October 1st, 2019 
W.R. Miller 
What if you learn a friend has lied to you? What if they oppose your political beliefs? What if your political leader asks you to join them? Would you do it?
Would you join … the First Order?
This is the situation for Tamara “Tam” Ryvora, mechanic and pilot for the interstellar fueling depot, Colossus. In Season One of Star Wars Resistance, Imperial Agent Tierny convinces Tam to join the First Order and leave the Colossus. In Season Two, Tam deals with the consequences of her decision—including the betrayal of her former friends. Now a stormtrooper cadet, she has been given the designation DT-533.
“We were really interested in following Tam’s storyline,” says head writer and executive producer Brandon Auman. “That excited me the most because we don’t really get to see many good guys go to the side of evil. We’ve seen evil go to the side of the good, even with a thin, thin storyline, but this is a great way to kind of flip it and then we get to spend more time with the First Order, which I think a lot of fans wanted. Not just fans of our show but just fans of the movies in general. They want to know more about the First Order.”
Tam Ryvora is the first voiceover role for Suzie McGrath, English-born veteran of EastEnders on BBC One, now a Los Angeles resident. During a Disney press event on September 25, McGrath discusses the journey of her character.
“We had that whole year to explore our characters until we did get used to the momentum of the show and then it got really, really, really thrilling towards the end,” she says. “Diving back into Season Two, everyone was heading into the unknown. You’ve got the Colossus hurtling through space and then Tam, with the First Order, just not knowing [the destruction of the New Republic] … I think there was definitely a spirit of excitement.”
Now that the show has reached its one-year anniversary, what has Suzie McGrath’s experience with fans been like?
“I got to go to Star Wars Celebration in April,” she says, “and that was so much fun and it’s one of the best experiences because you spend so long creating the project and you’re in a bubble, and you can’t tell anyone. Then I got to be released and we could spread our wings and actually meet fans. Which is one of the best feelings possible because people are telling you how they feel about your character. Or ‘Nooo, why did you do that?’
“They love Star Wars and it means so much to them, and how your character has affected them in a positive way, was really interesting for me. And very kind of heartwarming and humbling and a great experience. Seeing so much cosplay, it’s a lot of fun, you know?”
But, now that Tam has joined the First Order, what does McGrath think the fan reaction will be?
“Some people will find it fun and interesting and intriguing,” she says. “Then I think some people are like, ‘Nooo, why would you do that? They’re the bad guys.’ And my response is just, ‘This is it. It just panned out; it wasn’t planned and it just happened because of the circumstances.’ And you know, the First Order is very persuasive and very manipulative. And we saw how easily she was led and taken away and went, ‘Bye, guys!’”
As the season begins, Tam has yet to learn the First Order has obliterated the solar system with the governing planets of the New Republic.
“I can’t say to you that Tam knew,” McGrath says. “We saw Kaz and Torra see that. And that was obviously huge for Kaz because he lost everything and I believe the scenes with Tam was in and out of conversation, being manipulated, eating with Agent Tierney. I’m assuming that she didn’t see that.”
This raises another question: Once Tam learns the First Order has wiped out an entire solar system, will she renounce them?
McGrath answers in general terms: “In the second season, she’s with the First Order, so she’s going to be seeing things we have yet to see, you know, what Tam will experience and how she is going to toil with leaving her friends and family, being in a new place and then discovering who she’s with and what they’re doing. That’s the interesting part.”
Brandon Auman’s response is, “Not necessarily. I mean you think in general about war and how people get behind certain ideologies. They’ll justify, even in this day and age, certain ideologies that are insane. We thought that anybody who gets indoctrinated and then starts getting convinced, they will get behind some crazy ideas, you know?
Executive producer and supervising director Justin Ridge adds, “Tierny is a very manipulative, very smart First Order leader, right? So she knows what to tell Tam, what not to tell Tam, so that she can get her on the First Order side. She knows that Tam is hurt and there’s a window of opportunity for her to bring her on their side.”
“Tam believed that the First Order was fine,” explains the show’s third executive producer, Athena Cortillo. “Like in Season One, she was the one constantly defending them to Kaz. She’s like, ‘They’re here to protect us from the pirate raids. They’re good people.’ And that’s what she believes.”
“So they might have spun it in a way where it’s like yeah, of course, that needed to be done, basically,” Ridge says.
“It’s also interesting just because so much of Star Wars has been kind of driven from the Rebel perspective,”Auman says. “That is, we come into it with an assumption that the Rebels are good; the Empire is bad. But it’s interesting at the same time, fans have also spent decades saying, “Well, is the Empire that bad? And certainly there are people in the universe that don’t have that perspective, so it’s just a type of story …”
“It’s a complicated thing,” Justin Ridge says.
“It’s fun to get to see that side, too, in Season Two, a slice of life inside the Star Destroyer from Tam’s perspective, [Jace] Rucklin’s perspective and other characters. You don’t get to see that, day-to-day,” Athena Cortillo points out.
“Definitely from Season One to Season Two you see Tam do this full arc, and I’m sure that in Season Two we’re going to see her take a journey through that as well,” Suzie McGrath says. “It’s very rewarding because you’re telling a slice-of-life small story in a much bigger story during the events of The Force Awakens and [The Rise of Skywalker], which is really cool.”
Star Wars Resistance, Season Two with 19 half-hour episodes, premieres Sunday, October 6th (10:00-10:30 p.m. EDT/PDT), on Disney Channel and DisneyNOW, with subsequent airings on Disney XD.
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.
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