Star Wars: Resistance season 2 is starting tomorrow! Here is a look ahead at what we can be expecting from the first episode of this final season! Should you be as excited as I am?

Star Wars: Resistance had a good first season, in many ways better than the starting seasons of Star Wars: Rebels or Star Wars: The Clone Wars. However due to the very different tone and visual styling compared to those series I guess it never generated as much traction as those series did. Because Star Wars: Resistance is set entirely in the Sequel Trilogy era without any significant ties to the Original Trilogy or the Prequel Trilogy it may also have featured not as high on many fan’s watchlist. Considering that most of the controversy about the Sequels focusses on Original Trilogy characters fans are at risk of underestimating what this fine animation series does for some of the sequel trilogy characters and event. It is good to talk about that briefly before we get into Season 2.

What does Resistance do?

Evidently Star Wars: Resistance has its own, in my view very likable and well-constructed, characters. I really enjoy following Kazuda Xiono’s exploits and can very much appreciate the slap-stick aspect of some of his actions and plans. But evidently Kazuda is not ‘the point’ of the series, unlike what we had with Ahsoka or Ezra and the sister-animation series. Kazuda’s story supports the Sequel Trilogy world-building, a world-building that was notably absent from The Force Awakens and notably present in The Last Jedi.

In fact it was Season 1 of Star Wars: Resistance that actually gave us a first real look at how the First Order emerged from the shadows of the galaxy, the extend to which it took the New Republic by surprise and how it could be understood that the Resistance was this small band of fighters dealing with a largely unrecognised threat. Season 1 really culminated in a scene taken directly from The Force Awakens: the destruction of Hosnian Prime as you can see in the intercutting of the two below.

Seeing Kazuda’s reaction to the event, knowing it is Kazuda’s home-planet made the emotional impact palpably stronger then when I originally first saw in in the theatre in 2015. For me personally, Star Wars: Resistance did a great job at setting The Force Awakens in a wider galaxy that I actually recognize as the Star Wars galaxy, rather than merely placing it in a visual context that looks similar.

Season 2 and The Last Jedi

So it is tempting to think that Season 2 will perform a similar role for The Last Jedi, and perhaps to an extent it might. However I don’t think it will. The Last Jedi followed, in in-universe time, right on the heels of The Force Awakens. So the last episode of season one of Star Wars: Resistance pretty much played out in parallel to The Last Jedi. The attack of the First Order on the Resistance base on D’Qar which is set at the start of Episode VIII was a bit context-less. The trailer of Star Wars: Resistance season 2, that we analysed and discussed earlier, seems to indicate that this attack on D’Qar was part of a wider military take-over of the Galaxy that we will indeed see as part of the season 2 episodes. But after the trailer my expectation was this this would only make up the first few episodes at most. The sneek-peak that we have been given on the first episode of Season 2 now seems to confirm that hunch.

It is very clear from this clip that our friends aboard the Colossus are heading for D’Qar straight away. Given what we have seen in The Last Jedi, it seems fair to assume that they will arrive their after the attack on D’Qar by the First Order. Now Episode VIII plays out over, at most, a number of days of in-universe time. So although we might indeed see the First Order take-over of large swathes of the Star Wars galaxy, I expect this will largely be a post-TLJ affair and a narrative about the run-up to The Rise of Skywalker.

I think this is actually quite exciting! Having Star Wars: Resistance play a role as running us into the events of The Rise of Skywalker would not only grant Kazuda’s story a deeper gravitas as part of the overall Sequel Trilogy saga, but would also allow for a season2 finale that is not just satisfying as an end to a season but also as an end to the Series. With only two seasons Kazuda’s story is short, but with the events at the end of season 1 he has a very strong and personal motive for engaging with the First Order, including with main characters such as General Hux and Kylo Ren. If either Kazuda himself, or something Kazuda and his friends do in the first-half of season 2, has impact on the The Rise of Skywalker story that would be extremely satisfying and allow season 2 to then finish with resolving the arcs of the friends of Kazuda and Kazuda himself.

Season starts tomorrow!

So I am excited to start season 2 of Star Wars: Resistance tomorrow! I hope the internet will do its reliable ‘worst’ and the episode airing on Disney’s pay channel will soon leak out into the wider digital world. I can’t wait to dig through this autumn’s Star Wars: Resistance episodes for speculative hints at what The Rise of Skywalker might bring. The appearance of mysterious Force-cults and Sith-like temples in the Resistance season 2 trailer surely have me hyped about a possible connection to the Forgotten Regions and the main thrust of the Episode IX storyline.

But in addition tot hat, Star Wars: Resistance also has its own touching stories to tell and … to end. So let me leave you with one of the few tributes to Star Wars: Resistance out there on YouTube. I really do want to see what will come of Tam … I can’t wait!