The last couple of years have been exciting for Star Wars fans, and a new chapter of the saga will hit theaters in December with The Last Jedi. Unfortunately, we're still a couple of months away from the Last Jedi release date, and the brand new trailer has us more excited than ever about what's to come. Luckily, there are a couple of ways to get a Star Wars fix ahead of The Last Jedi, and they're available much sooner than December 15.
Star Wars Rebels Season 4
Disney XD has been the place to be for Star Wars content on the small screen for the past several years, and Star Wars Rebels will soon kick off its fourth and final season. The action takes place in the final years in the timeline before the original movie trilogy takes place, and Season 4 is taking the crew of rebels closer than ever to the events of Rogue One and A New Hope. In fact, Star Wars Rebels has already featured some of the biggest characters of the entire saga, including Princess Leia, Luke Skywalker, and even R2-D2 and C-3PO. The animation has only gotten more cinematic as the seasons passed, and the footage we've seen so far indicates that we're in for something truly epic with Season 4.
Season 4 of Rebels promises to answer some big questions about the saga as well, not the least of which is what happened to split Saw Gerrera and Mon Mothma ahead of Rogue One. We'll probably learn why the legendary villain Thrawn never appeared in the original trilogy, and we may get to see some seeds planted for future Star Wars events as well.
There's also the point that Force-users Kanan and Ezra are still in action for the Rebellion in Rebels. Given that Luke never met them in the original trilogy and the title of the upcoming movie is The Last Jedi... well, Season 4 of Star Wars Rebels may be the darkest and most adult to date. After all, there's only one character that we know for sure survives beyond the events of Rogue One.
Star Wars Rebels is a solid source of everything from space battles to lightsaber duels, and Season 4 already looks like the most intense season of them all. Best of all, we don't have much longer to wait before the show is back on the airwaves. Star Wars Rebels Season 4 will kick off on Monday, October 16 on Disney XD with a two-part premiere called "Heroes of Mandalore."
Star Wars Forces Of Destiny
If you're not looking to catch up on Star Wars Rebels or just aren't particularly interested in the pre-A New Hope era of the Star Wars saga, there is another option for Star Wars action ahead of The Last Jedi: the series of shorts called Star Wars Forces of Destiny. The Forces of Destiny series gives fans quick adventures of a variety of heroes set throughout the Star Wars timeline, going as far back as The Clone Wars and as far ahead as The Force Awakens so far. Although animated, the shorts feature the voices of many of the actors who bring the actors to life on the big screen and in the TV shows, and the adventures are part of the grand Star Wars canon.
The Forces of Destiny shorts feature familiar faces from the original and prequel trilogies as well as relative newcomers from The Force Awakens, including Rey, Finn, BB-8, and Maz Kanata. Those four characters will all appear in The Last Jedi, and Forces of Destiny can give some looks at them in the thick of Star Wars stories ahead of the next movie. Sure, these stories only run for a few minutes at a time, but they're an awful lot of fun and can answer some significant questions from Star Wars to date.
12 Forces of Destiny shorts have been released already, and you can check them all out on Disney Youtube. A new batch of shorts will debut in the next half-hour Disney Channel Forces of Destiny special, which will hit the airwaves on Sunday, October 29 at 8 p.m. ET.
If you haven't watched the brand new The Last Jedi trailer just yet, be sure to check it out. Don't forget to take a look at our fall TV guide for your non-Star Wars viewing options as well.
