Is Billy Dee Williams Lending His Voice To 'Star Wars: Rebels?'

When it comes to the original cast of the Star Wars trilogy, most of them give up information pretty easily. Be it Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford or Anthony Daniels, each has said or done something in the past year suggesting they're going to return to the Star Wars universe, even though nothing is official. Now add Billy Dee Williams to the list.

Williams recently appeared at Rhode Island Comic-Con and mentioned he was about to do a new project for Netflix. He then said it was called "Rebels," but couldn't talk about it. The upcoming animated series Star Wars: Rebels isn't going to be on Netflix, so maybe he misspoke. Or maybe he's actually doing a show on Netflix and got the title wrong. Or maybe he's joining Star Wars: Rebels. Either way, it's a fun little mystery. Dig deeper below.

JediNews first reported on a tweet about Williams and Rebels, but then Bleeding Cool uncovered the actual audio at Anime Herald. You can listen below. The quote in question comes at about 40 minutes.

As you can hear, after Williams says he's going to do a pilot for Netflix, calls it "Rebels", says he can't talk about it, someone asks if its Star Wars: Rebels and the moderator quickly says "No!" There are a few options here:

  • Billy Dee Williams is lending his voice to Star Wars: Rebels on Disney XD.
  • Billy Dee Williams is lending his voice to a Netflix show not related to Star Wars
  • Billy Dee Williams is joining a Netflix Star Wars based show.
  • Billy Dee Williams is doing a Netflix show and Star Wars Rebels.
  • Billy Dee Williams had a few too many Colt 45s.
  • I tend to believe #2 is the answer here. However, a Star Wars based show on Netflix isn't out of the realm of possibility. Disney and Marvel recently teamed up with the provider to develop five original shows from those characters, so who is to say they won't be doing similar for Star Wars? But I think it's #2 because this whole discussion would never have happened if the word "Rebels" didn't slip out of his mouth. If Williams was to get either of the proper nouns in that exchange correct, I'd say "Netflix" is the one he'd get right.

    Star Wars: Rebels, which will premiere on Disney XD in 2014, follows a group of young kids who rebel against the Galactic Empire after Star Wars Episode III and eventually form the Rebel Alliance. Lando Calrissian would surely be alive in that time frame, would he not? Appearing in this show makes as much sense for the character than possibly popping up in Episode VII.

    What do you think about all this?