Hey there, Recon fans. It's your host, Andi Gutierrez
here to take you behind the scenes of two action-packed episodes of Star Wars Rebels.
Are you ready to learn?
...I'm going to assume that you just scream yes at your screen and move on.
This is Rebels Recon
Growing impatient with the efforts to stop the Rebels
Thrawn dispatches his personal assassin to aid the Empire.
I smell Lasat
Under enemy fire as response a loth-wolf that transports the Rebels to safety
revealing a mysterious connection with the wolves in the Force.
It has a deep connection to the Force.
To the energy of this planet.
After successfully stopping the mining guild from destroying the surface of Lothal,
the Rebels received news that will help free the planet from the clutches of the Empire.
The attack, it's happening?!
We're launching our assault on the next rotation.
I told Mon Mothma you'll coordinate the ground assault.
You can count on us.
This week an iconic character made his triumphant debut on Rebels.
I talked to the cast and crew about what it was like bringing Rukh to life,
working with Warwick Davis,
how the mining guild works with the Empire,
and the kiss.
You know the one, check it out.
Old school fans would likely recognize Thrawn's assassin Rukh from the classic Thrawn trilogy books.
Maybe.
How is it decided to bring another Legends character into the series?
I mean once you start with Thrawn it kind of sets off some dominoes
and we needed another character that wasn't a Force wielding character.
So we decided on Rukh.
It wasn't an easy choice, you know, because theres not really a good idea of what he looks like.
There were a lot of interpretations.
We actually did a complete pass that was green he looked a
lot more like a t-rex but Feloni had this idea he was thinking more creepy and skeletal
and he wanted Rukh to be sort of wiry and menacing in a way that was different
to an Inquisitor or Vader so we actually went back and went more in this sort of
gray alien and spooky pale eyed sort of direction I remember talking to Killian
about him when we first started designing him we were figuring like does
he more like do like a four-legged thing like does he actually like run like a
gorilla? We kind of went with that as his sort of basic idea for his locomotion
that he's much more animal-like so you'll see a lot of times that he'll
be going from four legs to two legs he'll be grappling onto things like a
monkey to kind of give him a little bit more of a creature kind of feel and less
of like a normal biped human assassin. We were finessing the fine points of
rook all the way deep into lighting even though the design was great the ass is
great soon as we get him into lighting that's what kind of things kind of pop
up one of them is his button nose before the button nose used to be a little
bright and it made him look a little too cute and Dave had the immediate reaction
of let's just darken the nose so we had to go and in the color gray just darken
his nose there but just by doing that just added so much more menacing fear to
his face with his expressions. What else can you tell us about Rukh and his
species, what kind of culture do they have? The Noghri are very honor based.
They're the size of Jawas but they're like deadly so they're really more like
ninjas than they are brutes the key thing that they had in the books is this
incredible sense of smell. They could actually tell your lineage by sniffing
you they could figure out what your bloodline is if you were
than someone in this case we really just tried to project that as being a tracker.
We finally got Warrick Davis in two Rebels what's it like working with Warwick as a
voice actor? He is incredible it was such a pleasure to record him he was great
because he gave a very nuanced performance with his voice but he's also
incredibly physical so we recorded his physical performance as well and we did
that to the animators. So a lot of the subtle nuances he made with his face in
his body you'll actually see reflected in Rukh.
He is supremely knowledgeable as an actors you could want he has such a
breadth of experience behind him to draw from it's when your days are easy as a
director because anything you give an actor like him he will just take and
make pretty incredible. There is a legacy in Star Wars that goes beyond just the
stories and the characters to the people behind the scenes that have been a part
of this and he's definitely been a gigantic part of Star Wars and why I
think people love it so it's just always fun when they can continue to be
included in the magic here. We get to see Zeb finally meet his match in a fight in
this episode what's your process for recording all these grunts and groans
needed for this sort of performance? The grunting growing is something I started
out with my very first gig was as a creature grunting yeah you got to be
willing to look ugly that is the secret to all efforts and reactions you got to
be willing to go as ugly and drippy and gross as you possibly can.
How exactly does the mining guild work with the Empire the mining guild has all
the equipment in gear required to exploit planets they're kind of this
independent agency that the Empire hasn't completely taken over. Well
they're brought in to strip the place all the resources and they're just there
making money they don't see it as villainous they're just doing their job.
Captain Seevor is kind of an interesting character can you tell me a little bit
more about his origins? He was voiced by the fantastic Seth Green. He's so good he
was phenomenal he came in and we didn't really know what the voice was going to
be like and Seth gave us a couple of options in the minute we heard that
voice it was like perfect that is Captain Seevor. Trandoshans in general
are fun to design because once you get past the idea that they all have to look
just like Bossk, it's wide open they can be anything as long as there's lizards
there's actually a massive amount of just visual diversity that you
can try within any one given species and Star Wars and come up with really fun
different characters that don't break any rules and are just as believable and
interesting as anything that you've seen in movies. This episode made a lot of
online fans very happy, including me yeah I think a lot of us we're waiting for
Kanan and Hera to finally kiss what took them so long to finally get to this
point in their relationship? They've had a history together
but Hera was very focused on the rebellion I think in a different time in
a different world maybe they really would have explored more of that but I
think as the circumstances grow even more dire and it becomes even more
dangerous I think the attraction increases as well. I think they've had
other priorities and have not been able to be romantic with one another but I do
think that that feeling is there they really help each other and I think that
for a long time we just didn't want this relationship to get in the way of how
they were developing as characters it's evolved the way that it should and we
were just very careful about it it suggested every now and then that they
have more of a history in the past but we'll have to wait and see what it means
in their future
(R3 Beeping)
Oh R3, you are so much funnier than Chopper!
(angry Chopper noises)
(slide whistle sound)
You know what I love doing almost as much as this show? Stalking the Lucasfilm
story group's Pablo Hidalgo to ask him your thoughtful and well worded
questions week after week let's go do that now shall we?
Oh hey Pablo glad I found you you got a minute yeah I got a few minutes okay
cool. So I've got some questions for you, first off
Vitas Varnas asks if Yavin IV is an ancient Sith world, wouldn't Palpatine or
Vader watch it closely? You know the idea that Yavin IV was a safe world is
something that came out of the expanded universe particularly in the 1990s but
it was never really reflected in George Lucas's version of Yavin and it's Massassi
temple if you look back in his development of the planet. It was never
part of that's history so we don't know if that's really canon.
Cool. Tim Langel asks what happened to the two giant crystals that the rebels
destabilize after they destroyed the transports? Oh they did blow nope
yeah yeah. Well that was a waste of time for the Imperials. Blowed up big time
Alright then good luck with that. Have questions about Kindred or Crawler
Commanders tweet them to @StarWars using the #rebelsrecon and we'll
answer what we can online and now here's your first peek at next week's episode
Rebel Assault. Enjoy.
Sir, we're detecting several craft coming out of hyperspace. Alright let's make this
count. Lothals' depending on us.
Thanks for watching Rebels Recon we'll be back
next week with a brand new episode but if you can't get enough Rebels
information check out the episode guides for Kindred and Crawler Commanders on
StarWars.com right now. Thanks again and may the Force be with you