‘The Mandalorian’ surprises fans with an unexpected ‘Star Wars Rebels’ cameo

This article contains spoilers for The Mandalorian season 3, episode 5

As of this episode of The Mandalorian, things are finally beginning to look up for Din Djarin’s covert. After months spent living in a cave on a monster-infested planet, they now have a new home on Nevarro, with Greef Karga and his people forever in their debt after they liberated them from a brutal pirate attack.

Beyond Din’s crew, there’s also a glimmer of hope for the Mandalorian people, with Bo-Katan tasked to unite the various groups scattered across the galaxy with the aim of retaking Mandalore. The final moments of the episode raise some questions about whether every Mandalorian can be trusted, but it was nice to see them score an objective win.

Along the way, the episode took us to a New Republic base, where we casually encountered a major Star Wars Rebels character we haven’t seen in years. This was Garazeb Orrelious, better known as Zeb, a Lasat rebel who manned the Ghost. The Lasat homeworld of Lasan was devastated by the Empire, causing him to take up arms against major players like Admiral Thrawn, Darth Maul, and Darth Vader himself.

Fans are surprised but delighted to see him in live-action – and still voiced by Steve Blum:

We always like to hear Blum’s voice:

Yup, it’s him:

A bit of a flex from Dave Filoni to have him casually stroll into a scene:

Let’s get the gang back together:

A lot of time and care was clearly put into making Zeb look good in live-action, so we suspect this may indeed be a teaser that he’s going to turn up in Ahsoka. With that show featuring Hera Syndulla, Ezra Bridger, and Ahsoka Tano herself, it’s looking more and more like a direct sequel to Rebels, so we’re anticipating more teases to come.

We also wonder whether Rebels is going to tie into the mysterious disappearance of Moff Gideon. Sure, the fragment of Beskar on the destroyed Lambda Shuttle indicates Mandalorian involvement, though there’s one villain who’s a master of misdirection that could have planted it there.

So, Grand Admiral Thrawn? We hope so, and we’re looking forward to seeing the pieces fall into place in upcoming episodes.