It was only a matter of time, and now it’s official—Princess Leia will be making her first appearance on Star Wars: Rebels, when the animated series returns from its winter break on January 20th. Rebels is set about fifteen years after the events of Revenge of the Sith, so this will be a much younger version of Leia Organa than we’ve seen before. Her foster father Bail Organa of Alderaan has already appeared on the series, and of course, her bio-dad Darth Vader made a much-heralded appearance on Rebels at the start of the second season.

The episode, which will be titled “A Princess on Lothal,” will find the teenage princess on the home world of the show’s titular rebels, the crew of the starship Ghost. She’ll be on a secret mission from her father Bail to bring ships for the rebel fleet. Unfortunately, an Imperial lockdown throws that plan into chaos.

This will also be the first time we really see Leia as part of the Imperial bureaucracy. The show’s producer Dave Filoni told TV Insider that “one of the complex challenges of depicting Leia in Rebels is that we have to remind the audience that at this point she is part of the Empire. She doesn’t believe in the Empire, but she is acting the part, almost a double agent.” Filoni added, “We thought we had an opportunity to show her learning to be a leader, experimenting with the personality that becomes the stronger more resolute character you see in A New Hope.”

Although Rebels has brought back many original series voice actors to reprise their roles, like James Earl Jones and Billy Dee Williams, Carrie Fisher won’t be returning to voice the teenage Leia. Instead, she’ll be voiced by Julie Dolan, who also played Leia in the video game Star Wars: Uprising. This will be Leia’s only appearance on season two of the show, but it’s certainly possible she could return in later seasons.

It should also be noted that, since this show produced by Disney, this will be Leia’s first official appearance as an animated Disney Princess. And she’s kind of got a Belle from Beauty and the Beast thing going on, right?

“A Princess in Lothal,” airs Wednesday, January 20 at 9/8c  on Disney XD.

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HT: TV Insider

IMAGE: Lucasfilm