rebeL Hearts
Star Wars Rebels stars chat season three
You can’t keep a good Sith apprentice down. He’s been chopped in half, descended into madness and had his plans for galactic domination smacked down by his former master Darth Sidious – but still Darth Maul is back for more. The spiky Dathomirian returned in Star Wars Rebels’ season two finale, and immediately made an impact, blinding “last surviving Jedi” Kanan, and making a good stab at luring his apprentice, Ezra Bridger, towards the Dark Side. Voice actor Sam Witwer says we shouldn’t expect Maul to start changing his stripes in season three.
“It’s both an evolution and more of the same,” he tells Red Alert. “The guy is kind of locked in this loop. He’s kind of like Sisyphus, this cursed character who keeps trying to push the boulder up the mountain and then it keeps falling back down. In a weird way this guy is like 50 or 60 years old and he’s come to a point where he’s realised that everything he’s been trying to do in his life hasn’t worked, so this is his last chance to make something of himself. He’s seeing some opportunities and trying to seize them.”
Season three features Tom Baker as giant Force-sensitive being the Bendu (the second Time Lord to cross over into the Star Wars universe after David Tennant), and the eagerly anticipated arrival of Expanded Universe Big Bad Grand Admiral Thrawn. It’ll also see Rebel Sabine Wren embracing her Mandalorian roots – not only will she finally get her hands on a Boba Fett-style jetpack, she’ll brandish a darksaber, an ancient weapon that’s been passed down through generations of her people.
“I think she thinks of herself as a Mandalorian but we haven’t got to see her explore that side of herself aside from being really good at blowing things up,” says actress Tiya Sircar. “She certainly gets to revisit a lot of things from her past [this year]. It’s a nice reminder that she’s a Mando, and this is where she comes from. I don’t want to say too much, but there’s a showdown with some Mandos that we may not have met before, and you suddenly remember this is what she knows, this is where she’s from, and what the tensions are between these factions and why. For a long time she hasn’t even had to think about those types of things because she hasn’t interacted with any Mandos for some time, so it’s fun to see that side of her.”
Star Wars Rebels airs on Disney XD on Saturdays.