Rogue One’s Death Troopers Come to Star Wars Rebels

The Death Troopers are a fearsome squad of soldiers of the Empire who are tasked most often as elite special forces protecting the higher-ups of the Imperial military. The black-armored stormtroopers first appeared on the big screen in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story as the personal unit and bodyguards of Director Orson Krennic, head of the special weapons development division of the Empire.

Now, we’ll see them protecting another high-ranking official, Grand Admiral Thrawn on Star Wars Rebels. While they’re only in a couple of seconds of the Rebels Mid-Season 3 trailer, their presence spells bad news for the Rebels. Remember, these are the elite of the elite in the stormtrooper ranks – how’d it work out for the Rogue One crew, right?

This sort of interconnectivity between the show and the film universe is helped along by the Star Wars Story Group, brought together to help keep the world cohesive across all mediums. One member of the Story Group, Pablo Hidalgo, also helped flesh out the details of this cool-looking new brand of stormtrooper in the book “Star Wars: Rogue One – The Ultimate Visual Guide.” In the book, he divulges that the death troopers were symbolicly named by the Emperor after “a rumored project from the Advanced Weapons Research division, designed to animate necrotic flesh” or in layman’s terms, a zombie project. That’s a callback to the Legends version of “Death Troopers,” who were in fact zombie stormtroopers.

While these ones aren’t actually zombies, they are fearsome warriors, a little taller, a little stronger, and a little more deadly. Their advanced armor and proficiency in guerilla tactics make them an even – or higher – match for the Rebels’ fighting style. In other words, where these troopers go, death follows, and that’s bad news for the nascent Rebel Alliance.

Star Wars Rebels returns with a special two-part episode featuring Saw Gerrera from Rogue One (voiced by Forest Whitaker, who plays the role in the live-action film) titled “Ghosts of Geonosis,” airing on Disney XD Friday January 7.

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