In an interview with IGN executive producer Greg Weisman said about the cast of Star Wars Rebels, “We have a character who’s our focus character, and then five other characters that make up this group of six rebels. Even within the first season, that cast expands, and there are more people, but the focus is still on this small group of rebels..”
Although more characters may be added to the cast as the season goes on, it looks like our main cast of heroes will number six. Thanks to information coming out of this past weekend’s New York Toy Fair we now know the names and faces of all six. If you haven’t been like me and obsessively following Twitter to keep up with all the info that has been flowing, here is a rundown of what we know about this team of Rebels.
Chopper (C1-10P)
Back on January 28th Lucasfilm gave us the first official reveal of one of the good guys in the show. Chopper is the astromech droid of the team. But don’t expect him just to be another R2-D2. Dave Filoni described the character as grumpy yet loyal. “If R2 is your favorite dog then Chopper’s a cat.”
Kanan Jarrus
On February 11th USA Today revealed a new character by the name of Kanan. Dubbed the “Cowboy Jedi” Kanan promises to be different than the Jedi who have come before in the Star Wars movie and TV universe. In the intro video we are told “He is a little more relaxed in the strict Jedi rules” and “He’s a little more rough around the edges.” He seems to be the leader of this rebel crew. It was also revealed that he will be voiced by Freddie Prinze Jr. Freddie gave us his take on the character. “Kanan is pretty much the coolest guy in the universe.”
Ezra Bridger
Our next character reveal came from TV Guide just a few days later on February 14th. Ezra is a kid from the planet Lothal who will end up on the Rebels team, although it seems reluctantly. He’s described as street smart, a pickpocket, and a thief.. maybe the Aladdin of the Star Wars universe. He also is Force sensitive but doesn’t really know what the powers he has are. Kanan will act as a mentor to this younger character. It also seems like Ezra may be the focus character of the show. He will be voiced by Taylor Gray.
Those three characters are the only good guys who have been officially announced so far. Because of toy news that has come out we at least know the names and have images of the other three. I expect we will get official announcements with videos very soon.
Zeb Orrelios
We have seen images of this guy as a LEGO minifig for a while now. Thanks to the awesome people covering New York Toy Fair we now have seen him as a Hasbro action figure and a plush toy. A number of other images of the character on toy packaging and book covers have come out as well. Little is known about the character other than he seems to be the muscle of the crew and he is likely based on original Chewbacca concept art by Ralph McQuarrie. His species? Your guess is as good as mine.
Hera Syndulla
Just like Zeb we had seen her as a minifig and known her name for a while. And her name is familiar. There was a character in The Clone Wars named Cham Syndulla who was a freedom fighter on the planet Ryloth. Chances are Hera is a relative. Based on the image above she is a girl that the Empire doesn’t want to mess with. Based on hints from the toy sets revealed, it also seems like she may be the pilot of the Ghost.
Sabine
When the first images of this character showed up on Twitter is set off all kinds of speculation. The image that surfaced first showed a character fighting with the good guys in reddish/pink Madalorian armor. Since her face was covered with a helmet people were going as far to speculate that she could be Ahsoka Tano. That speculation was quickly squelched when more images of her came to light showing a very human looking character. Her name was also revealed to be Sabine, Of course this just started new speculation. Could she be the love child if Obi-Wan and Satine (you know, because her name rhymes with Satine)? Her skin tone is a bit off, could she be Mirialan like Barriss Offee? I’m sure all will be revealed very soon.
I for one am very happy with how Rebels is shaping up. It looks like is has a cast full of interesting characters. The more that is being revealed the more excited I get for where this show is going.
UPDATE: Zeb has now been officially announced. You can watch his intro video over at IGN.
Author: Aaron Goins
Aaron mostly shares his geeky thoughts through podcasting (Star Wars Bookworms, Bad Wolf Radio, Star Scavengers) but his writings can also be found on sites like StarWars.com, Geek Tyrant, and Jedi News UK.