Rebels Report From Comic-Con: This IS The Trailer I've Been Looking For!

Comic-Con is upon us!  There's lots of cool stuff being discussed but the most exciting thing to me at the moment is Star Wars Rebels.  Remember how I was hoping that we would get a really great Comic-Con Rebels trailer in the same vein as the epic Clone Wars trailers?  Well, my wish was granted!

A day or so before the event kicked off in San Diego, a different trailer was released to the Internet.  It featured a lot of stuff we had already seen before in previously released clips...but there was a couple new surprises.



Well, well, look who's decided to make an appearance!  None other than Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, with James Arnold Taylor reprising his role as the iconic character.  Remember in Revenge of the Sith when Obi-Wan recorded and sent out a warning message from the ravaged temple to Jedi who had survived Order 66 to stay away from Coruscant and go into hiding?  This is that message, and it's so awesome to finally see it.  Also cool to see that holocron...does it belong to Kanaan, something he managed to take from the temple during his escape from Coruscant?

Despite the bits of new video, this trailer had me a little disappointed.  It felt more like a Saturday morning cartoon commercial.  But THIS newer trailer, shown as a surprise at the official panel, is AWESOME.  Any doubts I had about the show are pretty much wiped away.



The visuals are absolutely incredible; every single frame really looks like a Ralph McQuarrie painting.  I also think Zeb just became my favorite character.  It was a toss up between him and Hera, but his awesome sarcasm completely won me over.  And how about one other interesting tidbit: Luminara Unduli lives!  Is she really alive, or is it a trap for the Rebels?  I hope she's alive...I would love to hear her perspective on her padawan's fall from grace, and find out what she's been up to since the Jedi Purge.

Apparantly three other clips from the show were also shown to the fans, but I unfortunately can only find two of them.  I love the bizarre big brother/little brother relationship that Zeb and Ezra seem to be developing.





The Inquisitor's lightsaber is really sweet.  I also couldn't help but notice his sharp front teeth; it really made him much scarier looking than  in posters and videos we've seen him in before.

Of course, it wasn't all just video clips; there was plenty of panel discussion as well.  Check out the live blog of the Rebels panel at StarWars.com for tons of other great details about the show.  I gotta say, I love everything I'm reading!  I love the amount enthusiasm from the voice actors, and I love the amount of care and detail that the crew have put into making the show.  Check out these great interviews below with producers Dave Filoni and Simon Kinberg and voicce actors Freddie Prinz Jr. and Vanessa Marshall, who voice Kanaan and Hera, respectively.





It was also confirmed that the series will be airing in October, though no specific date has been revealed.  And in addition to the main panel, there was also a special screening of the first hour long special episode of the show, and reviews have been very positive.  Check out these reviews from MakingStarWars.net and IGN.com. And don't worry, they are spoiler free!

Also be sure to check out the live blog at StarWars.com for details on the new novel "A New Dawn", which serves as a bit of a prequel to the new Rebels show.  Apparantly, there's going to be a lot of great backstory details on Kanaan and Hera.  Can't wait to get my hands on it!

This is a little more minor, but definitely of note is the rebirth of the Holonet News website, which acts as the Empire's official news broadcast.  Be sure to check out and to keep coming back; right now, there's some video about a Wookie uprising from the Rebels show!  Who knows what they'll report on next...

And last but not least, as a pleasant surprise, a little bit of Clone Wars news!  When Clone Wars was cancelled back in 2013, there were still plenty of stories left to tell.  In fact, they not only had the rest of Season 6, but Seasons 7 and 8 completely written!  You can see in this blog post a list of some of the future story arcs that were in production as well as some of Dave Filoni's concept art for those stories.  In that blog post, you can see some concept art of Quinlan Vos carrying Asajj Ventress.  Filoni has said that he has been looking for ways to bring the fans those untold stories, and it looks like that particular one is getting the book treatment!

This fantastic piece of news was also announced at Del Rey's panel for their upcoming novels, which includes the Rebels prequel "A New Dawn."  It's more for adults, and goes darker than the show would allow (and let's face it, Clone Wars got pretty dark at times).  The novel will  follow the storyline of those finished scripts from the Clone Wars.

All of this is so exciting!  It's a great time to be a Star Wars fan, as well as an animation fan!  What do you think of all the new Rebels and Clone Wars news?

Graffiti art shown at Comic-Con, courtesy of Rebel Mandalorian Sabine!