Oscar Award-winning actor Forest Whitaker will reprise the role Saw Gerrera in Star Wars Rebels.

Whitaker plays the live-screen version of Rebel partisan Saw Gerrera in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. A new Star Wars Rebels featurette reveals that the high-profile actor agreed to continue his performance in the animated series.

Executive producer Dave Filoni helped create the character of Saw in The Clone Wars. Filoni says that he was excited to fill in the gap between those early days, and the Saw fans met in Rogue One.

“Forest Whitaker came in and played Saw Gerrera on Star Wars Rebels, which was absolutely tremendous,” Filoni reveals. “Forest did a great job at capturing saw in a way that he is both a bit mad, a bit crazed, a bit afraid, but also a bit sympathetic.”

“He sees something coming,” Filoni notes, referring to the Death Star. “And no one will listen to him, to take action before it’s too late.”

The revelation of Saw Gerrera’s appearance in Star Wars Rebels came thanks to a poster distributed at a Florida Toys R Us. But accidental or otherwise, Disney certainly has plenty to share in regards to the two-part mid-season premiere, “Ghosts of Geonosis.”

“The crew returns to Geonosis in search of a missing rebel team sent to investigate suspicious activity there, and are surprised by what they find,” the synopsis cryptically says.

Netting impressive names is a familiar accomplishment for Star Wars Rebels. James Earl Jones has provided the voice of Darth Vader in multiple episodes, and Billy Dee Williams reprised the role as Lando Calrissian in season one. David Oyeloyo has voiced the conflicted Agent Kallus since the show’s inception.

Related: With Rogue One, Lucasfilm shows us their Star Wars Stories will deliver on an epic scale

But Forest Whitaker’s return as Saw Gerrera establishes an exciting link between the animated world of Star Wars Rebels and the big-screen adventures of Rogue One. The new film certainly reciprocated, dropping in delicious nods to the Ghost and its crew (which we won’t spoil here!)

And as the Star Wars universe continues to expand, it’s thrilling to see the level of synchronicity between mediums. We knew that Star Wars was expert at fostering hope — now it’s clear that they can reward it, as well.

The Star Wars Rebels midseason premiere, “Ghosts of Geonosis,” airs Saturday, Jan. 7 at 8:30 p.m. on Disney XD.