Dave Filoni Kept A Major Part Of Star Wars Rebels Hidden From The Crew
Five years removed, "Star Wars Rebels" remains one of the most beloved creations to come about during the Disney era of Lucasfilm. Across four seasons of animated television, co-creator Dave Filoni and his team helped showcase the formation of the Rebellion with new characters, who would occasionally cross paths with familiar ones. A big reason that the show feels so satisfying is that they managed to really stick the landing, with one heck of a series finale. But making that finale was quite the undertaking, so much so that Filoni had to keep some big secrets along the way.
Speaking to IGN after the finale in 2018, Filoni explained that he had to be very deliberate in his approach to the two-part finale, "Family Reunion and Farewell." The finale takes viewers years after the main events of the series, showing what happened after the conclusion of the original "Star Wars" trilogy.
Pulling it off and keeping secrets meant devoting a small team who worked on the epilogue ending, which explained what happened to Ahsoka, Sabine, and the rest of the Ghost crew after the battle of Lothal. Here's how Filoni explained it:
"There were all kinds of secret things I had on the side that not even most of the crew knew about, which was the epilogue ending. A very small group of people worked on that, and I actually had to cut it down, lose some shots, just to get the whole thing to time. So there were a lot of things to juggle when you're dealing with different levels of logic throughout the story, but we made the changes we needed to. I think it came out good."
At the end of "Rebels," an epilogue set up Ahsoka and Sabine to go off on an adventure to track down Ezra and Thrawn. That plot thread would ultimately go on to inspire the live-action "Ahsoka" series on Disney+, making it a pivotal moment in "Star Wars" history.
'We just had to really land the airplane that was Rebels'
Filoni, who worked directly with George Lucas while making "The Clone Wars," is one of the most important "Star Wars" storytellers we have, and recently ascended the ranks at Lucasfilm. Much of that is due to his dedication to this universe. To that end, when it came to the "Rebels" finale, he didn't even have time to think about it all that much, it was simply about getting the job done.
"I didn't really even think about it being over until we were done with the final mix. There was so much to do, and I was trying to just go through the story again and again and again to get it to be as good as it could possibly be. And everybody I think was focused on that. We didn't have time to be sad about it. We just had to really land the airplane that was Rebels really well, and I think we did."
Indeed, they did land the airplane. These characters are now beloved by fans and are fixtures of the universe, both in animation and live-action. It's hard to make a good TV show, it's even harder to make one with a satisfying ending. Filoni managed to put the whole package together with this one.
"Star Wars Rebels" is currently streaming on Disney+.