'Star Wars Resistance': Leia Organa Will Appear In New Animated Show

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Lucasfilm’s new animated show “Star Wars: Resistance” is on its way, and I’ll say it til I’m blue in the face, and I often do, but the company’s animated shows are very good. Or at least “Star Wars Rebels” is, less so “Star Wars: Clone Wars,” and that’s because “Star Wars Rebels” was mostly its own standalone show with new characters and ‘Clone Wars’ is more of the further adventures of Anakin and Obi Wan-Kenobi—and as showrunner Dave Filoni – who oversees all the animated shows at Lucasfilm—recently suggested, ‘Rebels’ is better because he and his team only got better at making their shows after ‘Clone Wars.’

READ MORE: ‘Star Wars Resistance’ Teaser Trailer: Lucasfilm’s New Animated Series Arrives In October

I digress, but it brings me to “Star Wars Resistance,” the new Lucasfilm animated show that’s created by Filoni, but something he’s not going to be actively involved in on the day to day, unfortunately for fans, many of whom believe he’s the potential savior of Lucasfilm properties since in their eyes, he has yet to do any wrong. There’s a bit of a small cult around him in the animated hardcore Lucasfilm circles.

Regardless, it’s recently been revealed, through a kind of accident on Lucasfilm’s part (see below), that “Star Wars Resistance” is set six months before “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.” That’s not entirely a surprise, we already know that Oscar Isaac and Gwendoline Christie will be reprising their roles as Poe Dameron and Captain Phasma on the show here and there (BB-8 will appear, also). And this weekend, voiceover actress Rachel Butera revealed she would be playing the voice of General Leia Organa on the show as well.

It might seem surprising on some level, one might think Leia is off limits for now, but given the show is so obviously tied to the contemporary timeline of the Resistance, it seems rather normal for its leader to appear in some capacity.

But I still have questions. How does a show last several seasons long if it’s set up only six months before ‘The Force Awakens?’ After all, “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” which takes place immediately after ‘Force Awakens,’ reveals that the entire Resistance is descimated with maybe 30 members left by the time that film is over. It would be hard, though not impossible, to have the show run concurrently with the events of ‘Force Awakens’ and ‘Last Jedi,’ though perhaps at least it would be an original idea if they tried.

Does the show work on a day to day, week to week basis with time elements super compressed? Do they just stretch out 6 months over a period of seasons and let suspension of disbelief do the rest? (admittedly, ‘Clone Wars’ is only set over the course of three years and still managed to run six frickin’ seasons) And then, how does it end? ‘Rebels’ had the benefit of ending earlier than the events of “Star Wars: A New Hope” (by about a year) and so concluded on its own terms. Nothing’s impossible of course, but to me, with Resistance leading straight into ‘Force Awakens,’ only six months later, that sounds like a bit of a writing challenge.

‘Resistance’s’ trailer just dropped last week and you can see it here. The series will premiere on Disney Channel on October 7, and later debut on Disney XD.