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A Star Wars Legends character’s epic return in Rebels

By Neil Harrington

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Another Legends creation joins the fun within the Star Wars canon storyline, in Rebels season four.

When the trailer for Rebels season three dropped last year at Star Wars Celebration, the entire galaxy far, far away was left floored.

Grand Admiral Thrawn was welcomed back into the fold, a move that fans are most grateful to the story group at Lucasfilm. Chills, upon nostalgic chills, shivered down the spines of fans across the galaxy.

Pablo Hidalgo, Dave Filoni, and company were not done, by adding one of Thrawn’s “allies,” which we meet in the latest episode of Rebels.

Who remembers Thrawn’s “loyal” bodyguard Rukh from the Legends days? The Noghri warrior is back better than ever, who is more than a formidable foe for the members of the Ghost crew.

Speaking of Hidalgo and Filoni, those gurus give us more in-depth details on bringing Rukh back to life when they caught up with Andi Gutierrez and the latest Rebels Recap.

Filoni revealed the reasoning for this foe’s debut within the show:

"Once you start with Thrawn, it kind of sets off some dominoes. We needed another character that was not a force wielding character."

Now on to Pablo Hidalgo, who provides a bit of a history lesson on this creepy character.

"The Noghri are very honor based. They’re the size of Jawas, but they are like deadly… The key thing that they had in the books is this incredible sense of smell. They could actually pull your lineage by sniffing you. They could figure out what your bloodline is."

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If you listen carefully, you might recognize the voice behind Rukh, which is none other than Star Wars veteran Warwick Davis. The seasoned pro jump-started his career by portraying the Ewok Wicket in Return of the Jedi, then went on the play other obscure characters in many of the Star Wars movies throughout the years.

I had the honor of seeing Davis host the Rebels panel at the 2017 Star Wars Celebration, who was very playful with the audience. His presence and skill displayed in season four of the show are a perfect addition to an already star-studded cast.

Back to Ruhk, who is a very dangerous pawn in Thrawn’s hand. In the Thrawn trilogy, he betrays his master — where the Chiss’ last words are: “But … it was so artistically done.”

Can we expect a similar fate for Thrawn in Rebels? Doubtful, but with Ruhk in the mix now, who knows what that slimy Noghri will have up his sleeve.

Next: 50 Most Memorable Moments from Star Wars Rebels

Star Wars Rebels season four is in full stride, where it can be found Monday nights at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT on Disney XD. 

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