5 Best Moments in Star Wars Rebels Mid-Season 3 Trailer

The Mid-Season 3 trailer for Star Wars Rebels is here, and it’s a doozy. The show rockets forward, with major developments for most of the main characters, and the introduction of even more elements from the live-action films.

The integration between Rebels and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is natural, for instance, as they both deal with the Rebel Alliance still in its nascent stages, albeit about three years apart at this point.

With so many thrilling moments, it’s difficult to narrow down to just five, but here are the ones that should make Star Wars fans excited for the future of the series.

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Rogue One Connections

Fans who watch Star Wars Rebels and lined up ready for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story have been waiting for some tangible connections between the two, and in this second half of the season, they’re getting them. Saw Gerrera, as previously announced, is in the first two episodes of the returning season 3, voiced by Forest Whitaker. Mon Mothma appears, and speaks of an actual alliance, leading the charge on bringing all these rebel cells together. There’s also the fearsome Death Troopers, this time protecting Grand Admiral Thrawn. It’s a fun group of connections, and likely only the start.

Grand Admiral Thrawn to Arms

Grand Admiral Thrawn has been patiently lying in wait for months, but it looks like he’s done waiting and ready to kick some Rebel ass. We see Thrawn firing a blaster in this trailer, as well as training in hand-to-hand with some scary looking Imperial battle droids. That can’t be easy on the hands. More important, though, is the change in his dialogue and rhetoric.

“They revealed their meager defenses, and it’s exactly this moment I’ve been waiting for.”

“We will show the galaxy what happens to those who dare speak against the Emperor.”

By the Force, he’s terrifying.

More Epic Space Battles

The space battles look like they’ll be intensifying once again in Star Wars Rebels Season 3. The growing Rebel Alliance is going after the Empire – or maybe it’s vice versa. In fact, it seems like the Rebels are running from the Empire in most of the ship-to-ship fights. Also notable, we see the new TIE defender model, taken from Legends stories, make its debut after the blueprint was shown in the first half of the season.

Mandalore!

This almost could have been “five reasons we’re excited Star Wars Rebels is going to Mandalore,” if we’re being honest. The scenes focus around Sabine Wren returning home. They meet who is presumably her mother, and Sabine wields the darksaber, her birthright, as Kanan teaches her how to fight with a laser sword. Interestingly, we see her challenging the Mandalorian Gar Saxon in a battle in the trailer – but he has the darksaber and she has Ezra’s lightsaber. Hopefully that doesn’t mean anything too terrible for young Ezra Bridger.

Old. Ben. Kenobi.

The closing moments of the trailer are jump up and down clapping and screaming moments. Yes, that’s Old Ben Kenobi on Tatooine. Obi-Wan Kenobi exiled himself to the Outer Rim planet both to be as far from the core of the Empire as possible and to look after young Luke Skywalker, trying to keep him safe and hidden. Now, here he is, looking much closer to Sir Alec Guinness than Ewan McGregor, living his solitary but peaceful life (and now voiced by Stephen Stanton).

That is, until his old enemy Darth Maul shows up. Lightsabers ignite and… well we have to wait for the rest. Still, that’s enough to get any Star Wars fan going, and ready for the second half of the season, kicking off this weekend.