How STAR WARS REBELS Is Recapturing the “Shock Factor” of Lightsabers

The Star Wars Rebels one-hour TV movie premieres tonight at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Disney Channel. This will lead into the series that will air on Disney XD starting on Monday, October 13th, at 9 p.m. ET/PT. Yesterday, Disney announced that the show has already been renewed for a second season. The fact that Rebels will be priming audiences and laying the groundwork for what to expect in the new trilogy is likely a more important factor in the decision than the early buzz, which has been very positive. Producer Simon Kinberg said in a previous interview,

"There are characters, vehicles, imagery that are introduced in the show before we've ever seen them in the movies, possibly including VII."

Like J.J. Abrams with Episode VII, the team behind Rebels is aiming to recapture the magic of the classic trilogy, and they’ve gone to painstaking lengths in their attempt to do so. In this video, CG supervisor Joel Aron takes us through the process of referencing footage from A New Hope to faithfully replicate the thickness, vibration, and brightness of the lightsaber effects of that time. The feeling and energy is so authentic that Roger Christian, who won an Oscar for his work on A New Hope, exclaims, “That’s impressive. This looks like… Star Wars.”