Star Wars Rebels Showrunner Teases More Force Awakens Connections

In an interview and extended look at the Star Wars Rebels Season 2 midseason trailer, showrunner Dave Filoni confirmed many of the connections we made in the three minutes of footage. He addressed many of the Star Wars: The Clone Wars connections, and teased some less-obvious Star Wars: The Force Awakens connections.

Of course, there's the crossguard lightsaber that Ezra is seen holding - with green blades, not red - that calls to mind Kylo Ren's in the big screen adventure. But what about that energy beam shooting out of the Sith Temple?

"History repeats itself. There are always these ideas in Star Wars about power, control, and might. This wouldn't be the same thing as Starkiller Base, but you're picking up on the visual similarities, which I think strengthens the mythology," Filoni said of the energy beam to EW.

That may be emitting, in some way, through or from the red kyber crystal we see just before it in the trailer. Filoni said the crystal, and the Sith temple, was actually going to make an appearance in The Clone Wars, originally. The temple is underground, and appears to be where Ezra finds that crossguard saber.

Filoni also confirmed that those yellow lightsaber wielding men in white are Jedi Temple Guards, and they are real - not just some Force vision. That certainly puts a major wrinkle into things, and should be interesting to see how their presence affects our other Force users on the show.