Star Wars has been in the news a lot in the past week and it only felt right to me to talk about the new era in the Star Wars universe. Just like many fans, my world was rocked by the announcement that the old Expanded Universe (EU). I was sad that Jaina and Jacen Solo, Mara Jade, and the Republic Commandos would no longer be canon. With the announcement of Episode VII, I cherished the hope of seeing my favorites on the big screen. But Disney has big plans for the new Star Wars.
Phase one begins with the animated series Star Wars: Rebels on DisneyXD accompanied by the first new EU novel A New Dawn by John Jackson Miller. Having finished A New Dawn and seen a few episodes of Rebels I have to say I'm pretty excited. We haven't seen much about what happens in between Episodes III and IV and there's a lot of tantalizing nuggets in both stories. The strategy seems to be to show the universe from the bottom up. Both Gorse, the planet where A New Dawn takes place, and Lothal, the setting of Rebels, are on the outer rim, far away from the planets fans are familiar with. The people who live there are the little people who stand to sacrifice the most to the empire while reaping the least benefit from its rule. Even this early in the new era, its easy to see the roots of what would become the Rebel Alliance of the Original Trilogy (OT). What I especially like about Rebels is that they've made an effort to tie it into the OT. They've brought in characters that we know and love, sampled music from the original John Williams score and created backdrops taken directly from Ralph McQuarrie's concept art for the OT.
The characters are both new and familiar at the same time. Kanan the one time Jedi padawan, is a Han Solo type swashbuckler, the lovable jerk. Hera is the brains of the operation, as adept as she is beautiful, reminiscent of Princess Leia. I have high hopes for Hera, I think there are a lot of places they could go with her character. I'm a little disappointed that Hera kind of got short shrift in A New Dawn as far as backstory and dimension go. She is mostly presented from Kanan's point of view as an object of desire and there is kind of a "will they or won't they" relationship between the two so far. Zeb is the muscle, who delights in cracking Stormtroopers' heads together and reminds me strongly of Jayne from Firefly fame. Sabine is a breath of fresh air. A teenage girl with a lot of artistic talent and a special appreciation for explosions, Sabine is sure to be a fan-favorite with little girls, a worthy successor to Ahsoka Tano. My not so secret hope for Sabine is that she will be an avenue to have more Mandalorians in the new canon. Lastly, there's Ezra, who is a force-sensitive street rat, adopted by the rest of the crew and poised to become Kanan's apprentice. The gang is frequently harassed by platoons of stormtroopers just as inept as they ever were and commanded by Agent Kallus and grasping imperial trying to wring the last assets out of the local people. Kallus reports to the shadowy Sith Inquisitor, whose purpose is to eradicate the last of the surviving Jedi.
There are a few questions in particular that I'm still wondering how producer Dave Filoni (of Clone Wars and Avatar fame) will answer. One is what becomes of Kanan and Ezra if Luke, Obi-Wan and Yoda are the only surviving Jedi just 20 odd years later. The other is whether there will be any ties between this series and the Clone Wars. Could Ahsoka be back? How about the clones that enter the 501st? Its early days yet, but the new era for Star Wars is full of promise.
For more on A New Dawn, check out my Goodreads review here:
