The Force is Strong With Disney XD’s Star Wars Rebels

Siths about to get real, people!

As the long-awaited Star Wars: The Force Awakens hyperdrives into theaters this month, the action on Disney XD’s Star Wars Rebels is heating up too. Just don’t call it a kids’ show.

“We do get rather dark and more serious this season, because the story has to go that way,” teases executive producer Dave Filoni. Set five years before 1977’s original, A New Hope, this CGI series about a band of do-gooders in the early battle against Darth Vader’s tyranny not only balances the grim realities of civil war with blasts of goofy humor, but it is also the network’s No. 1 show among adults 18–49 and a canon-expanding essential for everyone obsessed with that galaxy far, far away—no matter their age.

“For my generation, it’s the norm to be into Star Wars,” says Filoni, 41. “There was no such thing as a ‘Star Wars fan.’ You were just a kid lucky enough to grow up with this awesome entertainment.” Fittingly, it was Filoni’s lifelong affinity for all things Jedi that landed him within the beloved franchise’s expanded universe on TV.

“I thought it was a practical joke,” he says of the 2005 call he got from Lucasfilm Animation while working on Nickelodeon’s Avatar: The Last Airbender. “I almost hung up on them because I thought it was my friends giving me a hard time.” Instead, Filoni was interviewed by George Lucas himself, who immediately hired him to direct Star Wars: The Clone Wars, 2008’s big-screen animated flick that takes place between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. After that, Filoni transitioned to overseeing Cartoon Network’s The Clone Wars, the ongoing tale of clone troopers, Obi-Wan Kenobi and the pre–dark side Anakin Skywalker. Yet unlike the Jedi Council’s most notorious turncoat, Filoni proudly states, “Since ’05, I’ve been quite literally studying the ways of the Force year in, year out, trying to improve my skills.”

Seven years after Filoni’s first meeting with Lucas, in another corner of the galaxy, big-screen film producer and writer Simon Kinberg (X-Men: First Class, The Martian) was earning his X-wings via a two-week powwow with a crew of writers and consultants—including Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi scribe Lawrence Kasdan—all recruited by Lucasfilm before its sale to Disney to map out the next wave of Star Wars stories. “We operated like a little TV writers’ room and just talked about what we would love to see in future Star Wars sagas,” recalls Kinberg, a creative consultant on The Force Awakens.

The confab also led to his alliance with Kiri Hart, head of development at Lucasfilm, and the birth of Rebels. “She sent me an email afterward saying, ‘We’re thinking about doing a new animated show. I know you’re excited about writing things that your kids can grab hold of, so do you think you’d be interested?’” One excited reply yes—“in all caps and with 10 exclamation points”—later and, Kinberg says, “That was the beginning.”

So, like Han and Luke before them, Kinberg and Filoni united to form what Kinberg calls “a family unit crossed with the A-Team” for Disney XD’s 2014 pilot Star Wars Rebels: Spark of Rebellion. The story featured de facto leader Kanan Jarrus (voiced by Freddie Prinze Jr.), a cowboy Jedi who survived the Emperor’s Order 66 decree to kill off his entire kind; Twi’lek Hera Syndulla (Vanessa Marshall), an ace pilot of the spacecraft The Ghost and newly minted captain of the rebel cell known as Phoenix Squadron; Sabine Wren (Tiya Sircar), a Mandalorian graffiti artist with mad explosives skills and a murky past; Zeb (Steve Blum), a hulking, smart-mouth alien sworn to making the Empire pay for slaughtering his species; and Ezra Bridger (Taylor Gray), a teen grifter from the planet Lothal.

Currently in its wildly entertaining second season (Season 3 will premiere in 2016)—and filled with animation inspired by the original trilogy’s late conceptual designer, Ralph McQuarrie—Rebels’ deepening mythology is largely linked to the nascent Jedi powers and orphan status of the Luke Skywalker–esque Ezra.

“He’s got some more wisdom now. He knows how to use the Force a little bit,” explains Gray, teasing a “huge” upcoming storyline about Ezra’s mother and father, long believed to have been executed for speaking out against the Empire when he was 7. “This whole story with his parents has been looming over him. He’s accomplished a lot over the course of the first season and has found his own family with the rebel group,” the actor continues. “The one question that’s still unanswered for him is: What happened to his parents?” The answer to that, Gray hints, “will determine what Ezra’s fate is.”

In other major storylines this season, Kevin McKidd of Grey’s Anatomy will voice a new Mandalorian character, potentially linked to Sabine’s soon-to-be-revealed backstory (“She’s as important to the series as Ezra, as far as who this show is about,” Filoni hints). The Jedi-hunting Inquisitor known as the Seventh Sister (voiced by Prinze’s wife, Sarah Michelle Gellar) is set to cause trouble for Kanan. And Ahsoka Tano (Ashley Eckstein), Anakin Skywalker’s former Padawan introduced in The Clone Wars, may get the goods on her old master. Despite a handful of appearances on Rebels, the fan favorite has yet to untangle her ties to Darth Vader, nor has it been revealed why Ahsoka was never seen in the prequel films or what she’s been up to since leaving the Jedi Order during the Clone Wars. Given that we’ll definitely be seeing Vader (voiced by James Earl Jones, no less) again, along with Frank Oz’s legendary Yoda (who has previously only been heard on screen) and at least one major legacy character from the films, this could mean that we will finally have some answers about Ahsoka’s missing 15 years.

“I want to know too!” Eckstein exclaims. “I do hope that we get to explore that someday, but at least we get the story that we’re [building] to now: more Ahsoka, more Darth Vader. I can promise it’ll blow people’s minds.”

Filoni, meanwhile, is intent on not blowing any future plot twists, keeping them more guarded than plans for a Death Star. When asked what lies ahead, he simply allows that the whole Ghost crew is in for a wild ride. “The dark side is growing…and the more ripples Ezra makes, the more powerful he becomes.”

It seems the Force is strong with this one too.

Star Wars Rebels airs Wednesdays, 9:30/8:30c, Disney XD

Power Issue: Empire Soars to the Top of the TV Charts

There’s epic. Then there’s Empire epic. Taraji P. Henson, Terrence Howard and Jussie Smollett—the three megawatt stars of the blockbuster Fox series—enter the show’s bustling soundstage in Chicago and are soon surrounded by over 200 extras, each dressed to the tens, for a blowout concert that will air during the December 2 midseason finale. Executive producer Sanaa Hamri, directing this three-ring-circus of an episode, calls for action, and suddenly Serayah McNeill, who plays Rihanna-esque hip-hop star Tiana, is blazing through the crowd. She is accompanied by a bevy of bubble-butted boys on hoverboards as she performs a raucous, sex-charged number called “Do Somethin’ Wit It.” But this is just the evening’s appetizer. Moments later, the waters part and in comes Alicia Keys.

What’s at stake here? Everything. After all, it’s Empire! This glittery affair, which has drawn the power people of the music industry, is being live-streamed to promote the American Sound Awards—the show’s fictional mash-up of the Grammys and American Music Awards—that has both factions of the Lyon clan desperate for nominations.

“Just like with any of their family gatherings—whether it’s a dinner, a party or a performance—the Lyons are going to find a way to take something really beautiful and f— it up,” says Smollett, who plays middle son Jamal. “It’s what they do best.”

Howard’s character, Lucious Lyon, the megalomaniacal overlord of Empire Entertainment, is obsessed with winning the ASA for Song of the Year. “It has taken on an outsize importance for him,” says executive producer Ilene Chaiken. “It’s about much more than record sales and the devotion of millions. It’s a symbol of greatness for a man who is wont to say things like, ‘I am more powerful than God.’ Lucious wants that award more than life itself.” Mostly because he’s never been nominated for it.

“Lucious has won everything in life but that top prize, and that’s a real sore point with him,” Howard says. “He’s not interested in Best R&B Song. That category, he says, ‘was invented to placate black people.’ He thinks Song of the Year is the only ASA with real prestige.” And woe to anyone who gets in his way this year, including Jamal, who is also a likely contender in the category.

“This is the cutthroat truth about the music industry,” says Hamri, who has directed widely acclaimed videos for Prince, Mariah Carey and Nicki Minaj. “Lucious, like a lot of people in the record business, is all about trumping everyone else. He’s not looking at the bigger picture—what’s best for Jamal, for his family, for Empire Entertainment. It’s all about him. And it will get crazy.”

Meanwhile, Lucious’s ex-wife, Cookie, played by Henson, needs some ASA love to help put her rival startup company, Lyon Dynasty, on the map, and she’s praying that her son Hakeem (Bryshere Gray) gets a nod as Rapper of the Year. “It would mean so much to Cookie’s label,” Henson says. “But Lucious is such a bully. He’ll probably find a way to fix the voting.” (For more on the Cookie-Lucious rivalry, see page 24.)

The situation has been hell on Hakeem. “Not only is it him and Cookie versus Lucious and Jamal—with Andre [the eldest Lyon son, played by Trai Byers] working both sides—but Hakeem is starting to realize he has mental problems,” Gray says. “He’s depressed. He sees that having a company is not what it’s cooked up to be, and it’s really messing with him. A while ago he was kidnapped. Now he’s feeling emotionally kidnapped.”

But let’s get back to Alicia Keys. The Grammy-winning superstar is playing four-time ASA winner Skye Summers, who hits the stage with Jamal to knock out “Powerful,” a Black Lives Matter über-ballad (cowritten by Smollett) with lyrics ripped from the headlines. It is gloriously performed, and the audience is ecstatic.

Then things go south. The host of the concert, radio personality Charlamagne Tha God, walks out, momentarily fawns over the duo and then rips into the biracial Skye, accusing her of playing up her blackness when it’s professionally convenient. Skye is stunned, confused and devastated by the public humiliation. Clearly, this is going to be a nightmare on Black Twitter.

“This is an issue I’ve been desperate to explore,” says Empire cocreator Lee Daniels. “I don’t want to drop names, but I will. I have a lot of biracial friends—Mariah Carey, Lenny Kravitz and Halle Berry among them—who feel [as if they’re] in a race of their own. For them, it’s always a question of ‘How do I identify? As black? As white?’ And a lot of black people have a big problem with that. But who are we to judge how a person of mixed race should identify?” That message, Daniels adds, “is what Empire is all about. It doesn’t f—ing matter what color you identify with or what sex you’re sleeping with. We’re here to break down barriers.”

Smollett is doing just that during a break in filming, as he greets several African-American state legislators who have come to the set with their very excited families. The actor, who came out as gay in an interview with Ellen DeGeneres last March, later relays how he was blown away by the visitors. “One person told me, ‘My son is 14 and gay, and he came out to me because of you,’” says Smollett. “Another said, ‘My daughter just came out yesterday. She told me it was because of you.’ And a third said, ‘My brother came out to me while we were watching Empire.’”

Such encounters are common these days for the 32-year-old star. “This show is so much bigger than the ratings or the music or the fun factor,” Smollett says. “We hold a mirror up to each viewer and say, ‘Look at yourself. Which character are you most like?’ And,” he adds with a laugh, “if you’re most like Lucious, you should probably check yourself, boo. You might wanna do some work.”

Hey, let’s not pass over those Nielsens so easily! Season 1 of Empire broke TV records we didn’t know existed, debuting last January as the highest-rated freshman series in 10 years and boasting an episode average of 17.3 million viewers. Among broadcast series, it’s No. 1 with adults 18–49 and No. 1 in all of television with African-American adults 18–49. Cooler still, it is the only series since the advent of the current ratings system to grow its viewership every single week in its first season. Based on tweets per episode, Empire is also the largest social-media draw among all series—broadcast and cable. Though ratings have leveled off in Season 2, the show is still a colossus, one with a profound effect on how pilots are now being cast.

“Everyone is looking for diversity thanks to us,” says Henson, “but I hope they don’t miss what’s really going on here. The work on Empire is incredible. Being black is not the trick! My hope is that Hollywood can get deeper in its thinking and not just throw a bunch of black people on TV because they know it’ll make money.”

Her boss seconds that emotion. “The danger now is that a lot of shows will become cookie-cutter—pardon the pun—versions of Empire,” says Daniels. “As a man of color, nothing makes me happier than to help change the way TV is made. But this isn’t a ‘black show.’ It’s a show about extremely relatable human beings. Many people in this business still don’t get that.”

Empire airs Wednesdays, 9/8c, Fox

TV’s Kick-Ass Women: The Leading Ladies of Blindspot, Limitless, Quantico and Supergirl

Who doesn’t love a wonder woman? “She saved the world. A lot,” a premature Buffy the Vampire Slayer tombstone once read, and the stakes are just as high for this season’s dynamic wave of fearless femmes fatales. Flying high and taking aim, they uphold a proud TV tradition of subverting gender expectations. Cross these damsels, and you’ll know distress.

Here are highlights from our latest issue, celebrating TV’s new kick-ass women:

Blindspot’s Jaimie Alexander, on her character, tattooed amnesiac (turned badass FBI operative) Jane Doe: “I’ve waited a long time for a role like this. For my particular skill set—meaning the physicality and then the emotional roller coaster these characters go on—there were no parts for me… I want to show that this [type of role] can be done with a female and that I can be equally captivating. I bust my ass every day to make sure that is on point.”

Limitless’ Jennifer Carpenter, on her character, FBI agent (and partner to drug-enhanced supergenius Brian Finch) Rebecca Harris: “A common mistake in television is that people who chase criminals always act like they’re gonna die if they don’t catch them. Sure, it’s disappointing if you don’t, but here’s the reality: Law enforcers like Rebecca go home at night and become somebody’s wife or mother, lover or friend. She’s not ruined by ambition. Competition can kill a person just as easily as a criminal can.”

Quantico’s Priyanka Chopra, on her character, FBI trainee (and suspected terrorist) Alex Parrish: “I’m a machine! I can make four movies a year. I like to work extra hard because I do love my job. To me, Quantico seems like a really long movie. The difference is that in features we do maybe two scenes a day, and now I’m doing nine! … [on the intense fight scenes]: I really enjoy it. I think God originally intended to make me a boy. I enjoy doing lots of things typically meant for a man.”

Supergirl’s Melissa Benoist, on her character, the last daughter of Krypton (and you-know-who’s cousin), Kara Danvers, aka Supergirl: “She is a beacon of hope and stands for what’s good. She truly believes in doing what’s right and helping people. And yeah, it is extremely important that she’s a female, but you’re not going to remember her for that. You’re going to remember her for her bravery and how awesome she is. I hope people are in awe of her.”

Girl Power: TV’s Newest Hero Takes Flight in Supergirl

Even for Supergirl, time flies when you’re having fun.

“It’s crazy. I went in for this the day after Halloween last year,” a smiling Melissa Benoist recalls of her audition for Supergirl, CBS’s bright new superhero show about the Man of Steel’s equally fortified cousin. “I thought there was no chance—I had brown hair,” and the DC Comics character is well known for her blonde locks. “I’m just a weird girl, and I think they liked that.”

It’s impossible not to like Benoist. Sitting outside her trailer on the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank, California, while she plays with her dog, Farley, the newly blonded 27-year-old Littleton, Colorado, native is as effortlessly attractive as she is approachable. Her down-to-earth vibe is refreshing and a tad startling, given her high-profile gig on one of this season’s biggest gambles. After all, Supergirl—which finally takes off on October 26—is the first comic book–based, female-driven superhero drama on television since The WB’s short-lived Birds of Prey in 2002; the character’s 1984 big-screen debut was a dud; and it’s not airing on The CW, home to DC Comics’ current TV crown jewels, Arrow and The Flash.

Thankfully, the superfriends behind those heroic hits are the ones bringing Benoist’s Kara Zor-El, last daughter of Krypton, to the airwaves. Indeed, DC Entertainment and Warner Bros. knew exactly who to ask about adapting another icon. “One of the executives mentioned the character of Supergirl,” says Greg Berlanti, teaming again with his Flash and Arrow executive producers Andrew Kreisberg and Sarah Schechter, along with Glee’s Ali Adler, one of his cohorts on the relatives-with-powers dramedy No Ordinary Family. “[But] they saw the show more as her without a cape, a teenage-girl-growing-up-on-a-farm kind of thing.” Not interested in doing Smallville: The Training-Bra Years, Berlanti and Co. pitched a more adult origin story with “the same size and scope as The Flash and Arrow but with its own adult identity. CBS loved it, and we got a show!”

Introduced in a 1959 issue of Action Comics, Kara has a backstory similar to her more famous kin. “She was 12 years old when Krypton was destroyed, and she escaped the destruction at the same time as her infant cousin,” Benoist explains. In the Supergirl premiere, she is sent to Earth by her parents, Zor-El (Robert Gant) and Alura (Laura Benanti), to watch over baby Kal-El, “but she gets stuck in space for a long time, and when she gets to Earth, he’s already matured. So she makes this decision that since Earth already has a hero, she doesn’t need to use her powers.”

Instead, Kara blends in as the adopted daughter of the Danvers (in a fun nod to the mythos, they are played by big-screen Supergirl Helen Slater and Lois & Clark’s Dean Cain), a family of scientists in the fictional and very Los Angeles–like National City. With a protective adoptive sister, Alex (Chyler Leigh), and the kind of glasses that have been known to hide secret identities, the Kara we meet in the pilot has grown up to become a sweetly nerdy assistant to media maven Cat Grant (Calista Flockhart) with undeveloped powers and no clue that her CatCo colleague Winn (Jeremy Jordan) has it bad for her.

Of course, even superheroes in denial can’t sit still when a plane carrying a loved one is about to go down, so before you can say, “It’s a bird…,” Kara takes to the friendly skies to rescue Alex. In the process, she attracts all sorts of attention—most notably from Hank Henshaw (David Harewood), head of the Department of Extra-Normal Operations, a shadowy government organization, and one James Olsen (Mehcad Brooks), who has been deployed from Metropolis by Supes himself to play Obi-Wan to the fledgling hero.

Not that she needs a man to save the day. Or a Superman. While plenty of DC characters, like Lucy Lane (Jenna Dewan-Tatum), Red Tornado (Iddo Goldberg), Maxwell Lord (Peter Facinelli) and Kryptonian villain Non (Chris Vance), are set to appear, the oft-mentioned boy scout in the sky is most definitely not one of them. “I compare him to Veep’s [unseen] president,” Berlanti jokes. “He is out there and Metropolis exists, but hopefully, people watching the series will quickly go, ‘We don’t even need him!’”

All Supergirl really needs is for viewers to see past the whole “girl” part. “Ultimately, what we want to do is appeal to everyone,” Schechter offers. “The notion that guys won’t watch girls has been completely destroyed by things like Frozen and Mad Max: Fury Road. For us, this is just a show about an incredibly interesting character going through something exceptional.”

Adler echoes that equal-rights-for-equal-flights sentiment. “The Supergirl property is the gold standard for female superheroes, but in watching the action and what Kara comes up against emotionally, you go in seeing a female superhero and you come out seeing a powerful superhero. Her gender doesn’t really matter. Ultimately, it’s just about this triumphant person.”

What did matter, however, was finding an ingenue capable of convincingly rocking a caped ensemble designed by Oscar winner Colleen Atwood (who also created the looks Stephen Amell and Grant Gustin sport on Arrow and The Flash), battling an array of aliens-of-the-week unleashed by Kara’s arrival on Earth and balancing comedy, drama, action and adorableness. For that magic combo, the producers turned to the unsung hero of DC Comics’ growing TV dynasty, casting director David Rapaport.

“We saw thousands of people, but I will say that all credit goes to David,” Schechter says of the man we have to thank for stocking The CW’s hero brigade. “He had a really good feeling about Melissa, just like he had a really good feeling about Stephen Amell and Grant Gustin.” And just like those two, Benoist—best known for her role as Glee’s sweet, shy Marley Rose—was the first to read for the role. “David actually made Melissa come back early from a trip and signed her in himself so she would be first because he knew that Greg is a little bit superstitious,” Schechter says.

“She is the female Grant,” Kreisberg adds. “Watching them on set, it’s not just the talent or how they inhabit the part; it’s their joy and enthusiasm that they get to do this, which is in a way who these characters are.”

Walking back into the soundstage to film the first scene with Jordan, Brooks and Leigh in what will become Team Supergirl’s secret CatCo control room, Benoist still seems genuinely astonished that she gets to do this for a living. “I love Kara,” she says, exuding the same sunny determination as the character. “She truly believes that she’s going to change and save the world. And I think she’s going to do it.”

Attagirl!

Supergirl premieres Monday, Oct. 26, 8:30/7:30c, CBS, then moves to Mondays, 8/7c, starting Nov. 2.