The fourth episode of Star Wars Rebels, “Rise of the Old Masters,” was a big one, in which Kanan (and the audience) were led to believe Luminara Unduli, a Jedi from the Clone Wars era – and featured on several episodes of Star Wars: The Clone Wars – had survived, albeit as a prisoner.

Star Wars Rebels: "Rise of the Old Masters" Review

Of course, it was all a ruse – a rather twisted trap, where Luminara’s mummified corpse was all that truly remained, as the Inquisitor planed to lure surviving Jedi like Kanan to their deaths via the hope of rescuing one of their own kind.I spoke to Rebels executive producer Dave Filoni about this twist in Rebels, what exactly Kanan and Ezra saw when they entered the cell and Luminara appeared before them and more… including an intriguing mention of The Clone Wars’ Ahsoka Tano.

It's a trap! A sad, twisted trap...

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I was going to say, some people were like, “Why is Luminara alive!?” They were very upset about it. I was thinking like, man, people just don’t think we pay attention to any continuity. They just want to jump down your throat.Absolutely. It became an interesting way also to tell the story of what probably happened to some Jedi Knights, Jedi survivors. Order 66 didn’t wipe them all out. Some of them were captured and probably executed later, which is what you see the holographic recording of. It’s actually Luminara’s execution in that chamber. She’s used for a very nefarious purpose. It was kind of a nice way also to tie to the prequel era to use Luminara. A lot has been made of our ties to the original trilogy, but I am not a Star Wars fan that would ever ignore the prequel trilogy. Let’s face it, it’s been my bread and butter for the last decade. I love the prequel era. So it’s important to show, as much as how the Empire built up, what it destroyed and it destroyed a lot of these characters and they got caught up in it. Luminara was a really good lure. We wanted a character that you would know, that kids who had watched Clone Wars would probably actually know. That’s why she got picked over other Jedi. We talked about the continuity of it, that she was dead, and it works out fine, actually. It’s just a really active way of telling the story of the end of some of the other prequel Jedi and that Kanan would believe some of them are alive is actually also really interesting - and that he knew Luminara, but not really, is also a believable thing. I love that story. It was just a matter of how effective we could make it.Literally, what you see in that hologram, is her sitting, waiting to be executed. It’s a recording of that event. So when they walk in and see her, they’re actually standing where the Inquisitor was standing [when it was recorded]. And so when she walks up and looks at them kind of distantly and not very friendly, she’s looking at the Inquisitor and that’s what the recording is of. Then she steps over into that chamber and obviously she gets killed there. It’s really wicked when you think about it. The material of her body is the essence that Kanan is somehow sensing through the Force. But he knows there’s something off about it. But since he didn’t really know Luminara, he doesn’t really know. That’s one of the interesting things about death and then the dark side and all these different ways you can use the Force. The sensing of people is one of the biggest dilemmas, I think, in all of Star Wars, because people want to use it like a metal detector. I am very, very certain that it really just relates to how much you know somebody and intention of threat. You take those two things and combine them. So of course when Obi-Wan arrives in the Death Star, Anakin knows about it. Obi-Wan’s intentions are fairly clear, what he wants to do. He even, I think to some degree, knows he’s going to face Vader. And they knew each other so well, they were so close. It’s like a battering ram.I had a really interesting conversation once with George [Lucas] about sensing the Force. It was in regards to… Well, it would have been in regards to Ahsoka. It was an old talk he and I had at one point about Ahsoka and Darth Vader and what she would think of that whole situation… but we’ll have to leave that for another time.A little good tease there. Not that she’s around! …Who knows where she is? [Laughs]That’s kind of a wait and see scenario. For a Sith like Palpatine, he’s so aware of Siths taking out other Siths. He can’t really have a lot of force wielders around. Though he has this new inquisitor running around, but that’s nothing new in the way that he had Ventress running around or Dooku. It’s a manageable level of chaos for Palpatine at all times and I think that there would be Jedi that could serve purpose for him. Honestly, we’ve even discussed in our own continuity how he was using Pong Krell, the Jedi warlord in the Clone Wars. He was completely satisfied to let him wreak havoc among the clones for his own needs until he destroyed himself. So Palpatine’s always playing a game and moving pieces on the board. I would imagine that coming out of the prequel era -- fans might not believe this, but I think it’s true -- that there were some Jedi that were so effected by the Clone War that they would try to barter their life for loyalty to the dark side. I don’t think it’s out of the question. I think it’s perfectly in play, though we haven’t done that at this point. Mostly because it gets into kind of gray areas and I worry we’d have to be very clear about why and who is doing that.Barriss Offee in some ways was a walk into that on Clone Wars. The funny thing about Barriss is how right she is about it all and yet she still gets convicted… but not killed, evidently. So we’ll have to see. There’s so much in play but I guess the answer is that they might not all have been killed. We’ve shown the Sith, Palpatine, up to really nefarious things as far as stealing children and children of the Force, using now a dead body and Luminara. I mean who knows what other crazy plan that Palpatine has to lure more Jedi to their deaths?

Eric Goldman is Executive Editor of IGN TV. You can follow him on Twitter at @EricIGN , IGN at ericgoldman-ign and Facebook at Facebook.com/TheEricGoldman