Star Wars Rebels season 4 will have a new franchise alum on its voice cast this year, as confirmed by Dave Filoni. Warwick Davis, best known as Wicket from Return of the Jedi, will voice an assassin named Rukh, who’s also a bodyguard for Grand Admiral Thrawn.
For those of you not caught up on the expanded universe, Rukh has actually been around in the Star Wars lore since Timothy Zahn’s Heir to the Empire in 1991. He was a Noghri warrior who became incredibly loyal to the Empire when learning of their efforts to restore his planet, Honoghr.
He was also a Death Commando under Palpatine until Thrawn hired him as a bodyguard nine years after the Battle of Yavin. A deadly, stealthy warrior who has gone toe to toe with Luke Skywalker, it’ll be interesting to see how Rebels adjusts Rukh’s role to the new canon.
Major spoilers for Heir to the Empire to follow….
Those of you more familiar with the expanded universe will recall that Rukh ultimately kills Thrawn himself after learning that the Empire was responsible for his planet’s ruin. His eventual fate wasn’t revealed until years after The Last Command in Specter of the Past, but it’s doubtful there’ll be much ambiguity considering the shift in the timeline for the show – assuming they decide to redo this storyline, that is.
Either way, it’s great to see some of the best of the expanded universe characters getting their due in Star Wars Rebels and we look forward to hearing Davis bring Rukh to life when season 4 premieres this fall on Disney XD.