The Rebels are coming!!

Yesterday was a great day to be a Star Wars fan...in addition to other exciting news in the Star Wars universe, it was announced that the first official full trailer for Star Wars Rebels will be released on Star Wars holiday May The Fourth!


According to this article on IGN, the trailer will debut on Disney XD during the 7 p.m. showing of a new episode of "Star Wars: The Yoda Chronicles."  USA Today reports that a thirty second sneak peak will be shown during ABC's broadcast of Good Morning America.  It also adds that the show will debut in the fall (not in the summer, as previously speculated) with a one hour special on Disney Channel.  The show will then air regular episodes on Disney XD.

Also, as a cool bonus, some new stills were released to the public!

These look stunning; for the first time we can really see Ralph McQuarrie's signature style coming through.  You can see how all of the hard work and lessons learned in making the Clone Wars have really paid off!

Also worth a look is this interview with producer Dave Filoni on IGN.  He gives some great insight on the new show, including the characters, fan skepticism, and the differences between Rebels and Clone Wars.  After all, it is important that this show stand on its own instead of being just a Clone Wars continuation.

In other related Star Wars news this week, it has been announced that everything Star Wars that has been made outside of the six films, the Clone Wars, and the upcoming Rebels show, is now no longer expanded universe.  For those of you who don't know, ever since the birth of Star Wars, all story content outside of anything made under George Lucas's supervision (that's books, comics, games, etc.) has been known as the Expanded Universe, often shortened to "EU."  There have been many debates over the years between fans over what is official canon and what is not.  It's well known that George has always considered the EU an alternate universe and not an official record of events in the Star Wars galaxy.

Well, just this week, Disney & Lucasfilm officially announced that everything that was known as the EU will from now on be known as "Star Wars Legends" and will not be considered official canon.  All new content outside of the films and television shows will be the new EU, and will be official canon.  There's a lot of die hard EU fans that are really upset about this...but personally, I'm glad.  I've enjoyed a number of Star Wars novels over the years, but I've never considered them a part of the official story.  Plus, the EU has always been a big mess, and tossing it out the window gives the story people at Lucasfilm room for new ideas for the films and shows.

This article on the official Star Wars page gives a lot more details on the plan for the new Star Wars EU going forward, including some really great looking new books!  One of the first books that is part of the new, canon EU is this beauty right here:

This book takes place before the beginning of the show and tells the story of how Kanaan, the Jedi in hiding, and Hera, captain of the ship the Ghost, partnered up to fight the Empire.  I'm really excited, and I can't wait to get my hands on it!

There's some junior novels coming out as well, and look who's on the cover...none other than bounty hunter Bossk!  First introduced to Star Wars fans in Episode 5: The Empire Strikes Back, Bossk has been a longtime fan favorite.  He had several appearances on the Clone Wars, and it's really cool to see that he'll be showing up on Rebels as well!

Before I go, a last parting video dedicated to the old Expanded Universe.  Be sure to check back on May The Fourth; I'll be kicking off the Clone Wars in review and I'll be talking about the new Rebels trailer!

May the Force be with you!