Kanan The “Cowboy Jedi” Joins STAR WARS REBELS

We’ll soon meet another survivor of Order 66. USA Today has given us our first look at the newest Star Wars Rebels character: Kanan, a “cowboy Jedi” voiced by Scooby-Doo and 24 actor Freddie Prinze Jr. After escaping the Jedi Purge at the hands of Palpatine and the clone troopers, Kanan went into hiding and 14 years later, he’s still keeping a low profile. Kanan prefers a blaster to his lightsaber so that he doesn’t attract attention from the Empire (especially the Inquisitor), but he’s still willing to fight back against the Imperial forces with the help of the crew on his spaceship The Ghost (the same ship that grumpy astromech droid Chopper serves on).

Prinze was eager to take any role for the series as long as it wasn’t C-3PO, but he’s thankful to be voicing Kanan since the Jedi “is who you want to be.”

He’s been forced to shove a massive part of his life under the bed, so to speak. Is he living a lie? At a certain point, the lie kind of becomes the reality. And to suddenly be forced back into your Jedi ways, it’d be a bit of a challenge for him. And pretty awesome, too, when you can see what a Jedi can actually do.

It sounds like we’re getting the Han Solo version of a Jedi for this series, and I’m definitely on board with that. With most of the Jedi stiff and proper, it’ll be good to have one who has more banter to dish out. Although he’s still wearing basic and non-flashy clothing like most Jedi do, the symbol on his armor looks similar to the Rebel Alliance insignia. It’s possible he’ll join the Rebellion at some point during the series.

Although the picture gives it away, since he’s a Jedi, I’m expecting Kanan to have one, if not many confrontations with the Inquisitor, the newest Sith villain. It’s unlikely we will see the same amount of lightsaber action that we saw in The Clone Wars, but it’s good to know there will be a few fights. With Obi-Wan and Yoda in exile, Kanan’s going to have to pick up the slack on making the Jedi look cool.

SOURCE: USA Today