Star Wars Rebels' Biggs Appearance Was Cut For A Surprising Reason

screenrant.com:

Biggs Darklighter was nearly the guest star of a Star Wars Rebels episode, but he was ultimately cut due to one of the Star Wars saga’s most famous deleted scenes. Biggs Darklighter is a Tatooine native and Luke Skywalker’s childhood best friend, who joined the Rebellion and became a talented pilot in their Starfighter Corps. Rebels initially planned to tell the story of how he joined the Rebellion but replaced him with Wedge Antilles and Derek “Hobbie” Klivian, who are similarly well-known Rebel pilots.

In Rebels season 3, episode 4 “The Antilles Extraction,” Sabine Wren goes undercover in Skystrike Academy, assisting three prospective Imperial TIE Fighter pilots in their defection to the Rebel Alliance. Although Rake Gahree dies in the process, Wedge and Hobbie escape the Empire and go on to become some of the Rebellion’s best pilots. Wedge and Hobbie were founding members of Rogue Squadron, and while Hobbie dies in the Battle of Hoth (unlike his Legends counterpart), Wedge continues to fight against tyranny throughout his life, serving as a gunner aboard the Millennium Falcon during the Battle of Exegol.

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“The Antilles Extraction” was initially going to be titled “Darklighter,” and Biggs would have taken Hobbie and Wedge’s place as an Imperial defector. This would have caused a continuity snarl, however, as Darklighter’s dialogue in A New Hope’s Tosche Station deleted scene establishes that he joined the Rebellion only shortly before the Battle of Yavin. Rebels’ showrunners consider the deleted scene to be canon, so they replaced Biggs with Wedge and Hobbie, whose backgrounds fit the episode much better.

While Hobbie and Wedge’s respective backstories were