Star Wars Rebels Season 3 on DVD/Blu-Ray (Guest Review)

Star Wars Rebels Season 3 is available on DVD/Blu-ray on August 29th.  This release includes all 22 episodes plus several bonus features.

This season the story picks up with Ezra a little stronger in the force and leading the team on a rescue mission. Kanan, who was left blind at the end of last season, is on a separate path to commune with the force. Rebels introduced Grand Admiral Thrawn into Star Wars canon. The character Grand Admiral Thrawn was originally introduced in the legends story “Heir to the Empire” by Timothy Zahn. It was exciting to see a beloved character get recognition in the growing Star Wars universe. The disc packaging keeps its promise to tie Rebels into both Rogue One and A New Hope. Rebels Season 3 keeps me hopeful for the Boba Fett standalone movie. Sabine has always been a great representation of the Mandalorian Warriors. This season introduced new insight into the Mandalorian clans.

This release continues in the tradition of bonus materials including my favorite Star Wars Rebels Recon. These behind the scenes interviews with the cast and crew are always entertaining. Rebels Recon revealed that Grand Admiral Thrawn was always contemplated in the Rebels story but they wanted to wait until the story was ready to handle it properly. Pablo Hidalgo has returned to answer more viewer questions tweeted with #RebelsRecon.

Overview/Specs

• 22 episodes with 5 audio commentaries (3 disc Blu-ray and 4 disc DVD)
• Approx. 485 minutes (not including bonus features)
• Closed Captioned: Yes
• Aspect Ratio: 1:78 (Widescreen)
• Audio: 5.1 Dolby Digital
• Languages/ Subtitles: English, French, German & Spanish

Featurettes/Bonus Features:

• Rebels Recon – Behind the scenes of each episode with cast and crew interviews.
• A Rebel Alliance –A feature showing how Mon Mothma’s character introduced the Rebels group to the bigger Rebel Alliance. This also shared a couple of the Rebels Easter Eggs found in Rogue One.
• Return to Mandalore – A commentary including why Sabine ‘s family story helps enrich her character.
• Thrawn: A Legend Reborn – A deeper dive into the development of the Thrawn character added into Rebels. Timothy Zahn is included in the feature.
• Apprentices to Outcasts: Kenobi and Maul –A description of Maul’s relationship with Kenobi as the his nemisis over multiple chapters of the Star Wars universe
• The Original Rebel: Saw Gerrera Returns – Extended – The story of Saw Gerrera with clips of his introduction in The Clone Wars cartoon.

I would recommend this Blu-ray as a nice addition to any fan boy/girl Star Wars library. The extras/bonus features help connect the dots between multiple stories in the movies and Rebels series to give you a broader view of the world. The creators share some of their thoughts on how ideas from Rebels were contemplated in the continuing Star Wars films, Episode 8 The Last Jedi, which will be released in theaters this December. Rebels Season 3 continued the Star Wars story of Ezra and the Pheonix squad and the extras added to my curiosity about Star Wars The Last Jedi.