Brian Truitt

USA TODAY

Part of Tiya Sircar's induction into the Star Wars family was walking a red carpet with Imperial Stormtroopers.

But at least her arrival to this past weekend's Radio Disney Music Awards was in cosmic style.

"I had never seen a Stormtrooper in real life. They were lovely," says Sircar, the actress who voices the Mandalorian explosives expert Sabine in the upcoming animated series Star Wars Rebels.

In honor of Star Wars Day on May 4, the first Rebels trailer premieres early Sunday morning (3:01 a.m. ET/12:01 PT) on various websites including StarWars.com and Disney.com, and will also air during Disney XD's LEGO animated special Star Wars: The New Yoda Chronicles on Sunday night (7 ET/PT).

The footage can be seen ABC, ABC Family, Fusion, ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN3 at varying times throughout Sunday, and will also debut on Disney XD and Disney Channel in Europe, Middle East, Africa, Southeast Asia, Latin America and Australia.

ABC's Good Morning America will air a 30-second sneak peek at the trailer for Rebels, which is slated to debut as a one-hour special this fall on Disney Channel with an animated series to follow on Disney XD.

Set before the events of the original 1977 Star Wars movie and after Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith, Rebels follows the crew of the Ghost as they avoid the increasing power of the galactic Empire and the evil Imperial Inquisitor.

In addition to Sabine, the group includes cowboy Jedi Kanan Jarrus (Freddie Prinze Jr.), teenage con artist Ezra Bridger (Taylor Gray), the brutish alien Zeb Orrelios (Steve Blum), Twi'lek pilot Hera Syndulla (Vanessa Marshall) and grumpy droid Chopper.

Of these fledging members of a nascent Rebel Alliance, Sabine may be the most rebellious: Anti-establishment to her core, she has combat experience but is also an artist, tagging Imperial targets with signature graffiti to let Darth Vader and the Empire know just who attacked them.

"I love her. She does everything with flair," Sircar says. "When she's blowing stuff up, she's doing it artfully."

Each of the main characters have a powerful reason to be fighting "The Man," she adds. "Sabine's, I can't wait for people to find out why she's part of this Rebel crew. It's serious stuff."

While the original Star Wars movies Sircar grew up with offered Carrie Fisher's Princess Leia as the primary female role model, she says she's glad youngsters have "two kick-butt kind of girl characters. I hope fans are really going to get on board with them.

Sircar has found that folks are especially interested in Sabine, due her being an intriguing warrior but also because of her Mandalorian heritage.

"She's a chick Mandalorian, so that makes it more interesting, and everyone's very familiar with Boba Fett," Sircar says.

Sabine also has a great backstory, though Sircar can't reveal anything about that yet. In addition to hanging around with Stormtroopers, she's also been trained in the ways of keeping secrets — a Star Wars tradition.

To get prepped for the role, Sircar's immersed herself in George Lucas' universe after having grown up with the first film trilogy.

So, on a scale of 1 to 10, how much of a Star Wars nerd is she? "Now? 11," Sircar says with a laugh. "Vanessa and Freddie, they know everything. I would dare say they know almost as much as (Rebels executive producer) Dave Filoni does, and Dave Filoni is the encyclopedia on Star Wars everything.

"Our very first (recording) session, those three went on and on. I was impressed and also intimidated. Literally I was like, 'I need to up my game here.' I'm getting there, and I fully realize why people are crazy about it."