‘Star Wars Rebels’ Boss Confirms Major ‘Rogue One’ Character Won’t Appear

The link between Star Wars Rebels and Rogue One grew even stronger with the latest Season 4 trailer, but don’t expect to revisit everyone. Showrunner Dave Filoni confirms a major figure from the Empire won’t appear, despite getting a shout-out in the new footage.

Even as we know Rebels won’t take us directly through the events of Rogue One (in which “General Syndulla,” Chopper and The Ghost were present), the latest Season 4 trailer overwhelmingly nodded to the Death Star’s construction. Grand Moff Tarkin was heard to mention Ben Mendelsohn’s Director Krennic and the “Stardust” project, while the presence of Forest Whitaker’s Saw Gerrera and Jedha companion Two-Tubes similarly nodded toward a major discovery.

All the same, Entertainment Weekly spoke to Filoni after the trailer’s release, confirming that Krennic wouldn’t actually appear (neither will Mendelsohn lend his voice, by extension):

[Just] name-dropping. It’s always fun to make it feel like it’s part of this big world … But the cape alone would be half my budget, just to make it flow.

That said, Filoni might potentially have hinted at the presence of Darth Vader or Emperor Palpatine in elaborating on Krennic’s absence:

I was imagining a shot with Vader and Krennic and the Emperor, but it’s like having a cape convention with those guys. Then you have Tarkin and Thrawn, and it starts too look like a Legion of Bad Guys. When you get too many bizarre Star Wars villains together, I don’t know if it works for me.

Star Wars Rebels will premiere its fourth and final season on Monday, October 16, so watch the trailers again below and stay tuned for the latest.