Kanan Jarrus (born Caleb Dume) is a character in the Star Wars, voiced by Freddie Prinze Jr. He is featured as one of the Protagonist of the animated series Star Wars Rebels (2014–2018) and related works. His Force spirit also appears as a disembodied voice in the film (2019), while a young Caleb Dume makes appearances in the seventh season of (2020), (2021) and Tales of the Jedi (2022).
In the Star Wars universe, Kanan is a Jedi Padawan who survived the Great Jedi Purge after his master, Depa Billaba, sacrificed herself to save him.[Filoni, D., Lucas, G., & Corbett, J. (2021, May 4). Bad BAtch/Aftermath. Bad Batch. episode, Disney Plus.] From that point onwards, Kanan lived most of his life on the run, hiding from the Galactic Empire, before eventually meeting Hera Syndulla and joining the Ghost crew as its de facto leader. Although he initially keeps his The Force abilities hidden from his comrades, he re-embraces his Jedi role after meeting Ezra Bridger, whom he begins training in the Jedi arts, while also attempting to complete his own training and become a Jedi Knight. Later, Kanan and his crew join the Rebel Alliance to assist them in their fight against the Empire. While Kanan ultimately sacrifices himself to save his friends, his legacy lives on through their memories of him, as well as his and Hera's son, Jacen Syndulla.
Creation and development
Concept
Executive producer
Dave Filoni describes the character as a "cowboy Jedi". Animation supervisor Keith Kellogg said: "He is a Jedi but he's not a Jedi in the traditional sense that we've had before on the show. He's a little more rough around the edges. He's kept his
lightsaber locked away, so he hasn't used it in a long time."
After being blinded, Kanan has been compared to the
Star Wars Legends character
Rahm Kota from
, another blinded Jedi,
which led
Pablo Hidalgo from the Lucasfilm story group to say on
Twitter that both characters were inspired by
Zatoichi.
Filoni compared Kanan to
Gandalf from
The Lord of the Rings. The character's name was inspired by Kanan Dume Road in Malibu, California.
Prior to auditioning, Prinze was unaware that he was about to audition for a Star Wars series; he only learned of this immediately beforehand in the studio parking lot, when an unknown "legendary voice actor" informed him what he was actually auditioning for. Although Disney originally did not want Prinze in the role, Filoni disagreed. Prinze was officially hired later that day.
During the development of the second season, the character was originally slated to be killed by Darth Maul in the episode "Twilight of the Apprentice." However, Disney objected to the idea, as they thought that the character should be in "every episode" of the series.
Voice acting
Kanan is voiced by Freddie Prinze Jr. in
Star Wars Rebels,
Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker, and the episode "Aftermath" of
Star Wars: The Bad Batch.
He is also voiced by
Michael Benyaer in the micro-series
.
[ Lego Star Wars: Droid Tales, episode "Mission to Mos Eisley". Disney XD. 2015. On-screen credits.]
Appearances
Animated series
Star Wars Rebels
Kanan first appears in a short film released prior to the series, "The Machine in the Ghost", and his voice is heard in another one, "Entanglement". In the two-part series premiere "Spark of Rebellion", Kanan is introduced as the de facto leader of the crew of the
Ghost, a Rebel starship, who mostly operate on their own and try to survive. Although he never finished his own Jedi training, Kanan sees great potential in young
Ezra Bridger of Lothal, and decides to train him as his own Padawan. In the season 1 finale "Fire Across the Galaxy", Kanan, who was captured by the Empire, is rescued by Ezra. Kanan then fights and defeats the Grand Inquisitor, before he and the rest of the
Ghost crew are invited into the Rebel Alliance, now that the Empire has become aware of the threat they represent. In "The Siege of Lothal", the two-part premiere of season 2, Kanan survives an encounter with
Darth Vader,
while in "The Lost Commanders", he initially finds it difficult to trust the clone trooper
Captain Rex, because clones had murdered his master, Depa Billaba, as well as most other Jedi, in obedience to Order 66.
In "Shroud of Darkness", Kanan is promoted to the rank of Jedi Knight following a series of adventures in the Jedi Temple on Lothal. In "Twilight of the Apprentice", the two-part finale of season 2, Kanan travels with Ezra,
Ahsoka Tano, and the astromech droid Chopper to the
Sith world of Malachor in hopes of finding the knowledge they need to defeat the Sith. There, they encounter the former Sith Lord
Darth Maul, posing as a frail hermit, who has been left stranded on the planet for years. Though seemingly friendly at first, as he helps the three Jedi defeat a trio of Imperial
Inquisitorius, Maul ultimately betrays them and escapes after blinding Kanan with his lightsaber.
In season 3, a Force-sensitive creature called the Bendu mentors Kanan in the ways of Force-sight. Kanan still participates in Rebel missions, with his mastery of the Force compensating for his blindness, but he takes a less active role in leadership. In the two-part episode "Ghosts of Geonosis", Kanan meets Saw Gerrera, the leader of an independent Rebel group, much like the Ghost crew prior to joining the Rebel Alliance.
Despite his death, Kanan makes minor appearances in most of the remaining episodes. In "Wolves and A Door", while passing through the hyper tunnel on Loth-wolves, the remaining Spectres see several illusions of Kanan and hear his voice, like many others, such as the Grand Inquisitor, Hera, Ezra, Ahsoka and Zeb Orrelios. He appears later on in the same episode in Hera's imagination. She imagines him as a Force ghost comforting her. In the following episode, "A World Between Worlds", Kanan's voice is heard in the World Between Worlds by both Ezra and Ahsoka multiple times, until he finally appears through a portal. Ezra makes up his mind to save him and goes to the portal that depicts Kanan's final moments. Ahsoka stops Ezra from saving Kanan, telling him that he intended to sacrifice himself and interfering with it would allow the fuel explosion he caused to kill Ezra and most of the Spectres via the grandfather paradox. Though reluctant to do so, Ezra allows Kanan to go on with his sacrifice. The ending of the series finale "Family Reunion – and Farewell", set after the Battle of Endor, shows both Kanan and Hera's young son Jacen Syndulla, and a mural on Lothal painted by Sabine, which depicts the Ghost crew, including Kanan.
Forces of Destiny
Kanan is briefly mentioned by Ezra in the episode "A Disarming Lesson".
The Clone Wars
A young Caleb Dume makes a
cameo appearance in the episode "Old Friends Not Forgotten" of the final season of
, in which he is shown as a hologram alongside his master,
Depa Billaba, during a meeting with other Jedi.
The Bad Batch
A young Caleb appears alongside Depa Billaba in the premiere episode of
, "Aftermath", with Prinze reprising his role. While on a mission with the Bad Batch on Kaller, Order 66 is activated and Caleb witnesses
killing Billaba, who orders him to run. He defends himself from Bad Batch member Crosshair before Hunter, the leader of the Bad Batch, lets Caleb escape.
Tales of the Jedi
A young Caleb makes a non speaking cameo alongside Depa Billaba in the episode "Practice Makes Perfect" of
Tales of the Jedi, They are seen watching Ahsoka's training in the Jedi Temple and they are later seen walking past Anakin and Ahsoka.
Film
The Rise of Skywalker
Kanan is heard in
as one of the Jedi spirits who encourage Rey to defeat
Palpatine. He tells Rey that "In the heart of a Jedi lies her strength."
Novels
On September 2, 2014, Del Rey Books published
, a prequel novel telling the story of how Kanan and Hera met.
Comics
The comic-book
Kanan ran for 12 issues from 2015 to 2016, and was published by
Marvel Comics. The series is set during the events of the first season of
Star Wars Rebels and focuses on Kanan Jarrus having flashbacks to his time as a Jedi Padawan (when he was known by Caleb Dume).
Two story arcs were produced each ran for six issues, the first arc,
The Last Padawan, focused on flashbacks which occur around the same time as
, showing where Kanan was during Order 66. The events of Order 66 in the comic were later retconned in
The Bad Batch.
The flashbacks of the second arc,
First Blood, focused on how Kanan was assigned under Depa Billaba's mentorship, as well as his first battle alongside clone troopers during the Clone Wars. It features an appearance from Rae Sloane, a character from the novel
Star Wars: A New Dawn,
as well as one from Fenn Rau, a
Mandalorian character who would later appear in
Rebels.
Lego
Lego Star Wars: Droid Tales
Kanan appears in the
episode "Mission to Mos Eisley", which adapts his role in the
Rebels first-season episode "Droids in Distress".
Video games
Kanan also appears as a playable character in several
Star Wars video games, as described below:
First half of the series
The following games depict Kanan as he appeared during the first two seasons of
Rebels.
-
Kanan is a premium character in the now-defunct game Star Wars Rebels: Recon Missions, released by Disney Mobile on iOS, Android and Windows Store, a side-scrolling, run-and-gun platform game. He has the ability to deflect blaster bolts from a stationary position.
-
Kanan is represented as Chuck, the yellow bird in Angry Birds Star Wars II, in its Rebels level set.
-
Kanan is a collectible add-on character for the toys-to-life video game Disney Infinity 3.0.
-
Kanan is one of the several bonus characters available as downloadable content for , as part of the Star Wars Rebels character pack.
Second half of the series
The following games depict Kanan as he appeared at the start of the third season, in which he is coping with the loss of his sight.
-
Kanan appears in the mobile game MOBA as a summonable unique assistant for any Light Side squad led by Ezra Bridger, and was available on the game's initial launch in early 2017.
-
Kanan is a collectible, playable character added to the mobile turn-based role-playing game in a special Rebels-themed update during the game's second year of operation. He is classified as a tank that disrupts enemy offense, taunts and grants protection to allies.
-
Kanan is one of the several bonus characters available as downloadable content for as part of the Star Wars Rebels character pack.
Reception
Relationships
External links
