We recently dropped the news that Darth Vader, Emperor Palpatine and Ahsoka Tano would be in the opening of Star Wars Rebels Season 2. Now that we have seen Darth Vader and a huge introduction for Ahsoka Tano into the series as Fulcrum, it’s kind of a given they’ll be in Season 2. So really the question that remains now is “who is playing the Emperor?” In the final season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, we saw Tim Curry step into the role after the excellent Ian Abercrombie passed away. Curry never really got a chance to get into the groove of things and barely voiced Palpatine/Sidious in the final episodes.

I’ve seen people correctly guess this but I’m not sure anyone else has reported this yet. Our sources are and have been telling us:

Sam Witwer is voicing Emperor Palpatine in Season 2 of Star Wars Rebels.

Witwer voiced The Son in the Mortis arc of the Star Wars: The Clone Wars and if you paid attention, you heard him bringing in elements from all of the past Sith lords we’ve seen on screen. He defined the role of Darth Maul and made Maul an enigmatic and intelligent presence in the galaxy. Witwer took an evil beast and made the character believable to fans, even after he was supposed to be dead. Witwer as the tortured Maul is one of the better performances Star Wars has ever had on screen, in my opinion. He is also known as the Starkiller in The Force Unleashed series and excelled in that part as well. He’s probably the best choice I can think of to bring Emperor Palpatine back to the screen.

Here’s a video of Witwer doing his Palpatine impression for fun a few years back:

Dave Filoni, supervising director of The Clone Wars and Rebels has said many times that impressions are one thing but the ability to speak in the character’s voice with new lines is the real talent they need. I think Witwer is going to rock it.