Darth Vader's back in 'Star Wars Rebels'

Brian Truitt | USA TODAY

(SPOILER ALERT: The following article discusses in detail the season finale of Disney XD's Star Wars Rebels.)​

Monday night's Star Wars Rebels season finale sent one Imperial villain down a fiery chasm to his apparent death but also ended with the arrival of the biggest baddie in the galaxy.

An intimidating Darth Vader strolled onto the scene of the Disney XD series before the credits rolled on a half-hour that saw an epic lightsaber duel between the show's heroes and the evil Inquisitor (voiced by Jason Isaacs).

Viewers also saw the reveal of former Jedi padawan Ahsoka Tano from Star Wars: The Clone Wars as the woman under the hood of Fulcrum. (In honor of the season finale, Hasbro is releasing action figures of Ahsoka and Vader in Rebels styling this fall.)

The episode nicely sets up the upcoming second season (expected later this year) of Rebels, says executive producer Dave Filoni, and shows there are more folks battling the Empire than just the crew of the Ghost, which includes Kanan Jarrus (Freddie Prinze Jr.), Ezra Bridger (Taylor Gray), Hera Syndulla (Vanessa Marshall), Sabine Wren (Tiya Sircar), Zeb Orrelios (Steven Blum) and their droid pal Chopper.

"Our Rebels have now been brought into a larger world and are aware of a larger rebellion they're connected to," Filoni says. "That will come with all sorts of exciting moments and characters."

The Inquisitor had been a thorn in the side of the Ghost's crew for most of the season, and Kanan and Ezra taking on their enemy with lightsabers flying all around was a throwback to Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi vs. Darth Maul in the first prequel movie, 1999's Star Wars — Episode I: The Phantom Menace.

"We felt like we needed something definitive to happen, something that really showed an evolution of our characters," says Filoni.

While Filoni jokes there's now a moratorium on lightsaber fights on bridges and catwalks, the Inquisitor losing and sending himself to his apparent doom "is greatly symbolic of the fall and this descending into the underworld."

The Inquisitor already had a history of failure, so had he lived, Vader was probably going to end him anyway. But Filoni saw the situation as a way to show Kanan not being totally accomplished yet in his path as a Jedi.

The first season of Rebels followed Kanan's continued awakening in the Force — "from basically being a cowboy to being much more involved spiritually and emotionally with (Ezra) as far as being a mentor," says Filoni.

However, while the true Jedi way might have had Kanan trying to save the Inquisitor instead of letting him fall, he instead hesitated and was not sure what to do.

"There's always more to learn,'' says Filoni. "That's something we have done well in this series: We've created characters who have many layers. And that's something that Star Wars was always good at."

Filoni figures that a lot of fans might be shocked by the overthrowing of the Inquisitor so soon, but it was necessary, not only to give the heroes better standing but to also foretell the coming of Darth Vader.

The Sith lord formerly known as Anakin Skywalker is a much different guy from the one seen in the original trilogy of movies. There, he was shown as a villain who tries to convince his son, Like, to rule the galaxy with him and later as a man who reconnects with the Jedi he used to be by doing something selfless and good at the end of Return of the Jedi.

Prior to the original 1977 Star Wars film, Filoni says, Vader "is a character without remorse. He doesn't care. He's completely consumed by his hate. And I don't believe there's anything about him that would show that there's another path for him other than his downfall.

"Vader right now is a force to be reckoned with, and an evil one at that."

An appearance by Bail Organa in the Rebels season finale will have fans speculating whether his adopted daughter, Princess Leia, will soon be on the show. And Filoni teases to a connection between Vader and other Inquisitors that could be explored.

Both Vader and the newly reintroduced Ahsoka will be used sparingly in future episodes of Rebels. With Vader especially, "we don't want to diminish this guy,'' Filoni says. "We cannot have him on a TV scenario where he is going to suffer weekly defeats. ''That's just not going to work — that's not what he's about.''