The Star Wars Resistance crew talks timeline, diversity, and character motivations

There’s no doubt Kazuda’s journey will be challenging and there’s a few people along the way who won’t make it easy for him at all, like Tam Ryvora, a resourceful and skilled technician.

“She’s promised some things and she’s a hardworking girl. And then he comes in and breaks things and takes things and it’s like ‘Whoa, hold on. This is my territory.’ I think there’s a little struggle there,” expressed McGrath when talking about Kazuda and Tam’s relationship. “So often, I feel that Tam is observing him, rolling her eyes, like ‘What are you doing?’ But I think it’s those moments that get her because it softens you. He is such a lovable character, so I think that happens to us anyway, but that happens to Tam. I’m excited for you to see how their relationship unfolds.”

As for Tam’s own background and personal challenges, she’s experienced a series of unfortunate events time and time again. While that has shaped her as a character, it’ll also be what makes her extremely relatable to the audience.

“Tam aspires to be a pilot. She’s very hardworking, and she actually left her home planet of Kuat to be a famous racer, fell on some hard times, crashed her plane, and has found herself on the Colossus,” she said and that’s where Tam is trying to build herself back up again. The question is will she get back up into the sky and fulfill her lifelong dream? Only time will tell.

Another character who works on the Colossus is Orka, a Chadra-Fan voiced by Bobby Moynihan. Orka works alongside Jim Rash’s character, Flix, and both provide parts and equipment to the pilots — for a price, of course.

“This for me was a very completely different thing,” Moynihan said as he started talking about Orka and his audition for the character. When he first read for the part, he thought he was reading his own Star Wars fan fiction because the world seemed so familiar. “I also didn’t know anything for a very long time. I didn’t see the character [and Jim Rash’s character] till right before we recorded,” he added.

When he voices Orka, Moynihan’s voice drops to a lower tone and becomes more gravelly. The inspiration partially came from Moynihan thinking his character was going to be partnered with the adorable puffin-inspired bird from The Last Jedi.

“They showed [the character art] to us for a second and moved it away. When I first saw Flix, I thought he was a porg. So for months, I was like ‘My partner is a porg?!’ And I was mad and not in a bad way, I like the porgs,” he said, but the initial reaction helped him develop a low rumble of annoyance in his character’s voice and that’s how Orka’s voice came about.

While Flix and Orka work in the depths of the Colossus, other characters soar through the sky, like Hype Fazon. Voiced by Donald Faison, Hype is one of the fastest pilots on the Colossus, and there’s no doubt he loves being the center of attention.

That said, a war against the First Order is brewing on the horizon. It’s at that point in time when the fame and glory will have to take a back seat. The question is this: does Hype have it in him to be a Resistance fighter?

“Well, he’s the best pilot on the platform,” Faison emphasized. While that is true, it doesn’t necessarily make him a good team player, especially for something like the Resistance. Take, for example, Dameron’s solo stunt and the ensuing battle against the First Order at the start of Star Wars: The Last Jedi. We tried to extract his opinion on whether Hype was cut out for the Resistance, but Faison gave us the classic “We will find out.”

At a later point in the conversation, however, he described Hype as misunderstood and added, “His character will go through things that make him way more human than he is. Right now, what you see from him is the introduction, the pilot, the cocky fighter pilot. You’ll learn more about him and how he is with other people.”

The truth is we look forward to learning more about all of these characters as well as the journey they’re about to embark on soon.

The one-hour series premiere of Star Wars Resistance, “The Recruit,” will debut on Sunday, October 7, on the Disney Channel at 10 p.m. ET/PT and DisneyNOW.