Star Wars Rebels: Season 4 Trailer #2 Analysis

What does the final season of Star Wars Rebels have in store for us?

Yesterday, a second trailer for the final season of Star Wars Rebels was released as part of the panel presented at Fan Expo Canada in the presence of Dave Filoni, Taylor Gray and Vanessa Marshall. During the panel, we learned many intriguing details concerning season 4 so before analyzing the trailer, let’s talk about what we learned during the panel!

First of all, Star Wars Rebels season 4 premieres on Disney XD on October 16th, meaning the series is moving to a Monday time slot with a two-part episode called “Heroes of Mandalore.”

About Grand Admiral Thrawn and Governer Pryce, things are going to get “spicy,” they will be both trying to manipulate each other and Thrawn is going to “fight with” the Empire about how to fight this war against the Rebellion.

In terms of story, this season will be different. Previously, Star Wars Rebels mostly had one episode = one story and not a lot of multiple story arc episodes apart from the season premiers and season finales. But this time, it is going to change. The first four episodes will wrap up left over plot lines and starting from episode 5 to the end, it will basically be one story told through several episodes and it will be about wrapping up Ezra’s story. Having a multiple story arc episodes was already something I suspected while analyzing the first trailer of season four, you can read my analysis here.

Now I’ll just let you watch the new trailer below, before starting analyzing it:

Analysis

This trailer confirmed what I was already speculating in my previous trailer analysis, this season is going to concentrate on a few events but big ones. And now, we know in which arc the X-Wings are going to be as we got an extended version of the scene from the first trailer, showing us the iconic starfighters in action destroying Tie Fighters! And it was epic!

The X-Wings are part of that rebel mission on this planet in flame that we have seen in the first trailer and that we are seeing again in this trailer. I’ve been wondering which planet it could be and now it is starting to make sense and I believe it is Lothal.

Here’s why:

If you look at this picture, you can see the part of the planet in flames is brown-ish, orange-ish but if you look on the bottom left, it is blue and green, the same blue and green that can be observed on Lothal as you can see in the image below from season 1:

So this whole rebel mission could be just one big thing as part of the battle on Lothal and we know that this season it is going to be almost like one big story!

Another piece of evidence about it, is the first shot of this trailer. It is a shot of Lothal and the colors are exactly the same ones we see on the planet controlled by the Imperial fleet! The opening of the trailer makes us believe this shot is a vision from Ezra but I don’t believe it is the case. The voices we hear though are the vision but this shot is pretty much not a vision. What is very interesting as well is the first and last shots of the trailer form a parallel. First we see the capital of Lothal on fire and at the end, we see our heroes minus Hera seeing the capital of Lothal about to be destroyed. Hera is probably not there as she will arrive with a squadron of X-Wings and Y-Wings. This parallel shot is very interesting and makes the trailer quite emotional to watch!

The last piece of evidence I want to bring about Lothal being that planet in flames is this shot:

You can see an X-Wing pilot and Hera in her pilot suit on … Lothal! This seems to take place after the X-Wing squadron have attacked the Imperial fleet. We can also notice in this shot that Hera is fighting Rukh, Thrawn’s bodyguard who has been asked to captured her.

Since we are talking about Lothal, let’s talk about the Loth-Wolves!

There is more than just one wolf, there are many actually! The white one seems to be the leader of the pack and it seems that at first, they are not so trusting with Ezra Bridger, trust comes later. Filoni explained during the panel that they are similar to the Bendu in the way that they are part of the nature Force of Lothal and he even compared them to the Force, saying people see them both as negative and positive but ultimately it depends on what you bring to them. And that just reminds me of what Yoda said to Luke about the cave on Dagobah when he asks what is in there: “Only what you take with you.” The wolves appear to be both a force for good and bad and that I think is going to be very, very interesting to see!

Still on what seems to be a factory on Lothal, it looks like we might see Cikatro Vizago again, if you look behind Kanan, there is one Devaronian looking just like him and it doesn’t seem he has had a good life since season 2! Another interesting thing about this shot is the Trandoshan attacking Kanan, if I am not mistaken this will be the first appearance of this species on the show!

“So I guess you never really thought about us.”

A lot of the trailer is focused on Kanan and Kanera (the ship name for Kanan and Hera) moments. Kanera is something the fans have been wanting for a long time and it seems we’re finally getting it this season. However, things may not be as it looks like. I think, it’s pretty much a given Kanan is going to die this season. There are many clues that points to this. First of all, Kanan is a Jedi and with Rogue One and the Original Trilogy we have no signs of Jedi beyond Luke, Obi-Wan and Yoda. The conversation between Bail Organa and Mon Mothma in Rogue One about Obi-Wan Kenobi clearly suggests there are no more Jedi in the Rebellion. Plus, Yoda clearly says to Luke in Return Of The Jedi, he is the last Jedi meaning all the other Jedi are dead. And I don’t see Kanan being the type of character walking away from the Jedi path, not anymore, he has gone too far to do that. Kanan is also a father figure to Ezra and to the Ghost crew, we all know what happens to father figures in Star Wars — they die — Obi-Wan Kenobi in A New Hope, Qui-Gon Jinn in The Phantom Menace and Han Solo in The Force Awakens. Another thing is in TV shows when an important character is given a focus like that, it means that character is going to die during the season. And when you see how far Kanan has gone and how much he has taught to Ezra and Sabine, his story has reached his end. His death would have a meaningful impact to the Ghost crew all the more to Ezra and Hera and this would impact the rest of their story.

“I wish I could see you.”

“You could always see me.”

This scene above in the trailer really makes me believe this is one of Kanan’s last scenes before his death. It all seems like a goodbye between him and Hera.

Now, let’s move to what we saw in the trailer about the Mandalorian Civil War that will be part of “Heroes of Mandalore.”

We see a lot more Mandalorians and action. What I really love is all the different colors on the armors and it seems like each color represent a clan. Once again, Bo-Katan appears as the leader uniting Mandalore, and it only makes sense as the previous leader of Mandalore during The Clone Wars, was her sister Satine.

The Empire has a weapon to fight the Mandalorians and it’s quite deadly! It basically fries them. As you can see, it is a reworked version of the AT-DP, on which there is this weapon mounted. This weapon plays an important role in the season premiere and not in a good way. We have already heard about this weapon before without knowing that it was this.

Going back to Mandalore is going to be pretty awesome and brings a lot of feelings from The Clone Wars. It will be interesting to see how Sundari, the capital, is now that it is under Imperial control.

This trailer also gave us a good look at Sabine new paint apps on her armor for season 4! It seems to be mostly purple and yellow, which looks cool!

Now, let’s focus about the Empire. One of the most exciting things about the trailer was Tarkin mentioning … KRENNIC and the “Stardust” project a.k.a the Death Star!

We can feel the show is getting closer and closer to Rogue One and I couldn’t be more happy about it! Considering what Tarkin is saying, Thrawn’s project is at risk as the “Stardust” project is taking more importance within the Empire and this may not please Thrawn. It also leaves the possibility of seeing a Krennic cameo on the show, just the thought of it has me super excited! I’m not saying it is happening but I’d love to see this. At least, getting a mention of Krennic and “Stardust” is just amazing!

One thing is certain, there are going to be things getting more or less close to the “Stardust” project. In the trailer we can see an explosion of Kyber crystal:

This explosion is exactly the same as the one we had in season 1 when the Ghost crew blew up a cargo of Kyber in the episode “Breaking Ranks.” Furthermore, Saw Gerrera is going to see these Kyber Crystals with Sabine and Ezra, which be the moment when Saw realizes the Empire are doing very something dangerous:

Season 4 is definitely going to be the moment Saw Gerrera really becomes “crazy” and will call it quits with the Rebellion and leave with his own group. In the trailer, he also is arguing with Mon Mothma about how to fight this war, things are not going good between them.

Speaking of the Rebellion/Alliance, we are going to see Bail Organa again along with General Jan Dodonna. Just seeing the Ghost crew at the Yavin IV command center with Bail and Mon is going to be something quite special! We really are going to see the bigger Rebellion this season!