Star Wars Rebels Offers Up A Four-Minute Sneak Peek
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Moving forward, everything Disney and Lucasfilm produce is going to be a part of the official Star Wars canon, and the first piece we’re going to get is the upcoming animated series Star Wars Rebels. Okay, the novel Star Wars: A New Dawn (which tells the story of how two of the Rebels crew first comes together) is first up, but reading is hard. Though we’re still a few months off from seeing this, we now have another sneak peek of the series.
Set in the “Dark Period” that falls between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, Rebels tells the story of the seeds of what will ultimately become the Rebel Alliance of the original trilogy. As the Galactic Empire tightens its grip on the galaxy, pockets of rebellion appear, including the one featured in Rebels.
This video, presumably, comes from fairly early on in the proceedings, as young con artist Ezra Bridger, who just so happens to be gifted in the ways of the Force, gets to know the rest of the gang. Some, like the trigger-happy street-artist Madalorian Sabine are more welcoming than others, like the big, tough Zeb, who isn’t particularly happy to have an extra passenger around. Ezra doesn’t appear to be quite a prisoner, but you don’t get the impression that he’s exactly free to leave any time he wants. We’ll have to see how this shakes out. The rest of the team includes cowboy Jedi Kanan, laying low in the aftermath of Order 66; badass pilot Hera Syndulla at the controls of the ship called the Ghost; and Chopper, the sassy little astromech droid in the R2-D2 mold.
This gives Ezra, and viewers, the chance to get to know everyone and figure out what this crew is all about. You also get the distinct impression that it isn’t going to take long for him to join the fray, like he may never leave. No fan of the Empire, he’s not one to stick out his neck and cause trouble, much like Han Solo, but you can tell that it won’t be long before he starts to care, or at least admit he cares. This is destined to be the surrogate family that he no longer has, if he ever did to begin with.
You also get an idea what this team is all about. They’re not quite thieves, not quite bandits, but there’s definitely an air of freedom fighter to them. That’s readily apparent as they set about embarking on a mission to rescue a bunch of enslaved wookiees from their chains.
As much as I’m not a fan of the style of animation, Rebels continues to look and feel like something that is very much Star Wars. The series premieres on October 3 on Disney Channel, with an hour-long special entitled “Spark Of Rebellion.” A little over a week later, on October 11, it will make its way over to its forever home on Disney XD.
