Now that Star Wars Rebels has come to an end, the creative team behind the animated series is revealing its greatest secret. Throughout the four seasons of Rebels, fans have theorized about the voice behind Chopper, the C1-10P droid that was with the rebels throughout their fight against the Empire.
As seen in the credits after the series finale, Chopper is voiced by none other than co-creator and executive producer Dave Filoni–oftentimes the public face of the series at conventions and fan events. Speaking to a group of fans after a special screening of the series finale, Filoni explained why he decided to come clean about his other job as a voice actor. “Show’s over, so it was kind of then or never,” he jokes.
How did Filoni end up voicing one of the show’s starring roles, though? As it turns out, a temporary fix became permanent. “I wound up playing Chopper, I’ll tell this short story because we had to deliver the first short to Disney to watch and we didn’t have a final Chopper voice. And I said, ‘Alright, I’m going to just do this.’ We did it right in the editorial in Lucasfilm,” he says. “I knew what a likable jerk is like and what I wanted him to be like. Then when we screened it, [Disney boss] Bob Iger said, ‘I really like that little droid.’ And I was like, ‘Well, now I’m stuck.'”
Of course, voicing a fan-favorite character like Chopper isn’t a bad thing. As Filoni explained to his cast at the screening, “It’s good because it gets you used to what you guys go through as actors. It helps me understand what you need to know.”
Thus ends one of the biggest secrets in the Star Wars franchise. Interestingly, though, there was one person outside of the show’s inner-circle that knew it was Filoni all along–a young fan. “A little tiny child asked me who played Chopper and I absolutely told her the truth,” he says. “She never said anything… Kids are smart that way, they make promises and they keep it. That’s why they get Star Wars.”
