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Cape Town – The Force returns to television when the latest saga set in that George Lucas galaxy, Star Wars: Rebels, kicks off on Saturday on Disney XD (DStv 304) with a special double episode at 09:20 – and it is well worth following.
The latest Star Wars series, an animated, weekly half hour series similar to predecessor series Star Wars: The Clone Wars will continue to delve further into the decades old space adventure filled with Jedi, Wookies, droids and an evil emperor intent on taking over the galaxy.
Star Wars: Rebels – like The Simpsons meant for kids but working extremely well on multiple levels for older viewers and adults – continues to colour in, explore and explain in finer details the events, reasoning, backstories and characters alluded to but never fully explained in the Star Wars movies.
(A disturbance in the force is emerging in Gauteng. Just spotted in Soweto, the Star Wars Rebels are uniting! We’ll bring you more news as we get it. Don’t tell the Empire! #StarWarsRebelsSA. © Disney)
The latest series takes place after Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and in-between the movies Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, and five years before Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope where Luke Skywalker appears for the first time.
It’s a dark time for the galaxy but with the remaining Jedi’s now in hiding and the evil Empire starting to take over, Obi-Wan Kenobi warns in a recorded holocron message in the first episode: “In time, a new hope will emerge”.
The new Star Wars: Rebels with a first season of 16 episodes and already renewed for a second, follow the adventures of the homeless boy Ezra Bridger who meets up with a motley crew in a Millennium Falcon-ish starship travelling through the galaxy, trying to stay one step ahead of pursuing Imperial Stormtroopers.
The Empire, bent on eradicating the Jedi, is on their trail since Kanan, leader of the pack, is a renegade Jedi.
Viewers can look forward to guest appearance of famous Star Wars characters; the droids R2-D2 and C-3PO for instance show up in the third episode, and Billy Dee Williams will voice Lando Calrissian who will appear.
Disney XD on DStv is rolling out Star Wars: Rebels at the same time as the rest of the globe, much quicker than the more than a year viewers had to wait to watch seasons of Star Wars: The Clone Wars on Turner’s Cartoon Network, finally doing justice to the finely crafted continuing stories set in that galaxy far, far away.
