Freddie Prinze Jr. Says He Did Not Want To Reprise 'Rebels' Role For Other 'Star Wars' Projects

Actor Freddie Prinze Jr. was not happy about having to reprise his role as Kanan Jarrus in other "Star Wars" projects.

When Kanan Jarrus met a grisly fate in the animated series "Star Wars: Rebels," Freddie thought that he was done with the character once and for all... until they had him return for another animated series, "Bad Batch," and the 2019 film "The Rise of Skywalker."

In a May 2023 interview on The Big Thing podcast, Freddie Prinze Jr. talked about his history of “Star Wars” with host Kristian Harloff. Kristian asked Freddie what it was like to reprise his role as a younger Kanan Jarrus in the first season of “The Bad Batch,” saying, “You did do stuff with [Bad Batch’ in the beginning, that first season.”

“I was, yeah,” Freddie admitted. “I didn’t necessarily want to. I feel like every time you hear Kanan’s voice since ‘Rebels’ ended, it really kind of dilutes his impact.” Although Kanan made an emotional sacrifice in “Rebels,” it seems he is still alive in the Force, and is one of the voices that can be heard when Rey (Daisy Ridley) defeats Emperor Palpatine for what fans hope to be the last time.

When Freddie said that he “didn’t necessarily want to” come back to do “The Bad Batch,” Harloff asked, “Episode IX included?” Freddie replied, “Yeah, I didn’t want to do that either. I was asked as a favor and I feel like all their favors are used up now.”

It sounds like Freddie Prinze Jr. might have some bad blood with Lucasfilm, given that he didn’t want to return to reprise his character in “The Bad Batch” or “The Rise of Skywalker.” He also revealed that he had no plans to reprise his role as Kanan for the "Star Wars" series "Ahsoka," although it will feature the return of many other "Rebels" characters.

Three years ago, Freddie Prinze Jr. explained how Lucasfilm pulled off the different voiceover cameos in an interview with Extra TV. He explained that voice actor Matthew Wood was doing sound design, while director J.J. Abrams broke down the scene for him and gave him a speech to read.

"They called me and asked if I was down to do some Kanan stuff and I’m always down to help out my family over there. And I went in and Wood was doing the sound design. He’s also the voice of every droid, from that, ‘Roger, Roger.’ That’s Wood,” Freddie explained. “And it was just him in the room.”

“And then JJ [Abrams] came in, and kind of broke down the scene, said what was going on, and I’m pretty sure that we all read the same speech, and then they just kind of pulled what they wanted from that speech,” he explained, referring to the different voices that can be heard during the scene.

Freddie went on to say, "And they didn’t tell anyone like who was gonna get in and who wasn’t. They just wanted to have a bunch of different Jedi, so I’m sure there were some other voices in there as well that may not have made it. But I didn’t even know until the movie came out.”

At Star Wars Celebration London, Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy brought Daisy Ridley on stage to confirm that Rey would be making a return in another film set in the Skywalker Saga. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly after the event, Kennedy confirmed that the new film will focus on Rey trying to rebuild the Jedi Order fifteen years after the fall of the First Order.

“As we move into the future space — this story is about 15 years outside of The Rise of Skywalker — obviously we realized post-war, post–First Order rise of the New Jedi Order, we left episode 9 with Rey making a commitment to Luke Skywalker that she would rebuild the Jedi Order,” Kennedy said.

“And so here we are — we're ready to do that. And it took a lot of discussion because obviously we've been developing stories in different spaces, and television has been a big focus of our attention right now,” she continued. “But there's still so much interest in what happens after The Rise of Skywalker. So we're excited to be doing that.”

So far, Rey is the only character from the sequel trilogy confirmed to return, but Kennedy teased, “It’s entirely possible to see some people come back.” Given his previous statements, it looks like Freddie Prinze Jr. is unlikely to make another cameo appearance.