Actor Freddie Prinze Jr. recently sat down to discuss his career and his role in thePunky Brewsterrevival. During the interview, he discussed his time as a voice actor for the animated Disney XD seriesStar Wars Rebels, in which he played Kanan Jarrus,a Jedi Padawan who survived the purgeand went on to help form the Rebel alliance before the events of the originalStar Warstrilogy. In the interview, Prinze Jr. also revealed that his character was originally supposed to leave the show much earlier than he did.
In the interview with Collider, Prinze Jr. discussed landing the role of Kanan Jarrus and the absurd levels of secrecy invoked in making aStar Warsshow. Talking about the audition process, he said, “When I went in, I didn’t know it wasStar Warsbecause they’re so stupidly secretive about everything. Who cares? Just tell people you’re making aStar Warscartoon.” He goes on to talk about meetingRebelscreatorDave Filoni, whose other animated credits includeStar Wars: The Clone Warsandthe upcoming spin-off seriesThe Bad Batch.Filoni also co-created the live-action seriesThe Mandalorianfor Disney Plus. After poking fun at Filoni’s signature cowboy hat, Prinze Jr. reveals that Disney didn’t actually want him for the part, but Filoni fought for him and he was cast later that day.
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An interesting bit of information that he also reveals is that he and Filoni actually wanted Kanan to die at the end of season 2 at the hands offallen Sith Lord Darth Maul. After miraculously surviving being cut clean in half by Obi-Wan Kenobi inStar Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace,Darth Maul returned inThe Clone Warsanimated series as a reoccurring antagonist. Maul returned once again inRebels, acting as a corrupting influence onKanan Jarrus’s Padawan learner, Ezra Bridger. Maul would eventually meet his fate at the hands of his old rival Obi-Wan Kenobi, who delivered the finishing blow, killing Maul for good this time.
Kanan Jarrus did eventually die onStar Wars Rebels, but not at the hands of Maul. In the season 4 episode titledJedi Knight,Kanan was killed by an explosion at an Imperial fuel depot after using the force to save his friends from the blast. Even though Prinze Jr. and Filoni had originally intended for Kanan to die in the second season, Disney said no.
Speaking on the matter, Prinze Jr. said, “Dave and I talked about me dying at Maul’s hand, at the end of Season 2, but then the same people who didn’t want me for the project suddenly said, ‘No, he can’t die. He has to be in every episode.’ So, I guess I won them over, at some point.” He also stated that Filoni and the animators deserve the credit for Kanan’s powerful death scene since there was no dialogue involved.
Rebelscould have been a very different show if Kanan was killed at the end of season 2. Perhaps Ezra Bridger would have followed Maul to the dark side of the force, or maybe he would seek revenge for his fallen master. At the end of the day,Star Warsis an ever-changing story. We now know that a lot of Maul’s storyline inClone WarsandRebelswas originally intended for George Lucas’s abandoned sequel trilogy, which would have seen the fallen Sith become the godfather of crime in the galaxy after the fall of the Empire.
You can watch all four seasons ofStar Wars Rebelsstreaming on Disney Plus now.
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