Do you remember how big, strong & scary Darth Vader was
in "Star Wars IV: A New Hope" ? Well, that version of this Dark Lord
of the Sith — back when Vader was at the very height of his powers — will be
front & center as "Star Wars Rebels" begins its second season on
Disney XD this Saturday, June 20th at 9:00 p.m. (ET/PT).
Copyright Lucasfilm / Disney. All rights reserved
Better yet, to make sure Darth sounds exactly he did in the
original "Star Wars" trilogy, Lucasfilm Animation persuaded James
Earl Jones to come back and voice Vader.
Given that it had been a decade or more since James had last
done any voice work for a "Star Wars" -related project, Jones
reportedly expressed some concerns as he stepped up the mic to once again voice
this classic screen villain.
Dave Filoni is the head guy when it comes to Lucasfilm Animation's "Star Wars
Rebels." Copyright Lucasfilm / Disney. All rights reserved
"It was actually kind of funny," Dave Filoni —
the executive producer and supervising director of "Star Wars Rebels"
— recalled during a recent interview at this past April's Star Wars
Celebration. "Just before he goes into the booth, James turns to me and
says 'David, I haven't done Vader in ten years. Can you remind me how?' And
he's telling me this in his big deep James Earl Jones voice. So I just laugh
and 'James, you're doing it already.'"
Bringing Jones in to voice Vader isn't the only change that
Filoni and the "Star Wars Rebels" production team will be making in
Season Two. As you can see by the video below, there'll be more characters joining
the story (Among them Ahsoka Tano, the female Togruta who was once Padawan to Anakin
Skywalker's Jedi Knight), bigger battles, higher stakes.
And it all begin this Saturday night with "The Siege of
Lothal," a one-hour movie event that airs this Saturday night, June 20th
at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Disney XD.
This article originally appeared on the Huffington Post's Entertainment page on Tuesday, June 16, 2015