Kanan Jarrus

Executive producer Dave Filoni describes the character as a "cowboy Jedi". Animation supervisor Keith Kellogg said: "He is a Jedi but he's not a Jedi in the traditional sense that we've had before on the show. He's a little more rough around the edges. He's kept his lightsaber locked away, so he hasn't used it in a long time."[1] After being blinded, Kanan has been compared to the Star Wars Legends character Rahm Kota from Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, another blinded Jedi,[2] which led Pablo Hidalgo from the Lucasfilm story group to say on Twitter that both characters were inspired by Zatoichi.[3] Filoni compared Kanan to Gandalf from Lord of the Rings. In regards to the charcter's death in the episode "Jedi Night" of the fourt season of Star Wars Rebels, Filoni felt this was a natural end to Kanan promising he will see Hera again before being blinded and said: "In that moment he's not bound as this material thing that the physicality of sight would be a limitation to him." While sketching storyboards for Kanan's death, Filoni became reluctant to kill the character, but Prinze, who "was resolute about the fact that his character needed to die" since the beginning of the series, encouraged him to write the scene.[4]

Kanan is voiced by Freddie Prinze Jr. in Star Wars Rebels, and by Michael Benyaer in the micro-series Lego Star Wars: Droid Tales.

A young Caleb Dume makes a cameo appearance in the episode "Old Friends Not Forgotten" of the final season of The Clone Wars, where he is shown as a hologram alongside his master, Depa Billaba, during a meeting with other Jedi.[5]

Kanan first appears in a short film released prior to the series, "The Machine in the Ghost", and his voice is heard in another one, "Entanglement". In the two-part series premiere "Spark of Rebellion", Kanan is introduced as the de facto leader of the crew of the Ghost, a Rebel starship, who mostly operate on their own and try to survive. Although he never finished his own Jedi training, Kanan sees great potential in young Ezra Bridger of Lothal, and decides to train him as his own Padawan. In the season 1 finale "Fire Across the Galaxy", Kanan, who was captured by the Empire, is rescued by Ezra. Kanan then fights and defeats the Grand Inquisitor, before he and the rest of the Ghost crew are invited into the Rebel Alliance, now that the Empire has become aware of the threat they represent. In "The Siege of Lothal", the two-part premiere of season 2, Kanan survives an encounter with Darth Vader,[6] while in "The Lost Commanders", he initially finds it difficult to trust the clone trooper Captain Rex, because clones had murdered his master, Depa Bilaba, as well as most other Jedi, in obedience to Order 66.[7] In "Shroud of Darkness", Kanan is promoted to the rank of Jedi Knight following a series of adventures in the Jedi Temple on Lothal. In "Twilight of the Apprentice", the two-part finale of season 2, Kanan travels with Ezra, Ahsoka Tano, and the astromech droid Chopper to the Sith world of Malachor in hopes of finding the knowledge they need to defeat the Sith. There, they encounter the former Sith Lord Maul, posing as a frail hermit, who has been left stranded on the planet for years. Though seemingly friendly at first, as he helps the three Jedi defeat a trio of Imperial Inquisitors, Maul ultimately betrays them and escapes after blinding Kanan with his lightsaber.[8]

In season 3, a Force-sensitive creature called the Bendu mentors Kanan in the ways of Force-sight. Kanan still participates in Rebel missions, with his mastery of the Force compensating for his blindness, but he takes a less active role in leadership. In the two-part episode "Ghosts of Geonosis", Kanan meets Saw Gerrera, the leader of an independent Rebel group, much like the Ghost crew prior to joining the Rebel Alliance.[9] In "Trials of the Darksaber", Kanan trains Sabine Wren in lightsaber combat.[10] Season 4 portrays Kanan and Hera as being in a relationship, and at some point they conceive a child together.[11] However, Kanan soon dies in the episode "Jedi Night" while rescuing Hera from Imperial captivity. He regains his eyesight moments before being consumed in an explosion, after containing the blast long enough for Hera and the rest of their group to escape harm.

Despite his death, Kanan makes minor appearances in most of the remaining episodes of the season. In "Wolves and A Door", while passing through the hyper tunnel on Loth-wolves, the remaining Spectres see several illusions of Kanan and hear his voice, like many others, such as the Grand Inquisitor, Hera, Ezra, Ahsoka and Zeb. He appears later on in the same episode in Hera's imagination. She imagines him as a Force ghost comforting her. In the following episode, "A World Between Worlds", Kanan's voice is heard in the World Between Worlds by both Ezra and Ahsoka multiple times, until he finally appears through a portal. Ezra makes up his mind to save him and goes to the portal that depicts Kanan's final moments. Ahsoka stops Ezra from saving Kanan, because then they would all die and because he had found the moment when he was needed most and did what he had to do for everyone. Though reluctant to do so, Ezra ultimately lets the blast consume Kanan. The ending of the series finale "Family Reunion and Farewell", set after the Battle of Endor, shows both Kanan and Hera's young son Jacen Syndulla, and a mural on Lothal painted by Sabine, which depicts the Ghost crew, including Kanan.

Kanan is briefly mentioned by Ezra in the episode "A Disarming Lesson".

Kanan Jarrus (voiced again by Prinze) is heard in The Rise of Skywalker as one of the Jedi spirits who help Rey defeat Palpatine. He tells Rey that "In the heart of a Jedi lies their strength."

In September 2, 2014, Del Rey Books published Star Wars: A New Dawn, a prequel novel telling the story of how Kanan and Hera met.[12][13]

The comic-book Kanan ran for 12 issues and was published by Marvel Comics, the series is set during the events of the first season of Star Wars Rebels and focuses on Kanan Jarrus having flashbacks to his time as a Jedi Padawan (when he was known by his real name Caleb Dume).[14] Two story arcs were produced each ran for six issues, the first arc The Last Padawan focused on flashbacks which happened at the same time as Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith showing where Kanan was when Order 66 happened and the clone troopers betrayed and killed most of the Jedi, including his Jedi Master Depa Billaba. While the second arc First Blood flashbacks focused on how Kanan was assigned under Depa Billaba's mentorship, as well as Kanan's first battle along clone-troopers, in the Clone Wars, where he made a friendship with a clone trooper, it features an appearance from Rae Sloane a character from the novel Star Wars: A New Dawn,[15] as well as one from Fenn Rau a mandalorian character who would later appear in Star Wars Rebels.[16]

Jarrus appears in the third episode of Lego Star Wars: Droid Tales.

Kanan Jarrus also appears as a playable character in certain Star Wars video games, as described below:

The following games depict Jarrus as he appeared when the series first began.

• Jarrus is a premium character in the now-defunct game Star Wars Rebels: Recon Missions, released by Disney Mobile on iOS, Android and Windows Store, a side-scrolling, run-and-gun platform game. He has the ability to deflect blaster bolts from a stationary position.
• Jarrus is represented as Chuck, the yellow bird in Angry Birds Star Wars II, in its Rebels level set.
• Jarrus is a collectible add-on character for the toys-to-life video game Disney Infinity 3.0.
• Jarrus is one of the several bonus characters available as downloadable content for Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens, as part of the Star Wars Rebels character pack.

The following games depict Jarrus as he appeared at the start of the third season, in which he is coping with the loss of his sight.

• Jarrus appears in the mobile MOBA Star Wars: Force Arena as a summonable unique assistant for any Light Side squad led by Ezra Bridger, and was available on the game's initial launch in early 2017.
• Jarrus is a collectible, playable character added to the mobile turn-based role-playing game Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes in a special Rebels-themed update during the game's second year of operation. He is classified as a tank that disrupts enemy offense, taunts and grants protection to allies.