As Star Wars fans get ready to embrace spinoff film Rogue One, releasing this December, and continue to listen out for news about next year's Episode VIII, a new season of animated series Star Wars Rebels is on the horizon. In just a couple weeks, the hit Disney XD show will return to the airwaves with possibly its most important and strongest season yet, leading into an all out war between the Rebels and the Empire.

Set around the time of Rogue One, not too long before Episode IV - A New Hope, Star Wars Rebels follows the ragtag crew of starship Ghost as they fight against the growing, evil Galactic Empire. Ezra Bridger is a young orphan from Lothal who can use the Force, and after season 2 he's now stronger than ever. Last we saw him, Ezra had managed to escape Sith Lord Darth Vader and recover and unlock the Sith holocron using the dark side of the Force. Now in season 3, the Ghost crew are preparing for the biggest mission yet: a direct attack on the Empire.

Having established a secret base on Atollon with new resources and recruits, Ezra and weapons expert Sabine are ready to face off against their newest enemy, Grand Admiral Thrawn, whose strategic, tactical and cultural insights make him a threat unlike any they have faced before. Not much else is known about the upcoming episodes, beyond some returning characters like Wedge Antilles, but new episode titles give us a few hints. The first six titles for season 3 of Star Wars Rebels will be “Steps into Shadow, Parts 1 & 2”, “The Holocrons of Fate”, “The Antilles Extraction”, “Hera’s Heroes” and “The Last Battle”.

Star Wars Rebels Season 3 Premiere - Ezra Bridger, Sabine Wren, Zeb Orrelios, Hondo Ohnaka

The one-hour television movie "Steps into Shadow", which is comprised of the first two episodes and kicks off season 3, exclusively debuted this summer at Celebration Europe. Spoilers for the premiere can be found online, but the gist is that Ezra being in possession of the Sith holocron will have a lot of ramifications on not just the Star Wars Rebels world - but the character himself. Ezra will have to decide between the light and dark sides of the Force, while new baddies and impartial characters try to sway him in different ways.

Next it seems "The Holocrons of Fate" will further test the power of these ancient artifacts and possibly feature the merging of the Jedi and Sith Holocrons we saw in the first trailer. From there, “The Antilles Extraction” will introduce Wedge Antilles, the legendary X-Wing pilot - who, in Star Wars Rebels, is just a young Imperial pilot ready to defect from the Empire. Then "Hera's Heroes" and "The Last Battle" round out the first batch of episodes taking us through the end of October. With Katee Sackhoff also reprising her role as Bo-Katan, there are sure to be a lot more surprises coming up.

NEXT: Star Wars Rebels Season 3 Character Descriptions

Star Wars Rebels season 3 will premiere Saturday, September 24 at 8:30 p.m. EST on Disney XD.

Source: Disney XD (via Jedibibliothek and Making Star Wars)