If there is one thing Dave Filoni loves when it comes to Star Wars, it is taking a character from the animation medium and translating them dutifully over into live-action media.
And is that any real surprise? While the guy is now the co-lead of Lucasfilm and a frequent writer, director, and creator of live-action Star Wars materials such as The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, and Ahsoka, he got his start in animation. He worked on the first season of the much beloved Avatar: The Last Airbender prior to being recruited by George Lucas himself to spearhead the first fully CG Lucasfilm Animation series, The Clone Wars.
From there, he went on to have a hand in numerous other animated Star Wars projects, including Rebels, The Bad Batch, and even the recent Maul – Shadow Lord. Within those shows, Filoni got to play with plenty of established Star Wars mainstays like Anakin, Obi-Wan, Darth Maul, and Yoda, but he also had a hand in creating dozens-upon-dozens of new characters within the franchise.
Meet Zeb Orrelios
As such, when it comes to the current crop of live-action Star Wars media, all of which is now being overseen by Filoni, there’s a lot of animated characters crossing over into the live-action realm. The most recent example of this comes in the form of Zeb Orrelios in The Mandalorian and Grogu.
Zeb is a Lasat who became a part of the rebellion in the years leading up to the Battle of Yavin, after seeing the atrocities of the Empire first-hand. The Empire attacked his home world of Lasan, and carried out a very nearly successful total genocide, pushing his species to the brink of extinction.
Upon joining the rebellion, he became a crew member aboard the Ghost, working alongside rebels such as Kanan, Sabine, Hera, Ezra, and Chopper. Their adventures were covered within Filoni’s animated series, Star Wars: Rebels.
Somewhat bizarrely, every other member of the Ghost crew actually made the jump to live-action in Filoni’s first season of Ahsoka several years ago. Heck, there was even a posthumous in-picture cameo from the now deceased Kanan.
But Zeb wound up being the one not invited to the party, and it would appear that it was at least partially because Filoni and director Jon Favreau had other plans for him involving The Mandalorian.
Because actually, The Mandalorian and Grogu won’t be Zeb’s live-action debut; that happened during the third season of The Mandalorian TV series, where he appeared for a brief cameo as a New Republic pilot. While there’s every chance that he was working for Hera, who is a leader within the New Republic at this point in the timeline, audiences haven’t actually seen Zeb interact with any of his old pals in any capacity in live-action, and his appearance in this new Star Wars movie doesn’t seem poised to change that.
So what exactly is Zeb doing in The Mandalorian and Grogu? From the marketing thus far, its easy to discern that he is helping Din Djarin and Grogu fight back against and escape from the Empire in some capacity, but everything else is fairly unclear.
Will this film set up Zeb’s inevitable reunion with the Ghost crew in Filoni’s own Ahsoka season 2? I would say almost certainly, but we will have to wait and find out for certain.
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