Since Disney bought Lucasfilm back in 2012, the Star Wars universe has simultaneously shrunk (most of the former ‘Expanded Universe’ has been demoted to the non-canon ‘Legends’) and expanded (there’ll be a new film every year, minimum). Now it seems the fictional universe far, far away could see its film and television choices merge in the future.
Simon Kinberg – erstwhile X-Men writer-producer, and executive producer on Disney’s animated Star Wars Rebels series – has hinted that Rebels could have an impact on future movies.
In an interview with Moviefone, Kinberg talked about the way the universe is “interconnected between the different movies and even beyond the movies … I like the way that those stories are told in the larger tapestry.” He noted that Rebels and Clone Wars had shared characters.
“What’s lovely is we’ve brought in characters from Clone Wars in the second season,” Kinberg continued, “and we keep bringing characters from the original movies and deepening the relationships between our core characters, the Ghost crew.”
Crucially, Kinberg teased that their approach was “trying to balance the two different things, like the original cast from the first season with ‘Clone Wars,’ with characters from the original movies, and maybe even feeding into future movies.”
This is not an unprecedented move: Rogue One, the live-action feature spin-off due this December, features Forest Whitaker playing Saw Gerrera – a character first seen in Clone Wars. Read our complete guide to Rogue One for the full skinny.
Kinberg doesn’t elaborate on which characters could feed into future movies, or how. Episode VIII – which Mark Hamill recently revealed will wrap on July 22 – is set 30 years after Rebels, so any characters featured would probably have Yoda-level wrinkles.
Then again, who’s to say a character couldn’t pop up in the Young Han Solo currently being prepped by Phil Lord and Chris Miller, with Alden Ehrenreich in the lead. Or one of the myriad of other Star Wars spin-offs bubbling away in the background, with solo movies rumoured for Boba Fett, Yoda, Obi-Wan Kenobi...heck, even Nien Nunb could get his own movie at this rate. With a Star Wars film due every 12 months until the heat death of the universe, there’ll be plenty of opportunities for crossover.
Read our inside look at Star Wars Rebels, including interviews with Kinberg and the show's creators.