A lot of die-hard Star Wars fans had a rude awakening when Lucasfilm announced that it was planning to wipe away the Extended Universe from the canon timeline of the Star Wars franchise after George Lucas had agreed on selling the entire kit and caboodle to Disney.
However, while most fans feel upset that Disney had to set aside the stories they grew up with in the Star Wars Extended Universe, Star WarsRebels voice actor Sam Witwer feels like Lucasfilm really had to clean up house so that the Star Wars films and television shows could take center stage.
Speaking in an interview with Comicbook, the voice actor who played Darth Maul in the popular Star Wars animated series explained:
"My take on the Legends versus the canon thing is that the film and TV part of the franchise, it's doing the same thing it's always done. If] you have to be slavishly consistent with comic books and books and stuff like that, then that puts the people who are making the movies and the TV shows at a major disadvantage because their workflow is so much slower, and there's so much more that has to be done."
"And yet, movies and TV shows need to be the driving force behind Star Wars."
The franchise has been slowly bringing popular Extended Universe characters and elements into the Star Wars canon, and Witwer thinks that Star WarsRebels showrunner Dave Filoni and George Lucas did well in incorporating these things into the new Star Wars movies and series.
"I know the fans sometimes got upset when it didn't line up, but ultimately, I think George and everyone, and Dave, had done an incredible job of using stuff that's really cool from the old EU, and in fact they're still doing that. I mean, [Grand Admiral] Thrawn being in Rebels was long after they said, ‘Oh, that old EU is the old EU.'"
"I think people are right to like what they like. All of the stuff that they like is still out there, it still exists. If you want to read about Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade, you still can. But the example I was giving, do Marvel Comics line up exactly with the movies? No, they don't. They don't line up with the Marvel movies exactly.
They take, the movies draw inspiration from those comics, of course, but I don't see why Star Wars should be any different. Because ultimately, the situation you're in is, people who make books, comic books, all that stuff ... they can be put out a lot faster than you can make a movie or a TV show."
Witwer certainly does prove a point. Right now Lucasfilm is focusing on the canon stories of the franchise, and it's slowly trying to bring in a few characters and elements from the extended universe. All we have to do is wait.
Star Wars Rebels season 4 premieres on DisneyXD on October 16.
Read: Dave Filoni: Director Krennic Will Not Appear In Star Wars Rebels
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