Star Wars Rebels Returns With a Bang This Weekend
It’s no secret that we love Star Wars Rebels. We love the thrilling storytelling, the excellent design work (harkening back to the original development art from the first film), and the well-placed Star Tours references. Most of all we love that it feels (really feels) like the original trilogy. We also love that the series will be coming back this weekend, on Disney XD, for a special primetime event, before the second season starts in earnest this fall. (This is the first new episode since early March.)
The special episode, entitled “The Siege of Lothal,” starts off with the titular Rebels engaged in full-on combat against the Empire. They’re part of a Rebellion squadron, facing off against a massive fleet. And what’s more – they’re pulling it off. It’s a thrilling opening sequence that will make you think back to the dogfights of previous movies (particularly the original Star Wars).
Still, it’s not like the crew of the Ghost is agreement about their new place in the galactic struggle; Kanan doesn’t want any part of it. He openly protests, saying that he would prefer his Robin Hood-like quest to rob from the Empire and give to the needy over actual combat. “I survived one war, I’m not ready to join another,” he grumbles. Considering how brutal (and downright deadly) this episode is, it’s hard to argue with his thought process.
Also of note is a larger role for Darth Vader, once again voiced by James Earl Jones. Continuing with the graphic design approach of the rest of the series, this Vader is modeled more after the Ralph McQuarrie designs for the character, with an elongated mouth piece and more almond-shaped eyes. It’s a striking image, both new and familiar, and a perfect microcosm for what makes Star Wars Rebels so enchanting in the first place. It reminds you of the stories you know and love while pushing those same characters and concepts into different landscapes and scenarios. This Darth Vader is just as scary and intimidating and there’s a wonderful fight sequence between Vader and Kanan and Ezra that really got our heart pumping.
Without giving too much else away, there is also a cameo appearance from Lando (voiced once again by Billy Dee Williams) and the introduction of Lando’s honky-tonk robot (designed after an early C-3PO sketch) and some great stuff with Ashoka Tano (Ashley Eckstein) that gracefully bridges the gap between the Star Wars: Clone Wars series and Rebels. But our favorite part might be the implication that Lothal, the small, mostly agrarian planet that a majority of the first season was centered around, might be of more importance to the Empire than original thought. If we had one problem with the first season, it was that the scope of the series felt occasionally stifled by the fact that it was largely relegated to this single planet. But the fact that the planet does have a potentially mysterious connection to the Empire makes that lone complaint drift away like Tattooine sand in a windstorm.
By the end of the extra-long episode, you’ll be even more invested in our Rebels and their plight and even more eager to see where their adventures will take them next (even if it means being stuck on Lothal). This episode establishes a new paradigm for the series, taking it to an altogether place that inches it, even closer, to the classic Star Wars trilogy while still remaining true to its established tone and style. The wait between now and the fall, when new episodes will resume, is going to be rough.
