“Star Wars Resistance” Season Two: The Rise of Xiono

“Star Wars Resistance” Season Two: The Rise of Xiono

October 4th, 2019

W.R. Miller

The Star Wars galaxy is in trouble again! The First Order threatens the New Republic, and only a group called the Resistance is willing to stop them. But the Resistance is undermanned. They’re desperate for recruits.

They enlist Kazuda “Kaz” Xiono. That’s how desperate they are.

Kaz is overly-eager, socially awkward, a bit of a klutz. But he’s a capable pilot, and is willing to show he’s got “The Right Stuff.” Besides, he’s endorsed by none other than Poe Dameron, the hottest pilot in the galaxy, and BB-8, the perky little ball droid. Poe flies Kaz to the planet Castilon and its fueling station, the Colossus. There, Kaz tries to blend in with the local spaceship racers and learn what the First Order is up to.

Little does the Resistance know about the Order’s planet-sized superweapon about to fire.

For the role of Kaz, Disney/Lucasfilm recruited an actor from the live-action world: Christopher Sean, star of Days of Our Lives, Hawaii Five-O, and The Lizzie Bennet Diaries. His talents include singing, guitar-playing, and the martial arts.

“Honestly, I was really nervous to step in because it’s Star Wars and I’m the first Asian-American lead of a Star Wars franchise,” Sean says during a roundtable press discussion. “That’s huge. It was a scary thing to do. So I, in my own insecurity, just kind of shelled up a little bit, and they were like, ‘Hey man, you ever thought about taking voiceover lessons?’

“‘I need voiceover lessons?’

“And they’re like, ‘No, let’s just talk to this person, right?’ Mary Elizabeth McGlynn. We worked together and she’s like, ‘Just be you. Have fun. Get in there.’

“And that’s when I was like, ‘All right, I have the freedom to play.’ So I started playing and they were like (snaps fingers), ‘Yes, that’s Kaz. That’s what we want. Be you.’

“Regardless of if you’re on camera or not, that’s the hardest thing to do. But that’s the lesson of life. Learn to love you, and then you can share that love with everyone. Right? Once I started to love myself, I was like (snaps fingers), ‘I’m cast. I’m it.’”

During Season One of Star Wars Resistance, Kaz makes the acquaintance of Tamara “Tam” Ryvora, a mechanic aboard the Colossus. She becomes suspicious of Kaz’s activities and later, joins the First Order.

Sean says, “They [the writers] do a really good job of drawing a definitive line between light and dark side, right? You get to watch people who aren’t force-sensitive in the Star Wars universe take the journey of being good and bad. In the first season Kaz was very selfish. He becomes selfless and as he grows, he’s aware that actions have consequences. Now in Season Two, Tam—who was selfless—becomes selfish and now she has to deal with the consequences of her actions as well as everyone else. She’s putting a lot of people at risk, so it’s really cool to kind of watch both stories grow and unfold.”

Kaz eventually proved he did indeed have The Right Stuff. Alas, he didn’t warn the Resistance in time. At season’s end, the First Order fired the superweapon and obliterated the Hosnian system, which contained the New Republic’s governing worlds. The Colossus—in reality a spaceship—is forced to leave Castilon with an Imperial starship in hot pursuit.

Sean points out, “At the end of Season One, Kaz is a hero. He’s like, ‘No, we got to do this and do that.’ In Season Two, he’s like, ‘All right, so we’re in space. What do we do?’ He’s right back to like the childish-like goofball still making mistakes.

“But you know, it’s cool because he has that goofball side to him. Now he’s got a new layer of being a leader. I’ve got more to play with, more layers to enjoy. So Season Two was just a lot of fun. It’s higher ups and lower lows. So much more at stake, which is what’s great about it. Now we’re all aware of who the characters are. It’s no longer introduction to character. Now it’s introduction to adventure, right?”

Alas for Kaz and the Resistance, Season Two is also the last season, ending just prior to Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker.

“We’re told that it’s going to be a series finale, and it’s a perfect place obviously for the culmination of our story because it’s the sequel trilogy. We end with The Rise of Skywalker in December. It’s perfect, you know? But rather than thinking of an arcing story, I just want to live in the moment as best as I can,” Sean says.

“I don’t really think too much about how it’s going to end because the writing dictates that. The writers do such a wonderful job, and it just kind of guides you and naturally progresses that way. Really the stakes get so big that, if you thought Season One was tough, [Season Two] gets crazy. It does.”

With Disney/Lucasfilm expanding the Star Wars franchise in films, TV and the Disney-Plus streaming service, does Christopher Sean see his character going into live action?

“That would be a dream,” he says. “It would be something you hope for. You always would love for a character to live on, but I’m honestly grateful for what we have and to be a canonical part of the Star Wars family. I mean, what more could you ask for, right? Outside of being live action, like, but no … I’m very honored to have gotten everything that we have. And to ask for more is almost selfish.”

But if Star Wars advances beyond The Rise of Skywalker, Kaz Xiono would conceivably appear in those adventures.

“Yeah. I hope so, and he might put on some muscle. I’m ready for it,” Sean says.

In a separate roundtable discussion, I asked the show’s executive producers whether the Star Wars Resistance characters have a destiny beyond Rise of Skywalker.

“It’s a good question,” Athena Cortillo says. “I always see opportunity for having backstories told on each of these characters, whether it’s in the parks, the games, and the publications.”

Brandon Auman adds, “The decision was to wrap it up by the time we have Rise of Skywalker. So it was like this complete thing. But we’re always open to—like Athena’s saying—prequels or, or if Lucasfilm ever wanted to do these characters in the future. We’re open to anything. We love these characters. We want to see them in different media, if it’s comic books, novels, video games, another animated series in the future. Who knows?”

“So Christopher Sean could play Kaz in a live-action,” I point out.

“Heck, yeah!” Auman says.

“That’d be awesome,” Cortillo says.

At this point Christopher Sean is leaving another table of reporters and is crossing the room.

“Would he be into that?” Auman teases. “I don’t know.” Everybody laughs and Auman calls out to Sean at the door. “Did you give him 20 bucks? You gave him 20 bucks, didn’t you? You slipped him a 20.”

Christopher Sean grins broadly and we share another laugh, and Auman continues: “But yeah, I mean, hey, that’d be fantastic. We would love that. Christopher Sean would definitely love that.”

We laugh.

Who knows? Always in motion is the future.

Star Wars Resistance, Season Two with 19 half-hour episodes, premieres Sunday, October 6 (10:00-10:30 p.m. EDT/PDT), on Disney Channel and DisneyNOW, with subsequent airings on Disney XD.

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W.R. Miller

W.R. Miller - known informally as “Bob” – has written for Starlog, Comics Scene, Animation Magazine and Animation World Magazine. Bob has been involved in animation for two decades, as a writer, character animator, special effects animator, and storyboard artist - For more information about Bob, check his website: http://wrmilleronline.com/.

He has just completed Batman: The Animated Interviews, a five-volume work featuring the executives, producers, directors, writers, actors, designers, storyboard artists and composers involved with the making of Batman: The Animated Series and its spinoffs. BearManor Media is the publisher.