This extended trailer for STAR WARS REBELS will ignite a rebellion! Plus, we've watched footage from the show!

Yesterday, Nick and I attended Disney’s annual content showcase, where Walt Disney Company South Africa’s country manager Christine Service took us through the House of Mouse’s slate of upcoming movies, TV series and entertainment endeavours, including showing us snippets of previously unseen footage from some of the biggest upcoming films. Yes, that includes The Avengers: Age of Ultron and Ant-Man. Yes, we will tell you more about that later (Patience, young padawan!).

One of the other things we got to see though (apparently we were of the first in the world to see this), was a short clip from Star Wars Rebels, the upcoming animated series which bridges the gap between the events of the Star Wars prequel trilogy and the original trilogy. While the clip – which merely consisted of heroes Hera (Vanessa Marshall), renegade Jedi Kanan Jarrus (Freddie Prinze Jr.) and their trusty but overworked droid Chopper, engaged in a dogfight with several Imperial TIE Fighters – wasn’t long enough to give us a proper grasp on any major story details, it give a definite impression of tone.

Now when I first heard of Star Wars Rebels, and specifically that it would be airing on Disney XD (as opposed to Cartoon Network where Clone Wars aired), I was rather worried that Disney was going to try and push too hard to appeal to a new, younger audience, and in so doing alienate the older fans like myself. But based on this clip, I am happy to report back that while there were plenty of gags, and Chopper is probably the most comically animated of all the Star Wars droids seen thus far, I never felt like this was aimed squarely at kids. It’s never too grim and serious to bore the young’uns, nor too silly and goofy for the old fogeys.

And that’s also the exact same feeling I get from this great new extended trailer, which now includes footage of Obi-Wan Kenobi announcing the fall of the Republic and the Jedi, and which sets the tone for the next 2-minutes and a bit worth of Star Wars action (around the 0:28 and 1:40 marks you can glimpse snippets of the scene we saw).

The Jedi have been wiped out and the Empire spreads tyranny through the galaxy. Hope runs thin. But on the small planet of Lothal a big change is looming. A group of rebels meet a 14-year-old con artist named Ezra and soon it’s clear their destinies are linked. Aboard their ship, the Ghost, Ezra and the rebels embark on an adventure to ignite a rebellion and strike back against the Empire.

Before the clip I saw yesterday and this new trailer, I wasn’t really feeling the buzz for this show, but now this has definitely become something I will keep my eye on.

Star Wars Rebels also stars the voice talents of Taylor Gray, Steve Blum, Tiya Sircar, Jason Isaacs, David Oyelowo and Billy Dee Williams. The series is set to premier on Disney XD in October.

Last Updated: July 23, 2014