November 18, 2025 • 47 mins
Writer/Co-Executive Producer of 'Star Wars Rebels', Henry Gilroy, returns to share more behind the scenes Star Wars stories, what it was like going from working with George Lucas to Disney, how his writing career started and offers advice to aspiring writers.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
One of the reasons that George liked me when we
first met was when I came into the meeting with him,
I had a yellow pad and a pencil, And I
think the reason why is he goes, oh, you're kind
of old school, because he was used to all of
the screenwriters he'd been reading with. They bring their laptops
and they're typing away.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Hello, Rebels family, Welcome to Rebels Talk, our conversation sub
series here at the Potter Rebellion, where we of course
talk all thinks star wars, rebels and star Wars in general,
but also things life in general, and where we really
get to know the people as opposed to maybe the
characters they played are shows they worked on. But of
course I'm not alone today and this is where this
is where my intros usually come in. But today feel
(00:48):
a little crazy. I think I'm gonna do something a
little different and channel the great Nicholas Cage to introduce everybody.
So just give me a moment. So first up, she's
our leader. She's really cool. She's also my ghost rider,
the voice of Hairs Duelove Vanessa Marshall. And then next
(01:09):
she's a real national treasure. She's kick ass the voices
of being Rian t. S her Car and uh, this
gentleman the best head of hair since me and conn
Air so good at leaves me moonstruck, the voice of
Ezra Bridge or Taylor Gray. And then this guy, our producer,
(01:32):
lights cameras, microphones, suspitching technology and you'll fact check your
face off, Jacy Riefenberg. And then our special guests who
you know what they say about about cays keys are good.
And he holds the case of the Star Wars Rebels Kingdom.
He's a real Star Wars family man, Henry Gilroy And
(01:53):
that's everybody.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Wow, fantastic.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
That's the best number one so far, thirty episodes of
the podcast.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
That's the best one.
Speaker 4 (02:05):
I couldn't say hello, I was crying.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
So good.
Speaker 4 (02:11):
Thank you, John, You're welcome.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
It was either that or was going to be panic
Mark Wahlberg and maybe that'll be the next show.
Speaker 4 (02:17):
Yeah, with that in your back clack.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Because you know Mark Wahlberg when he gets panicked in
a movie, he just starts asking questions. He's like, what's
going on here? You know what I'm most meet from.
I'll see any really funny, you know, So that's that's
that's Mark Wahlberg and everything.
Speaker 5 (02:32):
Henry, I think you know who to cast in your
next project.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Nicholas Cage.
Speaker 4 (02:41):
Nailed it. Wow.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Well, Henry, thanks for coming back and joining us, and
thank you to Cage for for letting me channel your
spirit as we start the show. So tell us a
little about yourself, because you did touch on it last
week where Tiny two Adventures was like here in your
FOURIGN animation Batman Animated series was your first script you sold.
But what about before that, Like where does your love
(03:04):
for storytelling come from? Like where did you grow up? Like,
tell us a little bit more about yourself.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Yeah, so I was born and raised in La, you know.
And it's funny back in the day if you're kind
of born and raised here, a lot of people fall
into like the town industry. Right, if you grew up
in Pittsburgh, you're probably gonna work in the steelmill or whatever.
So in La, entertainment is the business. So a lot
of people, even folks I went to high school with.
One owns a post production facility. One was a production
(03:30):
manager I worked with at Disney for like twenty years,
so it was easy to kind of fall in to,
like at least an entry level position. My stepmother was
actually an editor at Disney Feature, so that's kind of
how I got in to My very first job was
track reading, which was basically for animation. That's running the
(03:52):
sound through a synchronizer and writing down the phonetics so
it could be animated too, so the animator would witch
lip movement. I think now it's done by AI, but
back in the day, it all had to be done
by hand. So that's really how I got into the business.
So and once you're an editorial working in there, you're
seeing the pre production, you're seeing the storyboards, you're seeing
(04:13):
how they get turned into film, and you're cutting it down.
So it was really great education for film. But I
was also you know, going to film schools in the area.
I didn't. I didn't have the money to go to
USC so I did Pasadena. It took editing over there.
I took cinematography at Valley. It kind of sought out
specific constructors who had professional experience and went to work
(04:36):
with them. So but animation, animation, I always love animation.
I didn't. I never really felt like, oh, I'm going
to be a live action writer. I just I love
that you could do anything with animation. So you know,
I grew up on you know, the super Friends and books,
Bunny cartoons and you know, Thunderal the Barbarian was a
huge influence to me. So yeah, that's kind of how
(05:00):
I got into animation.
Speaker 4 (05:02):
Wow, that's awesome, Thank.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
You, very cool. It's all meant to be.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
It's all kids met, you know, as your resume speaks
for itself, and just like your sensibilities as a storyteller
always evident anytime we come across one of your episodes
where I was like, yeah, it's a heavy goery episode,
like it's you and Melching or the two that were
like all right, like we're gonna get something really really
cool here. And just hearing some of that backstory, it
all makes it make more sense, if you will, just
kind of hearing the how and the why behind your
(05:30):
whole story.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Oh yeah, no, thank you very much. Yeah. And as
far as the Star Wars element, obviously, you know saw
you know, Riches a New Hope in the Man Shinest
Theater when I was ten years old, and I had
a huge impact on me. But I had written some
Star Wars comics for Dark Horse in the early nineties
and mid nineties and then actually when it came time
(05:52):
to do the prequel adaptations, George basically wanted somebody who
was a screenwriter who and also had written Star Wars comics.
And I was kind of like that person who straddled
both worlds. So I got that assignment. And then when
it came to the Clone Wars, He's like, oh, yeah,
I just got that guy who toot the comics, you know.
And then that's how I came aboard on Clone Wars.
(06:16):
Like a few years later in two thousand and five, Wow, did.
Speaker 4 (06:19):
You work on Avatar at all with them?
Speaker 1 (06:23):
I did not. I did not. I was actually at Disney,
I mean on contract at Disney. And actually I remember
when Filoni actually left Disney. He was working on a
show called Temo Soprimo, which is a good sand Yeah. Yeah,
it was a goofy comedy show, and he came in
and said, I'm escaping. I'm going over Nickelodeon to work
(06:45):
on Avatar. This is before Avatar came out, so people
really didn't know like what Avatar was. So I was like, oh, sorry,
just you know, see it go, you know, because I,
you know, we we would actually talk about Star Wars stuff,
mostly because he knew I had done, like, you know,
work on the comics and you know the prequel adaptations too.
Speaker 6 (07:04):
So you guys knew or wait, you guys knew each
other before Star Wars.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I actually met him in I think
two thousand and two or two thousand and three in
there sick I have, I mean, I both.
Speaker 6 (07:19):
I have a bunch of ques. I have questions that
are Star Wars, not Star Wars, just writing. Where do
you just start off?
Speaker 1 (07:24):
Easy?
Speaker 6 (07:25):
Like, where do you like to write? I always find
it so actually where do writers write?
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Yeah? For me, I need like a silent and closed space,
you know. I know, I can go like take notes
like in a coffee shop or something like that, but
I need to like sit at my desk and write. However,
I also do probably like all of you guys who
write your writing when you're you know, in the shower,
you're writing when you're driving to the post office. It's
(07:51):
like a lot of times that's when you get your
most effective problem solving stuff. And that's actually a funny story.
One of the reasons that that George liked me when
we first met was when I came into the meeting
with him. I had a yellow pad and a pencil,
and he looked at me and he brought his own
yellow pad out, deliberately put it on the table, and
(08:12):
then grabbed a pencil. And I think the reason why
is he goes, oh, you're kind of old school, because
he was used to like all of the screenwriters he'd
been reading with, they bring their laptops and they're typing away. Yeah,
And I think or also, he had this weird thing
where he appreciated that I used a pencil and not
(08:33):
a pen because you can erase a pencil like that
was kind of like uh something, And I was like, Oh,
that's kind of cool that, yeah, like just the thought
press of like, oh yeah, I can scratch out that
idea and write something else. Can I do a quick
fact check on the.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
Writing on his screen writing onlined white paper and writing
on yellow paper. The reason that yellow paper is used
in legal is that when you write on yellow paper,
your brain is.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
More likely to remember though you're writing. Isn't that crazy already? Wow,
say it.
Speaker 4 (09:08):
One more time when you're writing on yellow If you.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Are writing on yellow paper, because the paper is a warm,
inviting color, you are more likely to remember what you
are writing down than if you do it on white
or you do it on a screen.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
Wow, that's so interesting.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
That's crazy. Huh, what if you're color blind? Color blind
is like red green kind of right? Well there, I
don't know.
Speaker 5 (09:37):
There's completely color blind and then there's red green color blind,
right like, there's people that can see some color but
not I'm not the authority on color blindness, so I
should call it.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
I was no, No, I was.
Speaker 4 (09:50):
Halfway through that. Do you actually know what you're talking about?
Maybe you should stop?
Speaker 1 (09:54):
It sounded very correct to me. So you have there
are different.
Speaker 5 (09:57):
Types of color blindness, and some are partial and to
see some color, and then there's like complete color blindness.
Speaker 4 (10:03):
That's just what I think.
Speaker 5 (10:04):
You don't ask me if I'm wrong, or at me
if I'm wrong.
Speaker 4 (10:08):
I want to know, you know.
Speaker 7 (10:10):
I just moved and found this yellow pad in the
move and I'm opening it now. Yeah, it may have
this may be let's see if it has a year
on it.
Speaker 4 (10:24):
It's probably from nineteen eighty.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Nine, Henry.
Speaker 6 (10:27):
I Now, I mean, I'm just gonna find what if
you could change one thing about rebels?
Speaker 1 (10:32):
What would you change? Wow? My god? Wow, Okay, this
is easy. Oh so take that and Rebels season five,
which is also known as ah Soska. I would not
pursue the Sabine Jedi storyline. No, I really can't think
(10:59):
of anything. I mean, you know, do you guys? The
reason why we're even talking is that the series is
kind of a unicorn. It really is solid top top
to bottom. You know. Oh, yes, there is one thing
the Battle season four, when Hair comes back and it
(11:20):
has the X wings and leaves the attack. My pitch
was always that those should have been B wing fighters.
She should have been in a B wing and not actually, yes,
you see it, you see it?
Speaker 8 (11:37):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (11:37):
Yeah. And I argued and I argued and I argued,
and Carrie dam I'm like, I have a Cadillac out
of this guy.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Wing.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
I'm like, you, guys, we've seen X wings so much recently.
Not only are there in JJ's movies, but I think
they're even in like, uh Bracket Ralph two. I'm like,
come on, we need the B wings so they're like god.
So anyway, so that's the one thing. It seemed like
a dumb thing. No, that's very valid. I argued for
(12:06):
it and and I lost.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
That's why can I take a turn from Taylor throwing
a question out there. I'm curious. Last episode you mentioned
that Rebel season one was very Disney friendly, and I've
talked about this on this show before. I was a
staunch Clone Wars person. I was friends with a lot
(12:29):
of the voice actors on Clone Wars, and I was
one of the people you talked about who like crossed
my arms and I was like, they canceled Star like
Clone Wars for this, Like that was very much me.
Obviously I've been one over. I'm in fact checking on
a Star Wars Rebels rewatch podcast.
Speaker 4 (12:46):
We got them, but.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
You worked on you worked.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
On both Clone Wars and Rebels, and so I'm curious.
I think if I was just coming into it today,
I would just be like, Oh, it's just a natural continuation.
It's the same team, it's the same everything. But what
was the what was the difference because you did like
the before times with George Lucas and then you did
(13:13):
the the Disney what was and obviously Dave is a
through line there, but what was the difference between working
on the one show and then the next show?
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Yeah, So two things. A first thing is the budget.
It's the Rebels budget was just like half of what
Colin Wars was really right, Yeah, because because I think
you know, even the canceling of Clin Wars, like, oh,
it's kind of served. It's this is you remember, this
is how folks like you know, at the top of
the giant corporations think like not thinking about the fans,
(13:46):
are thinking like, oh, we have enough episodes. It served
its licensing life, you know what I mean, We're probably
I'm not going to be able to milk more so
and it's expensive. So and then of course when it
got counseled, people are like freaking out, which is why
they you know, Netflix is like, oh, it's worth us
to us to do like another you know season. So
that's the one thing the budget. The The other thing
is when you're working on Clone Wars, you have one boss.
(14:11):
You only have to please one guy, really, right, and
that's George and the collaboration of these awesome artists coming
together to make it and make something that George likes,
and then George is gonna like it. If he likes it,
then he's going to add stuff and do his own
stuff to it. That's completely different than working for Disney
on Rebels, which is there's the committees, right, So not
(14:36):
only are you getting notes from Lucasm's story group about
what they're doing for future movies, but you're also getting
notes from the Disney team, right, so that's a Disney executive.
You're also getting like comments from you know, BS and
P like what we're allowed to do and we're not
allowed to do. Then you also have like the studio,
the Disney studio as a whole, and then besides the
(14:57):
Disney channel. So you go from pleasing one guy to
now there's five different entities and like three different When
you get notes back on a script, they're color coded
reds for this person, blues for the screens for this.
So it's a lot of things that you're having to juggle,
(15:17):
you know what I mean to try there. So I'm
always amazed by how good the series turned out, but
a lot of it had to do with us, just
like standing our ground and the trust actually really, I
mean it's really the trust that was earned during Clone Wars,
I think by David Company.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
It reminds me of a great Han Solo quote, which is,
I don't have time to discuss this with a committee
exactly exactly.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
I bet you one thousand dollars. Georgia wrote that line,
did you guys, would it ever be?
Speaker 4 (15:54):
Would they be contested?
Speaker 6 (15:56):
I just remember working on a network TV show where
they would come in notes and the network would have
a note, but then the director had an opposite note,
and they both would come to you and be like, hey,
do this in the next run through, and do this
and let's see whose works. Where it was like, I'm like,
these are completely opposite on the same line for example.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Right, oh yeah, absolutely that happened. That happened generally. It
didn't happen a lot a lot on Star Wars. But
like I think the Lelo and Stitch series I worked
on at the Disney Channel, which was the studio wanted Pokemon,
which was aimed at boys ages six to ten, and
the network Disney Channel said, no, this show is for
girls eleven to fourteen. So literally they every line of
(16:37):
dialogue was like no, no, no, it needs to be funny, No,
it's it needs to be badass. So I think it's
always You're always going to come across that stuff. But
I think no one wants to make anything bad. I
think it just people have different ideas of what is
good or what is for their audience. So I think
whenever you try to pander and chase an audience, you're
in trouble. And we didn't. We're just like, we're going
(17:01):
to basically tell the best Star Wars stories we can,
so at least out to our goal. Is that answer
your question?
Speaker 3 (17:07):
Yeah, I'm going to just fill in for again people
at home who aren't like industry people, because at home,
you just think Disney is Disney, right, they have theme parks,
they have this, they have this, but Disney like Disney Channel,
Disney Animation. They're almost like separate companies. And in I
(17:28):
worked at CBS for a long time and I always
found that it was interesting like CBS Network behaved more
as if they were in competition with CBS Mobile and
CBS Online than they did like friends.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
They like the network.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
I mean it was a million years ago, but the
network was like, I don't want to give the exclusive
clip to of ncis to mobile. I want to do
it to online, and Online is like I don't want
to share with Mobile, So like to the people listening
at home, like these are old Disney companies, but they're
not necessarily friends. Like that synergy word doesn't necessarily apply
(18:08):
to the people who are running each of these divisions, right.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
That's absolutely right. Yeah, Like I don't probably break in
my nda here when I was working at when I
was working at Marvel. When I was working at Marvel,
the Marvel and Disney execs fought so hard and so
f you all the time to each other that like
(18:33):
the big boss had to pull them at the heads
in the room, go what the hell is the matter
with you guys supposed to be on the same team,
just because it was so petty and angry and biting,
you know, And it trickles down to the talent. You're
trying to make something and then suddenly you can't do something.
But then it's exactly what you're saying, Taylor, where you
get contradictory notes because each each aspect kind of what
you're saying JC has their own agenda what they're trying
(18:55):
to accomplish. So that's the politician, you know, and I am. Unfortunately,
I'm not a great politician. I just try to tell stories.
So some people are better at that, but I just
try to head put my head down and do it.
And ultimately I think that's part of my success is
really it's about the story. Story always comes first. I
don't care if the idea comes from the executive producer
(19:19):
or the owner of the studio or you know, the
script coordinator. You know, if great idea is a great idea,
how it should be. Absolutely yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
I mean it's a collaborative effort and arts. I mean,
we talk team sports here all the time, but filmmaking
and storytelling it's a team effort, like it's a team sport.
And you know, even VARV Rodriguez, who does everything, he
needed a you know they say WORB without a crew.
He had a bit of a crew to make Almediacci
and then of course he grew on to do bigger
things as well. But it is a collaboration, and that's
what the best stories are, you know. And I've been
(19:53):
lucky enough to see at firsthand with a couple of
mentors of mine who are really prolific directors, and they're
always listening to the room, but they know as a
director they have to make the decision of okay, like
I'm tearing everyone, but I got to take the direction
this way. With everything that's been said here, and I'm
so glad you brought that up because you know, it's like,
you can't white knuckle this thing. You should you shouldn't
(20:14):
white knuckle this thing. It does happen, but it really
is a collaboration, just like any sort of a team sport.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
Yeah, And I think having sounding board, having people creatively
that you trust or the people that basically will challenge
your ideas is really important. Like you know, when you're
especially when you're kind of at the top of it,
when you're at the top of that, you have to
have people to go oh, maybe, you know. And that's
the thing. I think that's what happens so much in
(20:41):
our business, where you know, the ego of somebody will
take over the thing and they'll forget like, no, actually,
you need all of the players. You need the people
you know who help you build it to you know,
to you know, make sure the foundation is strong. So
you know, that's that's Hollywood, right, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
So last week we touched on the Mandalorians and the Protectors,
and I feel like that's kind of apt here because
I do view you as somebody who is almost like
a protector of the Star Wars brand with the way
you have the bridge of the gap between or as
a bridge of gap if you will if you want
to get fantastic about it, because you are, as Jays
alluded to seeing in real time, from Lucasfilm Prime if
(21:23):
you will, to Lucasfilm Disney and going from pleasing one person,
which was George, to having to please the committee. So
I don't know, It's like, did you feel like I
consider you someone who's a protector of the Star Wars brand,
you know, of bridging that gap? But look, I swear
I'm not trying. I'm just genuinely curious. Did you ever
feel like that brand just stopped protecting its creators like yourself?
Speaker 1 (21:47):
Because that's kind.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Of what it I know, because I've seen some of
these things and I'm not trying to project my own
experiences onto this, but I'm just genuinely curious about that.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
And yeah, fancies if you don't want, but if you do, no, absolutely,
I'm uh. Also, I think that once people there's a
weird thing. There's also the perception of what people on
the outside, even other artists think Star Wars is, you
know what I mean, So they'll basically want to do
something you know, that's their own. And when you kind
of look at what JJ did with the Force of wikens.
(22:16):
He repeated a lot of the same beats that we'd
seen in a New Hope, right. So, and that's the
first something I've noticed, and even kind of look at
the earlier episodes of the Mandalaurian. It's a lot of
stuff we've seen before, and it's fan service, but also
it's the fan and the filmmaker. That fan filmmaker wants
to kind of do stuff and people are like, Oh, yeah,
that's that's a Star Wars like the rank Ord, that's
(22:39):
a Star Wars flavor that people like, we know, we
can like license that and put it in the commercial
and all that stuff. Same thing with you know, quote
unquote grog Baby Yoda, right, Like, that's they It's definitely
part of how you sell the series. You know, it's
by putting in those elements that people like. And So,
but I think what probably realized with and Or Which
(23:02):
is like, oh, he's going to tell a completely different
kind of Star Wars story. It doesn't have Jedi and
it doesn't have the Force, and oh my gosh, it's
the best thing we've seen because it's fresh, it's new.
It's not the same flavor again, you know what I mean. So,
that's that's key to I don't think anyone ever wants
to tell a bad Star Wars story. I just think
(23:24):
that they put a lot of stuff out that maybe
wasn't the Star Wars were used to, right, So you know,
I mean, I don't want to talk bad about anybody's
work on Stars and I think it's really hard and
so much effort goes in it by so many people.
I think anything you know that you make at this
(23:46):
quality is to be applauded. It's just do I do
think that people lose sight of what it is. They forget.
Speaker 6 (23:53):
Yeah, in a light note of like where star Like,
you've created great Star Wars already, so that's it. But like,
if you were to do something new, what is your
favorite time outside of Clone Wars and Rebels? Because you
wrote that that you would create something. I just I
(24:13):
think fans often I always hear that at conventions, like
I love this part of Star Wars or this part
of the timeline for you, what is that? I'm just
trying to think, so boy.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
I I yeah, I mean, I have a special affinity
to the original characters. But you know the fact that
I was fortunate enough to work with you guys on Rebels.
I could totally do Rebel steal in six, you know
what I mean?
Speaker 4 (24:34):
Well, what about a prequel? What about a prequel?
Speaker 1 (24:39):
Like a prequel Rebels. Yeah, that's cool, that'd be a
great idea.
Speaker 4 (24:43):
Yeah, how do we all?
Speaker 9 (24:45):
I mean, I know we have a new Dawn John
Jackson Miller's look, which was helpful for me to understand
how Canaan happened. But people have said to us that
they would love a prequel thing. I'm just so curious.
I think it would be really cool to know.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
Could we do a radio drama? Right? Just like, that's great.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
Right right now, whole story and just like if we
wanted to run parallel. We just never refer to like
Ezra as Ezra. He's like Jenny Joy.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
Ezra and we have carn like we do.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
It's almost like Zack Snyder did with Rebel Dawn where
he was like, I want to make a Star Wars
movie and Lucas films like no we saw Super Members,
Batman in no way, and then he did Star Wars
movie anyway and just called it Rebel Dawn.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
Could we do that with with this and just be
like not to check you.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
JC was rebel Moon, But Moon, I don't want people
add adding you in fact checker obvious.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
Really, I'm a much bigger fan of rebels than I
am of Zack Snyder.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
Would you care to elaborate and watch the comment section
go nuts? Anyway?
Speaker 2 (26:11):
Just like what we're doing here. I like where we're
going here. We're kind of breaking story on this, Henry.
Do you think maybe, and maybe it's probably not good
for me to blow your cover here? But what if
you pulled like a Stephen King, like Richard Bachman, you
don't write as Henry Gilroy, and we can just kind
of like you can be quietly in the shadows, be consulting,
not under Henry Gilroy.
Speaker 10 (26:28):
Again, I know, like on think I'm a pitch meeting,
write something, No I I yeah, I would buy my
pleasure to work on something like that, you know, especially
with you guys.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
You know, I guess John You're gonna be Hondo for us.
Speaker 8 (26:44):
Oh right, right, Marky Mark as Hondo is going to
pay you more.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
Ryan Reynolds will be Honda.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
He'll be like, oh hey there, yeah, I'm just gonna
be in a peris in the galaxy and maybe see Deadpool.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
What's going on? Here, yeah, something like that.
Speaker 4 (27:07):
Speaking of Hondos.
Speaker 5 (27:08):
Sorry this is maybe a leading question, but Henry, I
was curious, I don't recall ever improvising as Sabine, Like,
I just thought, I don't know, you guys, like, do
you remember I don't recall like and I, you know,
do a lot of comedy a live action where there's
tons of improvisation going on, but we never I mean
(27:31):
I never a I didn't feel like I could, but
I also don't never felt like I needed to. I mean,
there was the writing was all all there, but I
was watching I forget which episode I was watching, but
I was like, I feel like a lot of Hondo's
nines are improvised, and I was curious if that's true.
Speaker 4 (27:51):
Or did Jim Cummings just.
Speaker 5 (27:52):
Like go to town or did you Was it all of
that scripted?
Speaker 1 (27:56):
Oh yeah, Jim totally with improvise as needed. We get
three different takes from him where he would put in
some funny stuff. Yeah, so she's so funny generally speaking.
The thing that would hurt us why we are so
like kind of strict with your lines was because we'd
already cut the animatic to time. We knew we had
(28:18):
twenty two thirty whatever, because at that point we're still
on you know, like Disney XD or whatever, right, so
we we couldn't go over It isn't like you know,
Netflix or whatever where you can kind of have like
a you know, fluid running time. It was very strict,
so we kind of had to hit that. And if anything,
we've noticed that your deliveries were slightly faster than the scratch.
Speaker 4 (28:42):
Really wow, Fish, that's good.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
Yeah, I guess I remember more intense Gin.
Speaker 6 (28:51):
We would have to improvise. We would have to improvise
with Gin. That's like when I remember is when Jim
would be there then being like, yeah, I mean I
guess we have to say something new because he just yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
Those were the.
Speaker 6 (29:02):
Times I remember like, all right, well, I mean we're
gonna have to say.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
Something to Well.
Speaker 5 (29:06):
For the for the record, I wasn't I don't mind
that we didn't improvise. I I was happy to just
perform what was scripted because it was so great. But
I just meant, when I have been as we've been
rewatching these episodes, when I see Hondo, I'm like, surely
they did not script that. That was just him off
the cuff, just hilarious. You know, all of these like
(29:29):
just the like just the flavor, you know, his his
like additional I don't know, buttons and kind of asides
and things are so funny.
Speaker 4 (29:41):
But I was I just was.
Speaker 5 (29:42):
Sure that a lot of that must have been improvised.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
Oh yeah, I think Also to give Jim a hint,
I would put in the scene description, not like a
parent that in the scene description Hondo like tap dancing
for his life, you know, like when he's trying to
I get out of like you know the thing with
So even though I have a line written, we'd let
(30:05):
We'd let him. Yeah, I go.
Speaker 5 (30:07):
I'm glad because it's so it's so good. He's he's
one of maybe I don't remember feeling this way necessarily before,
but now I'm like, is he my favorite characters show?
Speaker 4 (30:18):
Do you remember him with his drumsticks in between two?
Speaker 3 (30:21):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (30:22):
Yeah, yeah, ironically right in.
Speaker 5 (30:24):
The middle, sitting on his like throne, not thrown just
like a high chair, with his drumstick like.
Speaker 9 (30:30):
A jazz musician, scattering between like get it back at it.
Speaker 4 (30:34):
You know, he he was really in the moment.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
His name originally was Honda Onaka. I named him after
to the two creators of Godzilla, Honda, Anka and then George.
Basically he would do this all the time. He saw
the name of Hono Knaka, he just turned the the
the a into ah to may be came a Honda,
which I always stop was funny.
Speaker 5 (30:59):
Hey, Henry, maybe you can tell us this so well,
no discussing Ahsoka's name. A few episodes ago and we
were talking about Shoka, the Indian emperor.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
Yep, yeah, so yeah, you want to know the secret
history of so We. I had named her Ashla, which
was like the name of the force or whatever. And
George saw the name and he's like, he's carving that book.
(31:38):
We're in his office and I said what book and
he's like, it's a book on history right behind you.
And I'm like, I pullo shelf and it's basically famous
personalities from history. So he opened it and went down
a until he saw a Shoka and he said, that's it,
a Shoka. And I was like, you want to name
her after the Indian prince? Are you sure? Is that confusing?
(32:01):
And he's like, no, I like it. I like it,
We'll keep it. So but I didn't like it, so
I kept misspelling it. To Ahska so it wouldn't just
be a shoka. And he corrected it with a pencil
a few times, and finally he's like, oh, you know,
I kind of like a soca.
Speaker 5 (32:23):
You you you've sort of like bamboozled him a little.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
Bit, a little bit, Yeah, yeah, yeah, but you know,
I remember I created a rugosa I think was the
name of some planet. He's like, who's making up the
names of these planets? Now? On only I make up
names of the planets.
Speaker 4 (32:43):
That's incredible.
Speaker 1 (32:46):
I asked a.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
Question about that, names of planets and things and and
this may be so far to left field that and
you may have no idea, but I had heard that
on the prequels, and I'm assuming clone that the way
that George went about developing a planet name and species
(33:07):
and technology is that he would pick people who were
like technology people and botany and you know, it's kind
of great at each of the different things that would
go into creating a civilization and put them in a
room and ask them to come up with stuff collaboratively.
(33:31):
So like on Uda Paw, you know, the sinkholes the
species that were from Utapaw reflected living in sinkholes, and
the alien life forms and the technology and all of
that was very cohesive, and that after George specifically, which
(33:51):
you probably can't talk to like the seven, eight, and nine,
but that it was they tried to like it in
order to keep the secrets. So it would be like,
come up with eight planet names, come up with eight
planet geographies, come up with eight this, and then the
head people would kind of like pick and choose their favorite.
(34:13):
Was your experience with George that he would kind of
more holistically design these things from the ground up.
Speaker 1 (34:22):
Yeah, Yeah, that I've never heard that theory before. It
definitely wasn't part of what we did on Clone Wars.
You know, it would be like you know, Jaba's like
sign wrote it right of the hut, like they named him.
But he created the Ahsoka's nickname Punky Muffin because his
(34:42):
daughter's dog was named Punky Muffin. So that's like and
that's kind of like been a thing like Indiana was
George's dog's name for Indiana Jones, So that whole thing
is Yeah, I never heard that. I think that he
probably did do research. He had research people do what
exactly what you're talking about, jac when it came to
(35:03):
stuff but I think the names he would just go
with what you know sounds cool. I always tried to
put in like making up names that kind of somehow
reflected the geography or like you were saying to people,
you know, the species, or the mood. Most often it
(35:24):
was like, what's the mood of this world? Right?
Speaker 5 (35:29):
Well, two things.
Speaker 8 (35:31):
One one is that.
Speaker 5 (35:34):
I think one of the greatest Star Wars names of
all time is Killian Plunkett. Is his actual name, the
actual name of real life person I wonder is a
young person did Killian Plunket go?
Speaker 4 (35:45):
Well, I have to work for Star Wars.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
Killian Plunkett. Actually I'm responsible for getting Killing into the show.
He was artist. Yeah, yeah, and I did name. There
is a plunk Droid that I did name.
Speaker 4 (35:59):
After him, that's right, that's right, as you show.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
Yes's and that's Clone Wars. I think the plunk Droy
is in Clone. I think that it's even a faction figure,
which is probably a dream come true for Killing.
Speaker 5 (36:09):
And also I just wanted to as a last thing
on the Yohsoka thing, thank you for sharing that, by
the way, because we were really trying to dig deep
and figure it out, and here you are and it's you,
You're the answer. But I, as an Indian person, I
think it's I think you gaslighting. Gas Lighting George into
(36:31):
ah Soca rather than a Shoka was the move because
it's a very very obviously famous historical figure but a
very common Indian man's name, so you know that would
have been I think the Soka is brilliant genius.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
Oh, thank you?
Speaker 6 (36:51):
And do you have I'm thinking of conventions too, And
like people listening to this, what they're probably like screaming.
I hear often people saying they want to get into
acting on you and voicing, but also like they want
to get into creating Star Wars and they always have
bears and stuff. And I don't even mean this to
pertain to Star Wars in general, but just like young writers,
what advice would you give to young writers today, just
(37:15):
in a sort of holistic.
Speaker 1 (37:17):
Sense, Yeah, just right, write what you want. I mean,
I think that there's a lot of people who are
creating a really awesome fan fiction. You know. Actually a
project that you and I collaborated on, Taylor and hopefully
we'll get it off the ground is this web series
called Mother of Learning. And there was this guy who's
an accountant there's in Eastern Europe. He just started writing
(37:38):
a fantasy book and he wrote like it took a
nine years, but people love it. They turn it in
an audio book and it's also like a kindle and
people read it online. So I think it had like
seventeen million reads. And we developed it as an anime
and Taylor kind of did a test for us, but
(37:58):
he just wrote it because he wanted to it. You know.
He filled you know, three three and a half thousand
pages full of fantasy, you know, over nine you know,
years of this thing, you know, and the spare time,
and people love it and it's a great story and
kind of Harry Potter meet. It's like a time loop,
that's sure. But yeah, my advice is just to write,
(38:22):
you know, because I think a lot of people say,
I want to write, we'll do it. No, just just
start doing it. And it's you know, I think with
technology now and animation, you want to do something animated,
you kind of have all the tools in your laptop
now to make something. You just have to be be
ready and be willing and be able to fail all
(38:43):
the time. Like you know, you know, the ideas that
I slipped under the door of the Batman producers, like
I did it for weeks and before they finally said okay, fine,
so yeah, don't give up, but just keep writing, you
know if and the same thing with that and everything else.
You know, yeah, I love that, just going.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
And under you know, the under the common denominated there.
What I hear from you just talking about your craft,
Henry's is you know, they say the secret ingredients love,
but it is like you got to have a passion
for it. I think anyone who's ever been elite at anything. Look,
we bring up Kobe and Jordan all the time, but
they love basketball. They would still play basketball even if
they weren't Kobe and Jordan because they love it so much.
They just happen to be the best to ever do it.
(39:29):
But anyone who reaches that elite level, when you look
at people who are successful versus the ones who are
like elite all time, I always say the secret ingredients
because they were passionate about it. They've really had a
true love for it. They weren't in it for the
external sort of accolades or what have you. And we
gotta get I know, we were almost at the end
of the hour. But first of all, when I ask, like, WI,
will you come back another time? Because like I feel
(39:51):
like we should have like a segment called like Henry's
Corner and we can just like pick your brain and
like make that a mainstay of the podcast. I think
I know we would love it. I know our listeners
would love it, and so I'm just throwing that out there.
But I want to ask you and this could it
pertained a Taylor Vanessa and Tea as well, because I
had never had this really firsthand other than the handful
of movies I've done. But when you end up production,
(40:12):
it's like it's bittersweet you did it. But then you know,
let alone like a long running show like Rebels, and
it's I call it sounds my cob, but it's almost
like it's a type of grief, like you're grieving the
end of a show. So I'm wondering for you and
Taylor Vanessa, Tea please chime in as well, like what
was your adjustment post Rebels?
Speaker 1 (40:31):
Like how do you take care of yourself?
Speaker 2 (40:33):
You know, like and especially with as actors, you're putting
everything into the performance. Henry has a writer, You're putting
everything into the words on the page. So how do
you make sure that you're okay when a lot of
times you're writing about characters or being characters that are
not okay? And I think as the holidays approach, I
think that would be a nice note to go on
on in terms of self care and all that good stuff.
Speaker 1 (40:58):
Starting all right, good talk. Yeah, Actually it's always bittersweet.
And I've worked on shows were oh my gosh, like
I only have to do to one more episode or whatever,
but this one one of those is where I think
we all felt like, oh, we're going to probably do
more stuff together and we know it'll be awesome because
(41:20):
everybody feels it. So but I think we've all made
an effort to stay in touch. And you know, whenever
I am working on a new show or whatever, the
people that are on this are always like in my
cast list, you know, on every project. So and by
(41:41):
the way, I needed to ask you about that, like
do I call you directly or do I go to
your agent because some some agents are like a little
like this guy's kind of slumming. I don't know about
this guy. So I feel like we're family. Yeah, I
feel like we're family, and I you know, it's you know,
I think about like, oh, the Henry Gil with players right,
like you know, it's it's you guys are definitely there.
(42:04):
So that's part of it, I think. But when you
say goodbye to the show, yeah, especially when it's been
something that's really like enduring and it's emotional and people
love it, Yeah, you can kind of look back fondly
on it. So I can't think of, you know, any
(42:25):
you know, negatives experience. We just had a we had
we had a blast.
Speaker 6 (42:30):
Yeah. I mean, I want to say thank you for
writing such great dialogue, giving us such cool stories to
bring to life, and for creating amazing characters that we
got to sort of embody.
Speaker 1 (42:43):
It's it's a real treat. So thank you for that.
There's one other thing I'm gonna tell you that I
would change and to season three. I had Sato last
through the the Imperial forces by using like jumping the
light speed he blasted through to clear the way for
the rebels to escape. And I kept pitching it, and
(43:06):
they wouldn't tell me no, and they wouldn't say yes,
and then finally I said, no, you can't do that.
I'm like, why not. They wouldn't tell me until I
saw the Last Jedi. I'm always wondering, Okay, did I
pitch that and then did it get used or I'd
never got an explanation from it because I was I
(43:26):
wasn't able to read the Last Jedi script, but I
was like, oh, now I understand why they wouldn't let
me do it, but or was it already in.
Speaker 5 (43:33):
The script or it was already in the works, and
then you kind of came up with the same ideas,
we can't do that exactly exactly.
Speaker 1 (43:40):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, so that's that's the one thing he
would have lived. No, no, no, he would have it
basically how they call it the Holdo maneuver or whatever. Yeah, yeah,
I sacrifice exactly. You just would have seen Sato do
it a year and a half earlier than it appeared
(44:01):
on screen. That would have been earned.
Speaker 3 (44:04):
Really well yes, sorry, sorry, Can I ask a follow
up question because Vanessa a few episodes back mentioned that
when she and all of the casts were hired and
she held up her Bible that she got, she said
that there was or she remembered there being a seven
(44:25):
year plan and she wasn't sure if it was seven
years of rebels or seven years of Star Wars, and
I'm wondering, can you provide some clarification on that. Was
Rebels always intended to be four animated seasons within this
larger Disney seven year arc or was there plans for
(44:47):
seven seasons of Rebels? Vanessa didn't really remember. It was ambiguous.
Speaker 4 (44:52):
It was never seven. It was that ten year plan.
Speaker 1 (44:56):
Or ten year plan.
Speaker 9 (44:56):
I'm sorry, yeah, but I mean but that that included
many narratives beyond I didn't.
Speaker 1 (45:02):
I didn't.
Speaker 9 (45:03):
I was not confused that Rebels was not supposed to
go ten years, but it was part of a ten
year overall plan.
Speaker 4 (45:09):
But anyway, I don't know if you remember differently, Henry.
Speaker 1 (45:12):
No, I never saw that, and I never I never
saw that there was some compartmentalization, kind of like the
government where you know, games are getting made, and like
the movies that were so worried that people were going
to find out what they were doing. For the movies,
you couldn't. They didn't even send out a script. You
had to go into a room with a kindle, you know,
oh wow, and sign your name of when you read it,
(45:34):
and then you would read it in a room and
then you would hand the kindle back. So there was
like no way, Yeah, totally, there was, like it was
it was very strict just because of the leaks. They
had a huge problems with the leaks anyway. So but yeah,
I never heard that. I never heard the tenure plan.
I do know when they kind of like Disney took over,
they said we're gonna put it out a Star Wars
(45:55):
movie every year, and that was their their you know
plan until Han Solo kind of you know, but also
trying to make them that fast definitely like kind of
hurt the quality too. Yeah, and on that note, no,
so many questions, but I feel like we should save
them for write them down, you know, and and you know,
(46:16):
and if you want to send them so that we
have like discussion areas that you guys want to talk,
I'd love to come back. Thank you again for the invitation.
You know, I love you people, you know.
Speaker 2 (46:25):
So I'm telling you Henry's corner on Potter Rebellion would
be such a hit. And also we did break story
in a prequel story, so we're we'll open that writer's
room up really soon, which I like that story. On
Taylor's new podcast, Call you Guys, if you're paying attention,
it's going to be premiering on Pandora and Vimeo soon,
so just keep your eyes out for that. But Henry,
thank you so much for joining us, and thank you
for being willing to you know, come back. We can't
(46:47):
wait to have you back as we, you know, continue
this journey through Star Wars Rebels and look, as you've
been aware on our show, Taylor has our little outro
and he says, cute the music, but we like to
bestow that onto you today. So will you do this
the honor mister Henry Gilroy and tell JC to cue
the music and get us out of here.
Speaker 1 (47:07):
JC, cue the music.
Speaker 2 (47:13):
Potter Rebellion is produced in partnership with iHeart Podcasts, Producing,
hosted by Vanessa Marshall, Tia Surkar, Taylor Gray, and John
Lee Brody Executive producer and in house Star Wars guru
slash backchecker j C. Reifenberg. Our music was composed by
Mikey Flash. Our cover art was created by Neil Fraser
of Neil Fraser Designs. Special thanks to Holly Frean, Aaron
Kauffman over at iHeart, Evan Krasglorie Willie Morrisondevor Tresa Canobio
(47:36):
George Lucas for creating this universe we love so much,
and of course all of our amazing listeners. Follow us
on Instagram at Potter Rebellion and email ust at Potter
Rebellion Podcasts at gmail dot com
One of the reasons that George liked me when we
first met was when I came into the meeting with him,
I had a yellow pad and a pencil, And I
think the reason why is he goes, oh, you're kind
of old school, because he was used to all of
the screenwriters he'd been reading with. They bring their laptops
and they're typing away.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Hello, Rebels family, Welcome to Rebels Talk, our conversation sub
series here at the Potter Rebellion, where we of course
talk all thinks star wars, rebels and star Wars in general,
but also things life in general, and where we really
get to know the people as opposed to maybe the
characters they played are shows they worked on. But of
course I'm not alone today and this is where this
is where my intros usually come in. But today feel
(00:48):
a little crazy. I think I'm gonna do something a
little different and channel the great Nicholas Cage to introduce everybody.
So just give me a moment. So first up, she's
our leader. She's really cool. She's also my ghost rider,
the voice of Hairs Duelove Vanessa Marshall. And then next
(01:09):
she's a real national treasure. She's kick ass the voices
of being Rian t. S her Car and uh, this
gentleman the best head of hair since me and conn
Air so good at leaves me moonstruck, the voice of
Ezra Bridge or Taylor Gray. And then this guy, our producer,
(01:32):
lights cameras, microphones, suspitching technology and you'll fact check your
face off, Jacy Riefenberg. And then our special guests who
you know what they say about about cays keys are good.
And he holds the case of the Star Wars Rebels Kingdom.
He's a real Star Wars family man, Henry Gilroy And
(01:53):
that's everybody.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Wow, fantastic.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
That's the best number one so far, thirty episodes of
the podcast.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
That's the best one.
Speaker 4 (02:05):
I couldn't say hello, I was crying.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
So good.
Speaker 4 (02:11):
Thank you, John, You're welcome.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
It was either that or was going to be panic
Mark Wahlberg and maybe that'll be the next show.
Speaker 4 (02:17):
Yeah, with that in your back clack.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Because you know Mark Wahlberg when he gets panicked in
a movie, he just starts asking questions. He's like, what's
going on here? You know what I'm most meet from.
I'll see any really funny, you know, So that's that's
that's Mark Wahlberg and everything.
Speaker 5 (02:32):
Henry, I think you know who to cast in your
next project.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Nicholas Cage.
Speaker 4 (02:41):
Nailed it. Wow.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Well, Henry, thanks for coming back and joining us, and
thank you to Cage for for letting me channel your
spirit as we start the show. So tell us a
little about yourself, because you did touch on it last
week where Tiny two Adventures was like here in your
FOURIGN animation Batman Animated series was your first script you sold.
But what about before that, Like where does your love
(03:04):
for storytelling come from? Like where did you grow up? Like,
tell us a little bit more about yourself.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Yeah, so I was born and raised in La, you know.
And it's funny back in the day if you're kind
of born and raised here, a lot of people fall
into like the town industry. Right, if you grew up
in Pittsburgh, you're probably gonna work in the steelmill or whatever.
So in La, entertainment is the business. So a lot
of people, even folks I went to high school with.
One owns a post production facility. One was a production
(03:30):
manager I worked with at Disney for like twenty years,
so it was easy to kind of fall in to,
like at least an entry level position. My stepmother was
actually an editor at Disney Feature, so that's kind of
how I got in to My very first job was
track reading, which was basically for animation. That's running the
(03:52):
sound through a synchronizer and writing down the phonetics so
it could be animated too, so the animator would witch
lip movement. I think now it's done by AI, but
back in the day, it all had to be done
by hand. So that's really how I got into the business.
So and once you're an editorial working in there, you're
seeing the pre production, you're seeing the storyboards, you're seeing
(04:13):
how they get turned into film, and you're cutting it down.
So it was really great education for film. But I
was also you know, going to film schools in the area.
I didn't. I didn't have the money to go to
USC so I did Pasadena. It took editing over there.
I took cinematography at Valley. It kind of sought out
specific constructors who had professional experience and went to work
(04:36):
with them. So but animation, animation, I always love animation.
I didn't. I never really felt like, oh, I'm going
to be a live action writer. I just I love
that you could do anything with animation. So you know,
I grew up on you know, the super Friends and books,
Bunny cartoons and you know, Thunderal the Barbarian was a
huge influence to me. So yeah, that's kind of how
(05:00):
I got into animation.
Speaker 4 (05:02):
Wow, that's awesome, Thank.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
You, very cool. It's all meant to be.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
It's all kids met, you know, as your resume speaks
for itself, and just like your sensibilities as a storyteller
always evident anytime we come across one of your episodes
where I was like, yeah, it's a heavy goery episode,
like it's you and Melching or the two that were
like all right, like we're gonna get something really really
cool here. And just hearing some of that backstory, it
all makes it make more sense, if you will, just
kind of hearing the how and the why behind your
(05:30):
whole story.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Oh yeah, no, thank you very much. Yeah. And as
far as the Star Wars element, obviously, you know saw
you know, Riches a New Hope in the Man Shinest
Theater when I was ten years old, and I had
a huge impact on me. But I had written some
Star Wars comics for Dark Horse in the early nineties
and mid nineties and then actually when it came time
(05:52):
to do the prequel adaptations, George basically wanted somebody who
was a screenwriter who and also had written Star Wars comics.
And I was kind of like that person who straddled
both worlds. So I got that assignment. And then when
it came to the Clone Wars, He's like, oh, yeah,
I just got that guy who toot the comics, you know.
And then that's how I came aboard on Clone Wars.
(06:16):
Like a few years later in two thousand and five, Wow, did.
Speaker 4 (06:19):
You work on Avatar at all with them?
Speaker 1 (06:23):
I did not. I did not. I was actually at Disney,
I mean on contract at Disney. And actually I remember
when Filoni actually left Disney. He was working on a
show called Temo Soprimo, which is a good sand Yeah. Yeah,
it was a goofy comedy show, and he came in
and said, I'm escaping. I'm going over Nickelodeon to work
(06:45):
on Avatar. This is before Avatar came out, so people
really didn't know like what Avatar was. So I was like, oh, sorry,
just you know, see it go, you know, because I,
you know, we we would actually talk about Star Wars stuff,
mostly because he knew I had done, like, you know,
work on the comics and you know the prequel adaptations too.
Speaker 6 (07:04):
So you guys knew or wait, you guys knew each
other before Star Wars.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I actually met him in I think
two thousand and two or two thousand and three in
there sick I have, I mean, I both.
Speaker 6 (07:19):
I have a bunch of ques. I have questions that
are Star Wars, not Star Wars, just writing. Where do
you just start off?
Speaker 1 (07:24):
Easy?
Speaker 6 (07:25):
Like, where do you like to write? I always find
it so actually where do writers write?
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Yeah? For me, I need like a silent and closed space,
you know. I know, I can go like take notes
like in a coffee shop or something like that, but
I need to like sit at my desk and write. However,
I also do probably like all of you guys who
write your writing when you're you know, in the shower,
you're writing when you're driving to the post office. It's
(07:51):
like a lot of times that's when you get your
most effective problem solving stuff. And that's actually a funny story.
One of the reasons that that George liked me when
we first met was when I came into the meeting
with him. I had a yellow pad and a pencil,
and he looked at me and he brought his own
yellow pad out, deliberately put it on the table, and
(08:12):
then grabbed a pencil. And I think the reason why
is he goes, oh, you're kind of old school, because
he was used to like all of the screenwriters he'd
been reading with, they bring their laptops and they're typing away. Yeah,
And I think or also, he had this weird thing
where he appreciated that I used a pencil and not
(08:33):
a pen because you can erase a pencil like that
was kind of like uh something, And I was like, Oh,
that's kind of cool that, yeah, like just the thought
press of like, oh yeah, I can scratch out that
idea and write something else. Can I do a quick
fact check on the.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
Writing on his screen writing onlined white paper and writing
on yellow paper. The reason that yellow paper is used
in legal is that when you write on yellow paper,
your brain is.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
More likely to remember though you're writing. Isn't that crazy already? Wow,
say it.
Speaker 4 (09:08):
One more time when you're writing on yellow If you.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Are writing on yellow paper, because the paper is a warm,
inviting color, you are more likely to remember what you
are writing down than if you do it on white
or you do it on a screen.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
Wow, that's so interesting.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
That's crazy. Huh, what if you're color blind? Color blind
is like red green kind of right? Well there, I
don't know.
Speaker 5 (09:37):
There's completely color blind and then there's red green color blind,
right like, there's people that can see some color but
not I'm not the authority on color blindness, so I
should call it.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
I was no, No, I was.
Speaker 4 (09:50):
Halfway through that. Do you actually know what you're talking about?
Maybe you should stop?
Speaker 1 (09:54):
It sounded very correct to me. So you have there
are different.
Speaker 5 (09:57):
Types of color blindness, and some are partial and to
see some color, and then there's like complete color blindness.
Speaker 4 (10:03):
That's just what I think.
Speaker 5 (10:04):
You don't ask me if I'm wrong, or at me
if I'm wrong.
Speaker 4 (10:08):
I want to know, you know.
Speaker 7 (10:10):
I just moved and found this yellow pad in the
move and I'm opening it now. Yeah, it may have
this may be let's see if it has a year
on it.
Speaker 4 (10:24):
It's probably from nineteen eighty.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Nine, Henry.
Speaker 6 (10:27):
I Now, I mean, I'm just gonna find what if
you could change one thing about rebels?
Speaker 1 (10:32):
What would you change? Wow? My god? Wow, Okay, this
is easy. Oh so take that and Rebels season five,
which is also known as ah Soska. I would not
pursue the Sabine Jedi storyline. No, I really can't think
(10:59):
of anything. I mean, you know, do you guys? The
reason why we're even talking is that the series is
kind of a unicorn. It really is solid top top
to bottom. You know. Oh, yes, there is one thing
the Battle season four, when Hair comes back and it
(11:20):
has the X wings and leaves the attack. My pitch
was always that those should have been B wing fighters.
She should have been in a B wing and not actually, yes,
you see it, you see it?
Speaker 8 (11:37):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (11:37):
Yeah. And I argued and I argued and I argued,
and Carrie dam I'm like, I have a Cadillac out
of this guy.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Wing.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
I'm like, you, guys, we've seen X wings so much recently.
Not only are there in JJ's movies, but I think
they're even in like, uh Bracket Ralph two. I'm like,
come on, we need the B wings so they're like god.
So anyway, so that's the one thing. It seemed like
a dumb thing. No, that's very valid. I argued for
(12:06):
it and and I lost.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
That's why can I take a turn from Taylor throwing
a question out there. I'm curious. Last episode you mentioned
that Rebel season one was very Disney friendly, and I've
talked about this on this show before. I was a
staunch Clone Wars person. I was friends with a lot
(12:29):
of the voice actors on Clone Wars, and I was
one of the people you talked about who like crossed
my arms and I was like, they canceled Star like
Clone Wars for this, Like that was very much me.
Obviously I've been one over. I'm in fact checking on
a Star Wars Rebels rewatch podcast.
Speaker 4 (12:46):
We got them, but.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
You worked on you worked.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
On both Clone Wars and Rebels, and so I'm curious.
I think if I was just coming into it today,
I would just be like, Oh, it's just a natural continuation.
It's the same team, it's the same everything. But what
was the what was the difference because you did like
the before times with George Lucas and then you did
(13:13):
the the Disney what was and obviously Dave is a
through line there, but what was the difference between working
on the one show and then the next show?
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Yeah, So two things. A first thing is the budget.
It's the Rebels budget was just like half of what
Colin Wars was really right, Yeah, because because I think
you know, even the canceling of Clin Wars, like, oh,
it's kind of served. It's this is you remember, this
is how folks like you know, at the top of
the giant corporations think like not thinking about the fans,
(13:46):
are thinking like, oh, we have enough episodes. It served
its licensing life, you know what I mean, We're probably
I'm not going to be able to milk more so
and it's expensive. So and then of course when it
got counseled, people are like freaking out, which is why
they you know, Netflix is like, oh, it's worth us
to us to do like another you know season. So
that's the one thing the budget. The The other thing
is when you're working on Clone Wars, you have one boss.
(14:11):
You only have to please one guy, really, right, and
that's George and the collaboration of these awesome artists coming
together to make it and make something that George likes,
and then George is gonna like it. If he likes it,
then he's going to add stuff and do his own
stuff to it. That's completely different than working for Disney
on Rebels, which is there's the committees, right, So not
(14:36):
only are you getting notes from Lucasm's story group about
what they're doing for future movies, but you're also getting
notes from the Disney team, right, so that's a Disney executive.
You're also getting like comments from you know, BS and
P like what we're allowed to do and we're not
allowed to do. Then you also have like the studio,
the Disney studio as a whole, and then besides the
(14:57):
Disney channel. So you go from pleasing one guy to
now there's five different entities and like three different When
you get notes back on a script, they're color coded
reds for this person, blues for the screens for this.
So it's a lot of things that you're having to juggle,
(15:17):
you know what I mean to try there. So I'm
always amazed by how good the series turned out, but
a lot of it had to do with us, just
like standing our ground and the trust actually really, I
mean it's really the trust that was earned during Clone Wars,
I think by David Company.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
It reminds me of a great Han Solo quote, which is,
I don't have time to discuss this with a committee
exactly exactly.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
I bet you one thousand dollars. Georgia wrote that line,
did you guys, would it ever be?
Speaker 4 (15:54):
Would they be contested?
Speaker 6 (15:56):
I just remember working on a network TV show where
they would come in notes and the network would have
a note, but then the director had an opposite note,
and they both would come to you and be like, hey,
do this in the next run through, and do this
and let's see whose works. Where it was like, I'm like,
these are completely opposite on the same line for example.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Right, oh yeah, absolutely that happened. That happened generally. It
didn't happen a lot a lot on Star Wars. But
like I think the Lelo and Stitch series I worked
on at the Disney Channel, which was the studio wanted Pokemon,
which was aimed at boys ages six to ten, and
the network Disney Channel said, no, this show is for
girls eleven to fourteen. So literally they every line of
(16:37):
dialogue was like no, no, no, it needs to be funny, No,
it's it needs to be badass. So I think it's
always You're always going to come across that stuff. But
I think no one wants to make anything bad. I
think it just people have different ideas of what is
good or what is for their audience. So I think
whenever you try to pander and chase an audience, you're
in trouble. And we didn't. We're just like, we're going
(17:01):
to basically tell the best Star Wars stories we can,
so at least out to our goal. Is that answer
your question?
Speaker 3 (17:07):
Yeah, I'm going to just fill in for again people
at home who aren't like industry people, because at home,
you just think Disney is Disney, right, they have theme parks,
they have this, they have this, but Disney like Disney Channel,
Disney Animation. They're almost like separate companies. And in I
(17:28):
worked at CBS for a long time and I always
found that it was interesting like CBS Network behaved more
as if they were in competition with CBS Mobile and
CBS Online than they did like friends.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
They like the network.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
I mean it was a million years ago, but the
network was like, I don't want to give the exclusive
clip to of ncis to mobile. I want to do
it to online, and Online is like I don't want
to share with Mobile, So like to the people listening
at home, like these are old Disney companies, but they're
not necessarily friends. Like that synergy word doesn't necessarily apply
(18:08):
to the people who are running each of these divisions, right.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
That's absolutely right. Yeah, Like I don't probably break in
my nda here when I was working at when I
was working at Marvel. When I was working at Marvel,
the Marvel and Disney execs fought so hard and so
f you all the time to each other that like
(18:33):
the big boss had to pull them at the heads
in the room, go what the hell is the matter
with you guys supposed to be on the same team,
just because it was so petty and angry and biting,
you know, And it trickles down to the talent. You're
trying to make something and then suddenly you can't do something.
But then it's exactly what you're saying, Taylor, where you
get contradictory notes because each each aspect kind of what
you're saying JC has their own agenda what they're trying
(18:55):
to accomplish. So that's the politician, you know, and I am. Unfortunately,
I'm not a great politician. I just try to tell stories.
So some people are better at that, but I just
try to head put my head down and do it.
And ultimately I think that's part of my success is
really it's about the story. Story always comes first. I
don't care if the idea comes from the executive producer
(19:19):
or the owner of the studio or you know, the
script coordinator. You know, if great idea is a great idea,
how it should be. Absolutely yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
I mean it's a collaborative effort and arts. I mean,
we talk team sports here all the time, but filmmaking
and storytelling it's a team effort, like it's a team sport.
And you know, even VARV Rodriguez, who does everything, he
needed a you know they say WORB without a crew.
He had a bit of a crew to make Almediacci
and then of course he grew on to do bigger
things as well. But it is a collaboration, and that's
what the best stories are, you know. And I've been
(19:53):
lucky enough to see at firsthand with a couple of
mentors of mine who are really prolific directors, and they're
always listening to the room, but they know as a
director they have to make the decision of okay, like
I'm tearing everyone, but I got to take the direction
this way. With everything that's been said here, and I'm
so glad you brought that up because you know, it's like,
you can't white knuckle this thing. You should you shouldn't
(20:14):
white knuckle this thing. It does happen, but it really
is a collaboration, just like any sort of a team sport.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
Yeah, And I think having sounding board, having people creatively
that you trust or the people that basically will challenge
your ideas is really important. Like you know, when you're
especially when you're kind of at the top of it,
when you're at the top of that, you have to
have people to go oh, maybe, you know. And that's
the thing. I think that's what happens so much in
(20:41):
our business, where you know, the ego of somebody will
take over the thing and they'll forget like, no, actually,
you need all of the players. You need the people
you know who help you build it to you know,
to you know, make sure the foundation is strong. So
you know, that's that's Hollywood, right, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
So last week we touched on the Mandalorians and the Protectors,
and I feel like that's kind of apt here because
I do view you as somebody who is almost like
a protector of the Star Wars brand with the way
you have the bridge of the gap between or as
a bridge of gap if you will if you want
to get fantastic about it, because you are, as Jays
alluded to seeing in real time, from Lucasfilm Prime if
(21:23):
you will, to Lucasfilm Disney and going from pleasing one person,
which was George, to having to please the committee. So
I don't know, It's like, did you feel like I
consider you someone who's a protector of the Star Wars brand,
you know, of bridging that gap? But look, I swear
I'm not trying. I'm just genuinely curious. Did you ever
feel like that brand just stopped protecting its creators like yourself?
Speaker 1 (21:47):
Because that's kind.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Of what it I know, because I've seen some of
these things and I'm not trying to project my own
experiences onto this, but I'm just genuinely curious about that.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
And yeah, fancies if you don't want, but if you do, no, absolutely,
I'm uh. Also, I think that once people there's a
weird thing. There's also the perception of what people on
the outside, even other artists think Star Wars is, you
know what I mean, So they'll basically want to do
something you know, that's their own. And when you kind
of look at what JJ did with the Force of wikens.
(22:16):
He repeated a lot of the same beats that we'd
seen in a New Hope, right. So, and that's the
first something I've noticed, and even kind of look at
the earlier episodes of the Mandalaurian. It's a lot of
stuff we've seen before, and it's fan service, but also
it's the fan and the filmmaker. That fan filmmaker wants
to kind of do stuff and people are like, Oh, yeah,
that's that's a Star Wars like the rank Ord, that's
(22:39):
a Star Wars flavor that people like, we know, we
can like license that and put it in the commercial
and all that stuff. Same thing with you know, quote
unquote grog Baby Yoda, right, Like, that's they It's definitely
part of how you sell the series. You know, it's
by putting in those elements that people like. And So,
but I think what probably realized with and Or Which
(23:02):
is like, oh, he's going to tell a completely different
kind of Star Wars story. It doesn't have Jedi and
it doesn't have the Force, and oh my gosh, it's
the best thing we've seen because it's fresh, it's new.
It's not the same flavor again, you know what I mean. So,
that's that's key to I don't think anyone ever wants
to tell a bad Star Wars story. I just think
(23:24):
that they put a lot of stuff out that maybe
wasn't the Star Wars were used to, right, So you know,
I mean, I don't want to talk bad about anybody's
work on Stars and I think it's really hard and
so much effort goes in it by so many people.
I think anything you know that you make at this
(23:46):
quality is to be applauded. It's just do I do
think that people lose sight of what it is. They forget.
Speaker 6 (23:53):
Yeah, in a light note of like where star Like,
you've created great Star Wars already, so that's it. But like,
if you were to do something new, what is your
favorite time outside of Clone Wars and Rebels? Because you
wrote that that you would create something. I just I
(24:13):
think fans often I always hear that at conventions, like
I love this part of Star Wars or this part
of the timeline for you, what is that? I'm just
trying to think, so boy.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
I I yeah, I mean, I have a special affinity
to the original characters. But you know the fact that
I was fortunate enough to work with you guys on Rebels.
I could totally do Rebel steal in six, you know
what I mean?
Speaker 4 (24:34):
Well, what about a prequel? What about a prequel?
Speaker 1 (24:39):
Like a prequel Rebels. Yeah, that's cool, that'd be a
great idea.
Speaker 4 (24:43):
Yeah, how do we all?
Speaker 9 (24:45):
I mean, I know we have a new Dawn John
Jackson Miller's look, which was helpful for me to understand
how Canaan happened. But people have said to us that
they would love a prequel thing. I'm just so curious.
I think it would be really cool to know.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
Could we do a radio drama? Right? Just like, that's great.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
Right right now, whole story and just like if we
wanted to run parallel. We just never refer to like
Ezra as Ezra. He's like Jenny Joy.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
Ezra and we have carn like we do.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
It's almost like Zack Snyder did with Rebel Dawn where
he was like, I want to make a Star Wars
movie and Lucas films like no we saw Super Members,
Batman in no way, and then he did Star Wars
movie anyway and just called it Rebel Dawn.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
Could we do that with with this and just be
like not to check you.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
JC was rebel Moon, But Moon, I don't want people
add adding you in fact checker obvious.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
Really, I'm a much bigger fan of rebels than I
am of Zack Snyder.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
Would you care to elaborate and watch the comment section
go nuts? Anyway?
Speaker 2 (26:11):
Just like what we're doing here. I like where we're
going here. We're kind of breaking story on this, Henry.
Do you think maybe, and maybe it's probably not good
for me to blow your cover here? But what if
you pulled like a Stephen King, like Richard Bachman, you
don't write as Henry Gilroy, and we can just kind
of like you can be quietly in the shadows, be consulting,
not under Henry Gilroy.
Speaker 10 (26:28):
Again, I know, like on think I'm a pitch meeting,
write something, No I I yeah, I would buy my
pleasure to work on something like that, you know, especially
with you guys.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
You know, I guess John You're gonna be Hondo for us.
Speaker 8 (26:44):
Oh right, right, Marky Mark as Hondo is going to
pay you more.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
Ryan Reynolds will be Honda.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
He'll be like, oh hey there, yeah, I'm just gonna
be in a peris in the galaxy and maybe see Deadpool.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
What's going on? Here, yeah, something like that.
Speaker 4 (27:07):
Speaking of Hondos.
Speaker 5 (27:08):
Sorry this is maybe a leading question, but Henry, I
was curious, I don't recall ever improvising as Sabine, Like,
I just thought, I don't know, you guys, like, do
you remember I don't recall like and I, you know,
do a lot of comedy a live action where there's
tons of improvisation going on, but we never I mean
(27:31):
I never a I didn't feel like I could, but
I also don't never felt like I needed to. I mean,
there was the writing was all all there, but I
was watching I forget which episode I was watching, but
I was like, I feel like a lot of Hondo's
nines are improvised, and I was curious if that's true.
Speaker 4 (27:51):
Or did Jim Cummings just.
Speaker 5 (27:52):
Like go to town or did you Was it all of
that scripted?
Speaker 1 (27:56):
Oh yeah, Jim totally with improvise as needed. We get
three different takes from him where he would put in
some funny stuff. Yeah, so she's so funny generally speaking.
The thing that would hurt us why we are so
like kind of strict with your lines was because we'd
already cut the animatic to time. We knew we had
(28:18):
twenty two thirty whatever, because at that point we're still
on you know, like Disney XD or whatever, right, so
we we couldn't go over It isn't like you know,
Netflix or whatever where you can kind of have like
a you know, fluid running time. It was very strict,
so we kind of had to hit that. And if anything,
we've noticed that your deliveries were slightly faster than the scratch.
Speaker 4 (28:42):
Really wow, Fish, that's good.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
Yeah, I guess I remember more intense Gin.
Speaker 6 (28:51):
We would have to improvise. We would have to improvise
with Gin. That's like when I remember is when Jim
would be there then being like, yeah, I mean I
guess we have to say something new because he just yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
Those were the.
Speaker 6 (29:02):
Times I remember like, all right, well, I mean we're
gonna have to say.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
Something to Well.
Speaker 5 (29:06):
For the for the record, I wasn't I don't mind
that we didn't improvise. I I was happy to just
perform what was scripted because it was so great. But
I just meant, when I have been as we've been
rewatching these episodes, when I see Hondo, I'm like, surely
they did not script that. That was just him off
the cuff, just hilarious. You know, all of these like
(29:29):
just the like just the flavor, you know, his his
like additional I don't know, buttons and kind of asides
and things are so funny.
Speaker 4 (29:41):
But I was I just was.
Speaker 5 (29:42):
Sure that a lot of that must have been improvised.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
Oh yeah, I think Also to give Jim a hint,
I would put in the scene description, not like a
parent that in the scene description Hondo like tap dancing
for his life, you know, like when he's trying to
I get out of like you know the thing with
So even though I have a line written, we'd let
(30:05):
We'd let him. Yeah, I go.
Speaker 5 (30:07):
I'm glad because it's so it's so good. He's he's
one of maybe I don't remember feeling this way necessarily before,
but now I'm like, is he my favorite characters show?
Speaker 4 (30:18):
Do you remember him with his drumsticks in between two?
Speaker 3 (30:21):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (30:22):
Yeah, yeah, ironically right in.
Speaker 5 (30:24):
The middle, sitting on his like throne, not thrown just
like a high chair, with his drumstick like.
Speaker 9 (30:30):
A jazz musician, scattering between like get it back at it.
Speaker 4 (30:34):
You know, he he was really in the moment.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
His name originally was Honda Onaka. I named him after
to the two creators of Godzilla, Honda, Anka and then George.
Basically he would do this all the time. He saw
the name of Hono Knaka, he just turned the the
the a into ah to may be came a Honda,
which I always stop was funny.
Speaker 5 (30:59):
Hey, Henry, maybe you can tell us this so well,
no discussing Ahsoka's name. A few episodes ago and we
were talking about Shoka, the Indian emperor.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
Yep, yeah, so yeah, you want to know the secret
history of so We. I had named her Ashla, which
was like the name of the force or whatever. And
George saw the name and he's like, he's carving that book.
(31:38):
We're in his office and I said what book and
he's like, it's a book on history right behind you.
And I'm like, I pullo shelf and it's basically famous
personalities from history. So he opened it and went down
a until he saw a Shoka and he said, that's it,
a Shoka. And I was like, you want to name
her after the Indian prince? Are you sure? Is that confusing?
(32:01):
And he's like, no, I like it. I like it,
We'll keep it. So but I didn't like it, so
I kept misspelling it. To Ahska so it wouldn't just
be a shoka. And he corrected it with a pencil
a few times, and finally he's like, oh, you know,
I kind of like a soca.
Speaker 5 (32:23):
You you you've sort of like bamboozled him a little.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
Bit, a little bit, Yeah, yeah, yeah, but you know,
I remember I created a rugosa I think was the
name of some planet. He's like, who's making up the
names of these planets? Now? On only I make up
names of the planets.
Speaker 4 (32:43):
That's incredible.
Speaker 1 (32:46):
I asked a.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
Question about that, names of planets and things and and
this may be so far to left field that and
you may have no idea, but I had heard that
on the prequels, and I'm assuming clone that the way
that George went about developing a planet name and species
(33:07):
and technology is that he would pick people who were
like technology people and botany and you know, it's kind
of great at each of the different things that would
go into creating a civilization and put them in a
room and ask them to come up with stuff collaboratively.
(33:31):
So like on Uda Paw, you know, the sinkholes the
species that were from Utapaw reflected living in sinkholes, and
the alien life forms and the technology and all of
that was very cohesive, and that after George specifically, which
(33:51):
you probably can't talk to like the seven, eight, and nine,
but that it was they tried to like it in
order to keep the secrets. So it would be like,
come up with eight planet names, come up with eight
planet geographies, come up with eight this, and then the
head people would kind of like pick and choose their favorite.
(34:13):
Was your experience with George that he would kind of
more holistically design these things from the ground up.
Speaker 1 (34:22):
Yeah, Yeah, that I've never heard that theory before. It
definitely wasn't part of what we did on Clone Wars.
You know, it would be like you know, Jaba's like
sign wrote it right of the hut, like they named him.
But he created the Ahsoka's nickname Punky Muffin because his
(34:42):
daughter's dog was named Punky Muffin. So that's like and
that's kind of like been a thing like Indiana was
George's dog's name for Indiana Jones, So that whole thing
is Yeah, I never heard that. I think that he
probably did do research. He had research people do what
exactly what you're talking about, jac when it came to
(35:03):
stuff but I think the names he would just go
with what you know sounds cool. I always tried to
put in like making up names that kind of somehow
reflected the geography or like you were saying to people,
you know, the species, or the mood. Most often it
(35:24):
was like, what's the mood of this world? Right?
Speaker 5 (35:29):
Well, two things.
Speaker 8 (35:31):
One one is that.
Speaker 5 (35:34):
I think one of the greatest Star Wars names of
all time is Killian Plunkett. Is his actual name, the
actual name of real life person I wonder is a
young person did Killian Plunket go?
Speaker 4 (35:45):
Well, I have to work for Star Wars.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
Killian Plunkett. Actually I'm responsible for getting Killing into the show.
He was artist. Yeah, yeah, and I did name. There
is a plunk Droid that I did name.
Speaker 4 (35:59):
After him, that's right, that's right, as you show.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
Yes's and that's Clone Wars. I think the plunk Droy
is in Clone. I think that it's even a faction figure,
which is probably a dream come true for Killing.
Speaker 5 (36:09):
And also I just wanted to as a last thing
on the Yohsoka thing, thank you for sharing that, by
the way, because we were really trying to dig deep
and figure it out, and here you are and it's you,
You're the answer. But I, as an Indian person, I
think it's I think you gaslighting. Gas Lighting George into
(36:31):
ah Soca rather than a Shoka was the move because
it's a very very obviously famous historical figure but a
very common Indian man's name, so you know that would
have been I think the Soka is brilliant genius.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
Oh, thank you?
Speaker 6 (36:51):
And do you have I'm thinking of conventions too, And
like people listening to this, what they're probably like screaming.
I hear often people saying they want to get into
acting on you and voicing, but also like they want
to get into creating Star Wars and they always have
bears and stuff. And I don't even mean this to
pertain to Star Wars in general, but just like young writers,
what advice would you give to young writers today, just
(37:15):
in a sort of holistic.
Speaker 1 (37:17):
Sense, Yeah, just right, write what you want. I mean,
I think that there's a lot of people who are
creating a really awesome fan fiction. You know. Actually a
project that you and I collaborated on, Taylor and hopefully
we'll get it off the ground is this web series
called Mother of Learning. And there was this guy who's
an accountant there's in Eastern Europe. He just started writing
(37:38):
a fantasy book and he wrote like it took a
nine years, but people love it. They turn it in
an audio book and it's also like a kindle and
people read it online. So I think it had like
seventeen million reads. And we developed it as an anime
and Taylor kind of did a test for us, but
(37:58):
he just wrote it because he wanted to it. You know.
He filled you know, three three and a half thousand
pages full of fantasy, you know, over nine you know,
years of this thing, you know, and the spare time,
and people love it and it's a great story and
kind of Harry Potter meet. It's like a time loop,
that's sure. But yeah, my advice is just to write,
(38:22):
you know, because I think a lot of people say,
I want to write, we'll do it. No, just just
start doing it. And it's you know, I think with
technology now and animation, you want to do something animated,
you kind of have all the tools in your laptop
now to make something. You just have to be be
ready and be willing and be able to fail all
(38:43):
the time. Like you know, you know, the ideas that
I slipped under the door of the Batman producers, like
I did it for weeks and before they finally said okay, fine,
so yeah, don't give up, but just keep writing, you
know if and the same thing with that and everything else.
You know, yeah, I love that, just going.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
And under you know, the under the common denominated there.
What I hear from you just talking about your craft,
Henry's is you know, they say the secret ingredients love,
but it is like you got to have a passion
for it. I think anyone who's ever been elite at anything. Look,
we bring up Kobe and Jordan all the time, but
they love basketball. They would still play basketball even if
they weren't Kobe and Jordan because they love it so much.
They just happen to be the best to ever do it.
(39:29):
But anyone who reaches that elite level, when you look
at people who are successful versus the ones who are
like elite all time, I always say the secret ingredients
because they were passionate about it. They've really had a
true love for it. They weren't in it for the
external sort of accolades or what have you. And we
gotta get I know, we were almost at the end
of the hour. But first of all, when I ask, like, WI,
will you come back another time? Because like I feel
(39:51):
like we should have like a segment called like Henry's
Corner and we can just like pick your brain and
like make that a mainstay of the podcast. I think
I know we would love it. I know our listeners
would love it, and so I'm just throwing that out there.
But I want to ask you and this could it
pertained a Taylor Vanessa and Tea as well, because I
had never had this really firsthand other than the handful
of movies I've done. But when you end up production,
(40:12):
it's like it's bittersweet you did it. But then you know,
let alone like a long running show like Rebels, and
it's I call it sounds my cob, but it's almost
like it's a type of grief, like you're grieving the
end of a show. So I'm wondering for you and
Taylor Vanessa, Tea please chime in as well, like what
was your adjustment post Rebels?
Speaker 1 (40:31):
Like how do you take care of yourself?
Speaker 2 (40:33):
You know, like and especially with as actors, you're putting
everything into the performance. Henry has a writer, You're putting
everything into the words on the page. So how do
you make sure that you're okay when a lot of
times you're writing about characters or being characters that are
not okay? And I think as the holidays approach, I
think that would be a nice note to go on
on in terms of self care and all that good stuff.
Speaker 1 (40:58):
Starting all right, good talk. Yeah, Actually it's always bittersweet.
And I've worked on shows were oh my gosh, like
I only have to do to one more episode or whatever,
but this one one of those is where I think
we all felt like, oh, we're going to probably do
more stuff together and we know it'll be awesome because
(41:20):
everybody feels it. So but I think we've all made
an effort to stay in touch. And you know, whenever
I am working on a new show or whatever, the
people that are on this are always like in my
cast list, you know, on every project. So and by
(41:41):
the way, I needed to ask you about that, like
do I call you directly or do I go to
your agent because some some agents are like a little
like this guy's kind of slumming. I don't know about
this guy. So I feel like we're family. Yeah, I
feel like we're family, and I you know, it's you know,
I think about like, oh, the Henry Gil with players right,
like you know, it's it's you guys are definitely there.
(42:04):
So that's part of it, I think. But when you
say goodbye to the show, yeah, especially when it's been
something that's really like enduring and it's emotional and people
love it, Yeah, you can kind of look back fondly
on it. So I can't think of, you know, any
(42:25):
you know, negatives experience. We just had a we had
we had a blast.
Speaker 6 (42:30):
Yeah. I mean, I want to say thank you for
writing such great dialogue, giving us such cool stories to
bring to life, and for creating amazing characters that we
got to sort of embody.
Speaker 1 (42:43):
It's it's a real treat. So thank you for that.
There's one other thing I'm gonna tell you that I
would change and to season three. I had Sato last
through the the Imperial forces by using like jumping the
light speed he blasted through to clear the way for
the rebels to escape. And I kept pitching it, and
(43:06):
they wouldn't tell me no, and they wouldn't say yes,
and then finally I said, no, you can't do that.
I'm like, why not. They wouldn't tell me until I
saw the Last Jedi. I'm always wondering, Okay, did I
pitch that and then did it get used or I'd
never got an explanation from it because I was I
(43:26):
wasn't able to read the Last Jedi script, but I
was like, oh, now I understand why they wouldn't let
me do it, but or was it already in.
Speaker 5 (43:33):
The script or it was already in the works, and
then you kind of came up with the same ideas,
we can't do that exactly exactly.
Speaker 1 (43:40):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, so that's that's the one thing he
would have lived. No, no, no, he would have it
basically how they call it the Holdo maneuver or whatever. Yeah, yeah,
I sacrifice exactly. You just would have seen Sato do
it a year and a half earlier than it appeared
(44:01):
on screen. That would have been earned.
Speaker 3 (44:04):
Really well yes, sorry, sorry, Can I ask a follow
up question because Vanessa a few episodes back mentioned that
when she and all of the casts were hired and
she held up her Bible that she got, she said
that there was or she remembered there being a seven
(44:25):
year plan and she wasn't sure if it was seven
years of rebels or seven years of Star Wars, and
I'm wondering, can you provide some clarification on that. Was
Rebels always intended to be four animated seasons within this
larger Disney seven year arc or was there plans for
(44:47):
seven seasons of Rebels? Vanessa didn't really remember. It was ambiguous.
Speaker 4 (44:52):
It was never seven. It was that ten year plan.
Speaker 1 (44:56):
Or ten year plan.
Speaker 9 (44:56):
I'm sorry, yeah, but I mean but that that included
many narratives beyond I didn't.
Speaker 1 (45:02):
I didn't.
Speaker 9 (45:03):
I was not confused that Rebels was not supposed to
go ten years, but it was part of a ten
year overall plan.
Speaker 4 (45:09):
But anyway, I don't know if you remember differently, Henry.
Speaker 1 (45:12):
No, I never saw that, and I never I never
saw that there was some compartmentalization, kind of like the
government where you know, games are getting made, and like
the movies that were so worried that people were going
to find out what they were doing. For the movies,
you couldn't. They didn't even send out a script. You
had to go into a room with a kindle, you know,
oh wow, and sign your name of when you read it,
(45:34):
and then you would read it in a room and
then you would hand the kindle back. So there was
like no way, Yeah, totally, there was, like it was
it was very strict just because of the leaks. They
had a huge problems with the leaks anyway. So but yeah,
I never heard that. I never heard the tenure plan.
I do know when they kind of like Disney took over,
they said we're gonna put it out a Star Wars
(45:55):
movie every year, and that was their their you know
plan until Han Solo kind of you know, but also
trying to make them that fast definitely like kind of
hurt the quality too. Yeah, and on that note, no,
so many questions, but I feel like we should save
them for write them down, you know, and and you know,
(46:16):
and if you want to send them so that we
have like discussion areas that you guys want to talk,
I'd love to come back. Thank you again for the invitation.
You know, I love you people, you know.
Speaker 2 (46:25):
So I'm telling you Henry's corner on Potter Rebellion would
be such a hit. And also we did break story
in a prequel story, so we're we'll open that writer's
room up really soon, which I like that story. On
Taylor's new podcast, Call you Guys, if you're paying attention,
it's going to be premiering on Pandora and Vimeo soon,
so just keep your eyes out for that. But Henry,
thank you so much for joining us, and thank you
for being willing to you know, come back. We can't
(46:47):
wait to have you back as we, you know, continue
this journey through Star Wars Rebels and look, as you've
been aware on our show, Taylor has our little outro
and he says, cute the music, but we like to
bestow that onto you today. So will you do this
the honor mister Henry Gilroy and tell JC to cue
the music and get us out of here.
Speaker 1 (47:07):
JC, cue the music.
Speaker 2 (47:13):
Potter Rebellion is produced in partnership with iHeart Podcasts, Producing,
hosted by Vanessa Marshall, Tia Surkar, Taylor Gray, and John
Lee Brody Executive producer and in house Star Wars guru
slash backchecker j C. Reifenberg. Our music was composed by
Mikey Flash. Our cover art was created by Neil Fraser
of Neil Fraser Designs. Special thanks to Holly Frean, Aaron
Kauffman over at iHeart, Evan Krasglorie Willie Morrisondevor Tresa Canobio
(47:36):
George Lucas for creating this universe we love so much,
and of course all of our amazing listeners. Follow us
on Instagram at Potter Rebellion and email ust at Potter
Rebellion Podcasts at gmail dot com
Hosts And Creators
Vanessa Marshall
Taylor Gray
Tiya Sircar
Jon Lee Brody
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