Star Wars Rebels Season 3 Will Have Thrawn, Reveal Wedge's Origins And Possibly Maz Kanata
The cartoon steps it up.
If you're not watching Star Wars Rebels, you probably will be soon; they constantly seem to be upping their game. The panel for the Disney XD was an unexpected delight of Star Wars Celebration, with so many cool reveals that the only way it could be more fan pleasing is if Dave Filloni and co. actually transported the crowd on the Celebration Stage to the galaxy pre-A New Hope.
The panel itself was hilarious, with FIlloni, Tiya Sicar (Sabine) and Sam Witwer (Maul and Palpatine) incredibly quick witted and fielding every question from host Warwick Davis with a perfect balance of humour and tease, while the clips they showed off made clear the show has visually matured.
But the highlight was a new trailer that showed so, so, so much. There's origins of Wedge Antillies, who in the new canon is a former TIE pilot (similar to Biggs then), the introduction of the Bendu (a word that comes from the early name for Jedi), a spiritual being that exists between the Light and Dark Side of the Force (furthering the show's alteration of the mythology), a ship oddly like Dash Rendar's Outrider (from Shadows Of The Empire), and Maul mixing a Jedi and Sith holocron (something that's loaded with symbolism, although the undoubtable biggest was Thrawn.
Yes, as has long been rumoured, Grand Admiral Thrawn is coming to Rebels, played by Lars Mikkelsen (Mads' brother), as a major, tactical antagonist to the band. And it'll hardly be surprising to learn that the Stage exploded at the sight of the Chiss Imperial, almost as loud as it was for the reveal of a certain Dark Lord yesterday. Even more exciting, however, TImothy Zahn (who wrote Heir To The Empire, which introduced and established Thrawn) appeared on video to announce he was writing a new book with the character, titled Thrawn, that will coincide with the show.
Of course, this will technically be a different Thrawn - Heir To The Empire is now non-canon, so this is more an adaptation and open for interpretation. To whit, not in the series are the Ysalamiri, Thrawn's Force-blocking lizards, nor Mara Jade; a fan asked if Luke's wife would appear, something that got a resounding no. Excitingly, with other points Filloni was less definite; he left open the possibility of Maz Kanata appearing, coyly stating it was something he'd already considered at the end. Now that would be awesome.
Star Wars Rebels is back on 30th November 2016.