Star Wars Rebels debuted to 6.5 million viewers worldwide, a Disney press release says today. The Friday debut on the Disney Channel has 2.7M viewers and did 52% higher than average in the “target demographic.” (Boys 6-11, because of course.) ‘Spark of Rebellion’ airs tonight on the show’s permanent home, Disney XD.
Empire talks to Simon Kinberg about Rebels – and, of course, the Episode VII connections (he’s still playing the ‘maybe’ game.) But on the tone of the series:
“We are not afraid to take those characters to some dark places. In the first season, there are some backstories that get revealed for main characters that are a lot darker and more dramatic than anything I’ve ever seen in animated TV, and which have the same depth and childhood trauma that the characters in the movies had.”
And The Inquisitor:
What we do know is that The Inquisitor is “less of a believer in the Empire and the cause of the Empire than perhaps Darth Vader, and more of a hunting dog.” So not a Sith, per se? “I don’t know how much I’m allowed to say about that, but no, per se.”
Entertainment Weekly is acting like they’ve never heard the term ‘Lucasfilm Story Group’ before in an article today where they ‘exclusively’ inform us that things from Episode VII may very well show up in Rebels.
“There are characters, vehicles, imagery that are introduced in the show before we’ve ever seen them in the movies, possibly including VII,” Simon Kinberg tells them.
Of course, he told /Film back at SDCC that “We haven’t really talked about that,” so take it as you will. Playing coy is the name of the game here, I suppose. But consider that season 2 of Rebels is likely to premiere next October, just as we’re likely to see some serious marketing ramp up for Episode VII, and it seems pretty likely that the two are going to tie together with something more significant than some ships and speeders. On that hand, it does seem a bit early to unleash the certain point of viewing, so they really want you to watch Rebels.
Bryan at Big Shiny Robot interviews Simon Kinberg about Rebels. He talks about getting to make Star Wars (“like getting a chance to write fan fiction at the highest possible level”) and where the concept of Ezra’s slingshot comes from. There’s also a preview of next week’s Rebels short.
In an interview with Collider, Rebels executive producer Simon Kinberg reveals that he wrote the two-part primiere and season finale – and that there are 16 episodes in total.
He also says that the show will have characters “from the original films,” which many are taking as a sort of confirmation that Lando will be appearing… But there is another. (And no lack of other possibilities.)
Executive producer Simon Kinberg talks Rebels with Entertainment Weekly today. He touches on quite a few things, but no real bombshells… Or are there?
Thematically and politically, it goes to some dark places. But for the tone of the show we took our cues from the original movies, which had fun and adventure and swashbuckling with emotion and grounded human characters. We took all our cues from the original films. Obviously there are slight tonal differences between New Hope, Empire and Jedi. But I think the closest intended voice of the show is A New Hope. So there are places where we get into darker backstories, there are places we see how cruel and malevolent the Empire can be, but for the most part it’s a fun and character-driven story.
On Vader or Palpatine appearing:
I don’t think I’m allowed to answer that. I can say that wherever possible we would want to use the original talent.
On the heroes:
There’s a lot of new characters in the show. The prequels were centered around the origin of familiar characters, there’s a lot of new characters in this show. The main characters are new characters.
On Pablo Hidalgo, “the resident Star Wars genius” and bringing in things from the Expanded Universe:
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. Or we’ll task him we’re trying to create a muscle for this villain with a cool backstory. Sometimes it will be a character or a planet we don’t know about. Instead of being just an Easter egg, sometimes it will turn into an a whole episode.
Star Wars Rebels debuted to 6.5 million viewers worldwide, a Disney press release says today. The Friday debut on the Disney Channel has 2.7M viewers and did 52% higher than average in the “target demographic.” (Boys 6-11, because of course.) ‘Spark of Rebellion’ airs tonight on the show’s permanent home, Disney XD. 
Bryan at 
In an interview with 