stormtroopers are men and women like you and me, they are citizens that volunteer. The lab grown Clone troopers exhibited too much individuality to be of use to the Empire and you could actually find better uniformity in fervent patriots who volunteer for service.
Look of Rebels is distinct enough from The Clone Wars that they cannot use any of the animation models and everything for Rebels has to be created from scratch. A little more rounded and less angular that Clone Wars designs. You can see visible brush strokes on characters, the show should look like a Ralph McQuarrie painting come to life.
We got a new Imperial pilot design as well, the AT-DP pilot. The new pilot outfit is a combination of AT-AT and AT-ST pilot designs with a little tweaking.
The big news and big reveal from the panel was the introduction of a new primary villain, the Inquisitor. We 
do not know the character’s actual name. The Inquisitor is a Pau’an, which is a near human species native to Utapau and were seen on-screen in Revenge of the Sith. Besides their pale gray furrowed skin and bald heads, the Pau’an also feature four fingers on each hand. The Pau’an are a very long-lived species rivaling even Yoda in terms of age.
How this particular Pau’an came into Imperial service and even his name still remain a mystery. He will be wielding a double-bladed lightsaber that appears to be based on the Hasbro Clone Wars General Grievous Spinning Electronic Lightsaber toy.
One of the key things that was emphasized in the panel was that the creative team wants this show to feel like Star Wars and Episode IV was cited repeatedly as a touch stone. Joel Aron is going back over the Episode IV film stock to examine frames of film to get an aesthetic feel for the film and try to translate that to the visual look of the show.
The show will be similar to Episode IV in tone. A New Hope was a film with a lot of tonal shift, with moments of great camaraderie, great banter and great fun; but also with villains that are villains and do villainous things.
One of the major points emphasized was that while George has no active role on Rebels, his concepts and ideas formulated about the period of time between Episode III and IV are well formulated and are something that the Rebels team is taking into account.
One example of this is that the Empire doesn’t use Clones as soldiers. The TIE pilots and Stormtroopers 
are volunteers and this is a point that George was very clear about. Ironically enough the Clone troopers proved to individualistic for the Empire instead the truly patriotic volunteers made better foot soldiers.
However the Clones are not all gone. While the active cloning program has ended and clones are aging at twice the rate of normal humans, there are still clones around. Some of these clones will even serve as training sergeants for Stormtroopers. Other clones apparently will be worse off being discarded by a society that never really understood or appreciated them. It will be interesting to see just how deep Rebels gets into tackling some of these deeper moral questions.
Yavin). Stay tuned to LightsaberRattling.com and RebelsReport.com for continued Star Wars Rebels coverage.
I started Lightsaber Rattling in 2010 to spread my love of Star Wars and stories. Nothing beats a good story.
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