To go along with the announcement of the new character Kanan, USAToday.com also has a great new article up about how Star Wars Rebels marks the beginning of a new direction for the Star Wars franchise, and how it looks to put a strong focus on character and humanity. The article features quotes from Freddie Prinze Jr, Dave Filoni and Simon Kinberg talking about the series and it’s characters, as well as Star Wars in general. You can check out a portion of the article below:

[blockquote cite=]That first movie opened with Darth Vader on a mission to crush the fledgling Rebel Alliance. Rebels will show why the Empire comes after them as hard as they do while having the good guys employ guerrilla tactics vs. shady arms dealers, war lords, intergalactic Mafioso and an army of Imperial Stormtroopers.

“In the original movie, you see a bunch of guys in orange jumpsuits running around and not know who they are,” says Freddie Prinze Jr., who voices Kanan. “This is the start of it: the sacrifices that those orange jumpsuits made and the families those orange jumpsuits lost and the hatred that you would have for somebody who would literally kill your wife and child because they wanted your property.”

As Abrams’ movie gets closer, Filoni feels a lot of eyes in pop culture watching everything happening in the Star Wars universe after the Disney/Lucasfilm merger. And while there have been some changes, he says, “we’re still telling very strong stories and using our beloved characters in ways that are very true to them.”

“The tone will shift from story to story, and from movie to show to game, but what’s consistent is a reverence and love for the underlying material and a real passion for expanding the world,” Kinberg says.[/blockquote]

Star Wars Rebels keeps sounding better and better the more we learn about it, and I can’t wait to see the new stories we’re going to get not only for Rebels, but in all future Star Wars projects.

Be sure to check out the full article over at USAToday.com