In a huge coup for Star Wars Rebels, it’s been announced that the feature-length finale of the TV show will boast Ian McDiarmid returning to his role as Emperor Palpatine.
Though the character has appeared in the show before (as an unseen hologram that Darth Vader spoke to), he was voiced by Sam Witwer, who had previously voiced the role in The Force Unleashed video game. But, in this climactic appearance, the Emperor is being brought to life by the real deal, in his first appearance as the character since 2005’s Revenge of the Sith. Exciting, right?
Even better, we can already hear him in the part in the trailer above, which previews the remaining seven episodes of the series. It also tells us that Rex’s clone companions are all set to return, along with stalwarts like Mon Mothma, Yoda and (what might be) a blink and you’ll miss it flashback to Anakin Skywalker as a Jedi. Either way, it looks as if Rebels is set to go out with a bang. It’s a well-deserved bang at that, with the show nicely weaving together disparate parts of the Star Wars universe while managing to both support and largely stay out of the way of its cinematic cousins.
We expect a million voices to cry out in terror when the series finally wraps up, though hopefully it shouldn’t be too long before we learn what Disney are replacing it with. Current rumors say that we’ll be seeing what happens between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens. Given that The Last Jedi cleared up a lot of the mysteries of The Force Awakens, this makes sense to me, and should give fans that much-craved backstory on Supreme Leader Snoke and the rise of the First Order.
Star Wars Rebels will return on February 19, 2018 and will air every Monday on Disney XD. Will you be tuning in? Take to the usual place and let us know!