First Thoughts on Star Wars: Rebels

Since its purchase by Disney about a year ago, the future of Star Wars has been up in the air. Very little been's revealed about Episode 7, Clone Wars was cancelled (while producing its sixth season), and other promising ideas like the Level 1313 video game have been left behind. But thankfully, something has been revealed at last week's New York Comic-Con. A new animated series called Star Wars: Rebels.

Set between Episodes 3 and 4, it will cover the spread of the infamous Galactic Empire across the galaxy. This is an exciting idea. Weirdly enough, this is the one period of Star Wars history that's never been covered in great detail which will give the writers a lot of room for cool stories. Just aesthetically it's great too because with the Empire you have all the iconic images of stormtroopers and TIE Fighters from the original trilogy, and because it's animated they can use all the visually wild alien species and creatures from Clone Wars the original trilogy couldn't use because of effects limitations.

And if this press release is any indication, the central premise is striking the same kind of balance. According to the release the show will focus on the planet Lothal, a backwater planet that initially welcomes the Empire. Until it, you know, starts acting like the Empire. This would actually solve a huge problem I had with Clone Wars. Clone Wars was too episodic, it felt like it could never stay in one place for long, and it never focused on one group of characters for long enough for them to develop. Now there were recurring characters that did grow and develop, but that development wasn't the main focus.

But with a central location, at least at first, with Rebels could alleviate that problem. We the audience can get to know our characters and their world before the Empire comes and uproots everything. We'll already have investment in the characters and who they are, why they'll join the rebellion or the Empire. But wait you're saying, isn't this Star Wars? Don't we want planet-hopping for all the spaceship battles and lightsaber fights? Well, seems they've got you covered.

Meet the the Inquisitor. He'll be our villain. According to the release, Darth Vader has tasked him with hunting down any Jedi who managed to escape Order 66. Which if the EU is anything to go by, was a lot. Anyway, I'll bet the Inquisitor here will be where most of our traditional Star Wars action comes from. Check out his weird lightsaber weapon, sweet. If I had to assume, I'd guess this guy is another of Darth Vader's failed apprentices like Starkiller but that's just a guess. Any connection to the Sith Inquisitors from The Old Republic is unconfirmed.

That's how I see this going though. Half the time we'll be following a central group of rebels on Lothal, the other half following the Inquisitor on the hunt. Of course at some point we'll leave Lothal and the heroes will encounter the Inquisitor, but hopefully there will be some build up first. I know I'm just armchair showrunning here, but it seems like the most logical route to take. At least from the available information. Further speculation when more details are revealed but until then, I'm excited for the possibilities.