Disney XD signs up Star Wars Rebels for third season

Ahead of some big movie called Star Wars: The Force Awakens hitting cinemas this month, Disney’s announced that it’s given a third season of spinoff cartoon Star Wars Rebels the thumbs up. 

The next season of the animated show is already in production and will premiere on Disney XD in the UK sometime in 2016. 

Set in between the Episodes III and IV – that’s the first and sixth movies, if you’re going by release date – Star Wars Rebels forms something of a bridging story, tying up elements of the original trilogy and the newer so-called prequel trilogy. 

Kiri Hart, Lucasfilm’s senior vice president of development said: “We’re very proud of our incredibly creative Rebels team. Season Three will see our Rebel heroes face new obstacles and find new allies in their fight against the Empire.”

Kids of all ages will be able to tune in to Disney XD on Sky, Virgin Media, BT and TalkTalk pay TV packages. 

Disney XD (channel 622) is included as part of the Sky Variety Bundle (£30/month) and if you want it HD you’ll need to sign up for the Family Bundle (£36/month) and take the HD Pack (£5.25/month), which will give you Disney XD HD (channel 607). 

Virgin TV customers who want Disney XD will need to shell out for the TV XL service (£39.50/month) or a Big Bundle that includes TV XL, like the Big Kahuna (£55/month plus £17.99/month line rental) which includes extra things like BT Sport and 200Mbps broadband for no extra cost. 

BT TV customers can get Disney XD with the BT Kids bolt on, which costs £3/month when taken with one of the Entertainment bundles of channels, which start at £10/month. You’ll also need to take a BT Broadband service in order to get BT TV; these start at £7.50/month plus line rental (£17.99/month standard rate). 

TalkTalk TV customers can get Disney XD as part of the Kids Boost (£5/month) in addition to a TV package, which starts at £7.50/month for Essentials TV (plus £17.70 for line rental). 

Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens arrives in UK cinemas on December 17. A multi-year rights deal with Disney means that Sky Movies customers will be able to watch the latest Star Wars movie roughly nine months after its cinematic run ends. Read our guide on how to get Sky Movies here.