Fresh off an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Children’s Program, Star Wars Resistance airs its final season beginning October 6 on the Disney Channel. The show has thus far distinguished itself from other stories in set in the same universe by focus on characters who aren’t Force sensitive, a trend which looks to continue. One such character is Tam, whose turn towards the First Order marks the biggest shift in storytelling. Executive Producers Justin Ridge, Athena Portillo, and Brandon Auman also shared a few other changes for the second season in terms of scope and perspective.
What’s the biggest difference going from season one to season two?
Justin Ridge: I think the biggest difference is the scope. Season one, you’re stationed on Castilon; you only have their issue with the First Order. But now they're in space; they're on the run. They don't know where they're going or who they're going to run into. So, the scope, I think, is the biggest change.
Brandon Auman: Bigger, more epic, more action, more adventure. We were really focusing on character development in season one and getting to know these characters. I mean, there's just as much focus on character development in season two, but the stakes just hit the roof and go beyond the roof.
Athena Portillo: The introduction of more conflict, because we're in a situation now where Tam’s part of the First Order. We’re in a situation now where the platform’s going to be running out of fuel; running out of food, and they have to feed everybody on there. So, what is the team going to do to help the team survive? We're going to new locations, meeting new characters, new creatures. So, it's a little bit more exciting.
What was behind the decision to make the second season the final season?
Athena Portillo: We developed the roadmap from the very beginning. I know the last time we talked, we were talking about how it takes about a year in advance to put the writers’ conference together and into production.
Also, The Rise of Skywalker is finishing out the saga. When we're in our conferences, we always meet with the story group, like Pablo and everybody, to make sure we stay within continuity; make sure we're not messing up JJ [Abrams]’s vision or [Dave] Filoni’s vision, and make sure we're within the parameters.
Justin Ridge: And it just made sense for us, timeline-wise, for it to fit nicely between Last Jedi and Rise of the Skywalker.
Brandon Auman: Yeah. It seems a little strange to go beyond the trilogy.
This will lead up into Episode IX?
Brandon Auman: Yes, that's correct. It'll lead up.
You bring up a fascinating point. As we know, Clone Wars is actually coming back. Just in case, do you guys have more stories planned if it does go beyond the two seasons?
Athena Portillo: We were just talking about that, in terms of how everybody has a backstory and how much we would love to [go back to them].
Justin Ridge: Yeah, we have so many characters with stories to tell. We can always find ways. But for the main story –
Brandon Auman: If Lucasfilm wanted to do more, we wouldn't say no to that. We thought it was a very complete story, but we love all these characters. And we want to see them live on in other forms, either prequels or sequels. Who knows?
One of the things that is really interesting about the first two episodes of season 2 is the amount of focus we get on Tam and the First Order. We can almost understand how she's been manipulated. How did you come to the decision to really play up the ambiguity?
Justin Ridge: Well, I think that was very important to feel like Tam would make that decision. If she made it superficially, or the audience didn't buy it, it's going to be so hard. Like, “She would never do that.” But with her background, and with the Empire helping her family back in the day, she's like, “Oh, these are just like police officers. They're just helping to keep [order], enforcing the shady types out there or whatever.” So, she can get behind it.
And then Tierny being manipulative, and her personality; it was very important for us that it felt like Tam could totally get in.
Brandon Auman: Tam even says that her grandfather used to work in a factory for the Imperials back in the day. Probably, after the Empire dissolved, a lot of people were out of work.
If you think about evil in the world today, a lot of people justify the evil that we have in the world, and they'll get behind it with a thumbs up. You know what I mean? So, it's not that difficult to see how people can just be swayed into a certain belief system.
Athena Portillo: But it was also her background, too. She was there with the Fireball Team, working on Yeager’s ship, because he kept telling her that eventually she would get to fly it. So, not only does she feel a little betrayed that Kaz was the one that got to fly it, but also the fact that she was seeing that Yeager would go off and have little whispers with Kaz, and she was always left out.
So, she ended up in this situation where she’s like, “I don't know what's going on.”
Brandon Auman: She was lied to. She's hurt. Their whole life, since Kaz up, it was all lies. She was just devastated by that. You can see how, like, suddenly you've been manipulated this entire time life and kept down in a way.
Tierny also kind of becomes the big sister, maternal figure. Yeager would have been that, but then Kaz showed up. The first thing Tierny does is say, “You’re going to be a pilot.”
Athena Portillo: That's right; that’s the first thing she says. You also have Rucklin in there, constantly poking and reminding her that Yeager and Kaz were a bunch of traitors; they’re not really your friends. We’re your friends. She's kind of, like, so conflicted.
Brandon Auman: It's really not that hard to be manipulated. In a way. If you think about it, it happens.
Can you talk to me about Elijah Wood voicing a character on Star Wars Resistance came about?
Athena Portillo: I'm friends with his brother. Out of nowhere, we were thinking out loud, “We should totally get Elijah Wood.”
I go, “Let me text his brother and see if it's something that he would do.” I’m like, “Hey, Zack. Do you think Elijah would wanna do this?” He goes, “I don’t know, let me ask him. He's right next to me… Yeah, he says he’d do it. He just wants you to talk to his agent.”
Honestly, I don't know if I'm allowed to say that, because we're friends. But he's always been a Star Wars fan, and we’ve always thought of Elijah Wood as someone – we were just trying to find the right role for him.
And he's just so good.
Justin Ridge: So much fun to work with. He’s fantastic.
Athena Portillo: He’ll spend 10 minutes talking to you about your day. “How's it going? Oh, wait, I have to go into the booth.”
Brandon Auman: You think he’s just like Frodo, and you think of him as very likable and super nice; the nicest guy. But he's also really good at playing these sorts of villainous roles. He made Rucklin surprised seem likable, but also [sinister].
Athena Portillo: Rucklin seems totally reasonable.
Other Star Wars animated series, Clone Wars and Rebels especially, were tied to the universe but had their own little corner. Whereas you guys are really operating within the time frame and scope of these new films. Is that easier to work with or more difficult?
Justin Ridge: I was gonna say, actually, it's good to have this goal that we're getting to. So, we have this to play with. In one way, it makes it clearer that we're going from here, and then we're going to get to here.
But then, freedom-wise, I think we have a lot of freedom because we were telling our own story with their own characters. It's just the timeline that we had to make sure matched.
We've had a little bit of crossover in the films, with Rebels. Given the timeline, are we looking at the possibility of having a little bit of crossover with Resistance?
Athena Portillo: Very good question, and we're hoping to see some of that ourselves.
Justin Ridge: Yeah. A lot of it’s secretive, even to us.
Brandon Auman: It's kind of compartmentalized enough that we're not quite sure. And they're probably not sure at times. But we do work with the story group to make sure that we're not messing anything up. And that even the lead-in is copasetic. But yeah, we'll have to watch as well.
Athena Portillo: Also, there's a real opportunity to have these characters appear in publications and the games and the parks, or anything like that. That'd be great. We’re always like, “Can that happen?”
I’ve mentioned, as a joke, Disney Cruise Line being called the Colossus. I think that would be awesome, and have certain corners, like this is Yeager’s hanger.
Justin Ridge: An animatronic Glitch behind the bar.
Athena Portillo: I’m always pitching idea. Like, Mac Cosmetics. I said it would be awesome to have a makeup line that’s related to Felucia colors and Naboo colors and Jakku colors.
Justin Ridge: Athena’s got some gold.
One of the things I really appreciate about the show is the lack of Force awareness. Like when Kaz is running along something, he's really scared he's gonna fall off. Now, we know Kylo is coming in season 2, but was there any temptation to bring in more Force users or was it a relief not to?
Justin Ridge: Yeah, I think it was mostly that we didn't want to really deal with that. Because that's other stories. Yeah, we're dealing with people who don't have you know,
Bandon Auman: If you think about this time in the galaxy, other than Rey and Luke, everybody else in that giant temple got wiped out. Even in Luke's day, there were no Jedi around. It was only during the Clone Wars, during the prequel trilogy and before that, that there were Jedi.
So, this is a time when the Jedi have been wiped out. They're largely gone. And what is the rest of the galaxy doing? When Dave Filoni came up with the show, he was like, “I want to know what other aspects are going on in the galaxy that has nothing to do [with Jedi].” Slice of life, blue collar pilots.
He was more interested that, because that's so very much what the new trilogy is addressing with Rey, and Kylo and even Luke – that they're all gone again. You know, it's not that much different from the original trilogy.