'Star Wars Rebels' season 3 spoilers: Saw Gerrera is scheduled for a run-in with the Ghost Crew

Forest Whitaker's Saw Gerrera is the first animated character from the "Star Wars" lore to bridge into the live action movies via this month's "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story." But the rebel who eventually became an extremist is coming back to its roots with an upcoming appearance in "Star Wars Rebels."

Spoilers for "Rogue One," proceed with caution.

While the veteran freedom fighter met his end in a very gallant way in Jedha, Saw seems to be not quite done yet. The Ghost crew is scheduled to have a run-in with him in the two-part come-backing episode titled "Ghosts of Geonosis" in which Forest Whitaker, who played the role in "Rogue One," will be back to do the voice acting. The official synopsis for the episode suggests that Hera's team will come across something on the planet which they will be working very hard to hide from the Empire while on a rebel rescue hunt. Rumor has it that it will be the unfinished structure of the first Death Star, and the rebels just do not know it yet.

Geonosis is an important part of the "Star Wars" mythos, particularly in the prequels. It is where Anakin, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Padme Amidala almost got killed thanks to separatist Count Dooku, who apparently is one of Darth Sidious' cohorts in "Star Wars: Episode II –Attack of the Clones." The planet was furthered explored in James Luceno's novel, "Catalyst: A Rogue One Novel."

Saw's cameo in the Disney XD show is a great way to tie the series to "Rogue One" the events of which happened around the same time. It also sheds light on the planet Geonosis, which apparently is the birthplace of the Death Star before Director Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn) convinced and somehow manipulated Poggle the Lesser in handing the Republic the building of the massive weapon.

As part of a promo clip for the special two-part film, creator Dave Filoni shared some nuggets of information on how the veteran actor has worked his way into Saw's character.

"Forest really wanted to know a lot about the character. He watched The Clone Wars episodes with his character and I had some detail for him about things George [Lucas] and I discussed. It gave him more time to develop the character as far as, "How did he get there?" the lore veteran said in a featurette courtesy of Entertainment Weekly. "He's not quite as beat up as you see him [in Rogue One]. I never wanted to go into a lengthy thing about this is how Saw lost his foot. It's more about his philosophy and who he is and what he thinks about the Rebellion — and how they go about resisting the Empire.

"Star Wars Rebels" season 3 is scheduled to be back on Disney XD on Jan. 17, 8:30 p.m. ET.