On a recent episode of Pod of Rebellion, Star Wars Rebels executive producer Henry Gilroy shared his thoughts on Sabine Wren becoming a Jedi, “The idea of Sabine training as a Jedi when she is already this fantastic warrior of her own type, we felt like, ‘This is overkill.’”
“It was absolutely not the plan… we really felt that not only did it step on Ezra’s story… it was a weak retread, we already did this,” reflected Henry Gilroy, a senior writer and executive producer on Star Wars Rebels, in a recent episode of Pod of Rebellion, the Rebels cast’s own rewatch podcast series. According to Gilroy, the potential of Sabine discovering her Force sensitivity was an idea floated during Rebels, but ultimately dismissed by the writing team. “The idea of Sabine training as a Jedi when she is already this fantastic warrior of her own type, we felt like, ‘This is overkill.’”
Sabine undergoes a parallel to Ezra’s own Jedi tutelage in Rebels when she has to wrestle with the mantle of the Darksaber, the ancient Mandalorian lightsaber that became a mythical symbol of the right to rule Mandalore—attempting to reconcile her own trauma relating to the work she did in the process, work that ultimately allowed the Empire to oppress her people as a student at its military academies. But although she trains to wield the weapon, she ultimately passes it on to others to lead the Mandalorians… so imagine Gilroy’s surprise then when Ahsoka comes along and Sabine’s swinging a lightsaber around again.
“I had nothing to do with the Ahsoka series, so I was shocked,” Gilroy continued. “What I love about the story with the Darksaber is that you don’t have to be a Jedi to have Jedi ideals… I think that’s what’s really the more important thing, rather than Force pushing Ezra a hundred feet when she’s never used the Force before.”
Stream Star Wars Rebels and the first season of Ahsoka on Disney+.
