Star Wars Rebels was a surprisingly big hit for Disney; a 6.5 million viewership is nothing to sneeze at. As a result, the motley crew of the show is getting a bit of a promotion: Their movie is going to have an encore on ABC, and to get you to watch it again, a beloved character is going to show up.
The movie airs on ABC October 26th, at 7pm, and adds an extra scene, according to StarWars.com. And that extra scene will feature none other than the Dark Lord of the Sith himself, James Earl Jones. Yes, he’s playing Vader:
Executive producer Dave Filoni states, “We wanted to do something special for the ABC broadcast. We’ve added a scene which gives audiences insight into the Inquisitor and includes a cameo by Darth Vader voiced by the distinguished actor James Earl Jones.”
This is interesting for a few reasons. One, Jones has been pretty busy on Broadway lately, since the dude is 83 and his pile of F.U. money goes up a few digits every time CNN runs a network introduction. So he could have easily blown this off and stuck Billy West with the job or something. Two, we know that Rebels has at least a few connections to Star Wars: Episode VII. Three, considering the supposed ending of Episode VII… well, let’s say it’s interesting Vader is showing up, and leave it at that.
But that’s just speculation. We’ll keep an eye out for the scene on October 26th, to see what’s happening.