Last month we speculated about who would be next to guest star on Star Wars Rebels and yesterday it was confirmed.
Lando Calrissian will be the next character to crossover from the films to the Disney XD animated series. Original actor Billy Dee Williams, to no surprise, will once again be voicing the character as he has done in just about every official appearance of the smuggler. As Williams states in this StarWars.com promo, his persona is Lando.
With Calrissian’s debut in Rebels it becoming all the more evident that the show is really working hard to introduce a new, a Clone Wars generation, to the characters of the Original Trilogy. As Lucasfilm moves ever so closer to their next film, making its debut 338 days from now, we will most definitely see a slew of cameos from the OT. At current count we are at 7 characters from the OT (with 4 done being portrayed by their original actors) and only two characters from the Prequel Trilogy.
Original Trilogy Character Appearances in Star Wars Rebels
- Darth Vader (James Earl Jones)
- Obi-Wan Kenobi
- c-3PO (Anthony Daniels)
- R2-D2
- The Emperor – via Holonet
- Yoda (Frank Oz)
- Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams)
- Stormtroopers/TIE Fighter Pilots/Imperial Technicians/Royal Guards – via Holonet
Prequel Trilogy Character Appearances in Star Wars Rebels
- Bail Organa
- Luminara Unduli – via Hologram
Now we like many others have spent a fair amount of time speculating and listening to podcasts theories about who Fulcrum might be. And yes we, like many others, would enjoy for it to be our favorite missing-in-action Padawan Ahsoka Tano but we now, due to Lucasfilm’s apparent planned brand synergy, must assume Fulcrum to be none other than Leia Organa. The Princess would fit seamlessly into the Rebels story-lines of harassing the Empire and with the appearance of the Tantive 4 a few episodes back all but confirms it for us. And for the record, we fully expect Leia to not be voiced by Carrie Fisher, despite her casting in Episode 7, as the years have not been kind to her quasi-British-accented voice of A New Hope. Ashley Eckstein who shares a similar speech pattern to Fulcrum also is very good at putting on a youthful voice much like a 15-year-old Rebel Princess may have.
So where does this leave us for Star Wars Rebels-based OT action figures in the coming year? Well with Hasbro recently making the smart and savvy move in letting us know that no The Force Awakens product will be shown a Toy Fair next month that leaves Star Wars Rebels and The Black Series to take the spotlight. And what better way to continue to reel in old school collectors than to release figures based on Lando, Leia, Han, Ackbar, Mothma and the like in the Rebels figure line. We for one would welcome their presence in the action figure line even without being featured in the animated series. Our good friend and fellow co-host on Galaxy of Toys Podcast Tom Berges is fond of saying that Star Wars (particularly the Prequels) has a tendency to become like an “intergalactic trailer park” due to the many character interactions and connections and we at times can’t help but to agree. But to see animated versions of characters who of course do exist at the time of the series would be a great way to fill out the so far sparse Rebels line.
Lando’s episode, “Idiot’s Array” will air next Monday, Jan. 19 at 9/8c on Disney XD. And for those with the Watch Disney XD app you can watch it now.
Until next time (when Leia is announced),
May the Figures be with you!
