The announcement read:

"Production has begun on Star Wars Rebels, an exciting, all-new animated television series based on one of the greatest entertainment franchises of all time. Scheduled to premiere in fall 2014 as a one-hour special telecast on Disney Channel, it will be followed by a series on Disney XD channels around the world.

Leading the development of the series is a creative team of exceptional talent. Screenwriter/producer Simon Kinberg (X-Men: First Class, Sherlock Holmes, Mr. & Mrs. Smith) is an executive producer on Star Wars Rebels and will write the premiere episode. He is joined by Dave Filoni as executive producer, who served as supervising director of the Emmy nominated Star Wars: The Clone Wars since 2008. Executive producer Greg Weisman brings with him a wealth of animation experience with credits such as Young Justice, The Spectacular Spider-Man and Gargoyles.

Gary Marsh, president and chief creative officer, Disney Channels Worldwide, said, "The entire team at Lucasfilm has provided extraordinary creativity and innovation for over three decades, and we're thrilled to be bringing the expansive and imaginative world of Star Wars to Disney XD's viewers."

"I couldn't be more excited to explore new corners of the Star Wars universe," said Kathleen Kennedy, president, Lucasfilm. "I think Star Wars Rebels will capture the look, feel and fun that both kids and their parents love about Star Wars."

The action-filled series is set between the events of Episode III and IV -- an era spanning almost two decades never-before explored on-screen. Star Wars Rebels takes place in a time where the Empire is securing its grip on the galaxy and hunting down the last of the Jedi Knights as a fledgling rebellion against the Empire is taking shape. Details about the show are a closely guarded secret at this point.

Star Wars Rebels will be produced by Lucasfilm Animation, featuring many of the key talents that made Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Fans attending Star Wars Celebration Europe will be the first to get an exclusive look at the new series. Casting will be announced at a later date. More information about this developing project will be found on StarWars.com and on Facebook at facebook.com/starwarsrebels.

Also released was the following teaser video:

Hot on the heels of their awesome May the Fourth promotion, when LEGO gave away sneak peek mini-kits of JEK-14's Stealth Starfighter at Toys R Us stores everywhere, LEGO sent out this covert-seeming box, containing a larger teaser model inviting the press to the kick-off of a major live public event to take place starting this Thursday, May 23 in Times Square in New York City. As stated on the box (pictured), "secrets to reveal there are". And while we're still all guessing what it's going to be, LEGO will be unveiling what is bound to be a boatload of bricks to the world, in the form of something Star Warsey to the lunchtime crowd. The Yoda Chronicles is almost upon us. And the time is just right, with the last half of May being the time of year of the releases of all six Star Wars films. Stay tuned as we count down to the big LEGO Star Wars reveal, and get ready for LEGO Star Wars: The Yoda Chronicles on Cartoon Network on May 29!

Scroll down for our LIVE webcam covering the build!

If the Internet chatter over Star Wars and Disney, J.J. Abrams, and the quality of everything from the Clone Wars series to Hasbro's latest Star Wars action figures has you down, you may appreciate this segment from a 1983 installment of Nightline, offered up by ABC's website today.

Watch Siskel and Ebert duke it out with a stodgy sourpuss with a vaguely foreign, wannabe erudite-souding accent in the wake of the release of Return of the Jedi. And while you baulk, appreciate that Star Wars nay-saying is as old as Star Wars itself. It might help you tune out some of the static going around 30 years later.

"Lucasfilm has decided to postpone this fall's scheduled release of Star Wars Episodes II and III in 3D. Given the recent development that we are moving forward with a new Star Wars trilogy, we will now focus 100 percent of our efforts on Star Wars: Episode VII in order to ensure the best possible experience for our fans. We will post further information about our 3D release plans at a later date."

Could this postponement have anything to do with the acceptance of the director's job by J.J. Abrams? The announcement that he was officially on board was absent of any mention of the previously cited projected release year of 2015. As Abrams has a track record of pushing projects like "Star Trek", the 3D re-releases could have been tossed aside in a herculean effort to keep to the Disney plan for 2015 instead agreeing to a push. Time will tell. But one thing is becoming clearer each day lately - the way information about the future of Star Wars surfaces is changing as the decisions about the future Star Wars are moving from one place to another. As a result, it seems like rumors are leaking in new ways. And that's causing a bit of Internet "whack-a-mole" for the publicity folks at Lucasfilm, and presumably Disney.

It's such a promising time for Star Wars. Optimistic fans have to hope that the right hands (in the right number) will guide them into a fantastic new "Sequel Era" in the history of Star Wars. For the time being, anyone who got their green Attack of the Clones 3D glasses last summer at Celebration VI might have a real collector items on their hands.

However, there's one thing missing from the announcement. The previously mentioned release year of 2015 is not mentioned anywhere in the press release. That calls into question whether or not the project will be pushed in order to accommodate J.J. Abrams, for scheduling reasons or creative concerns on Abrams' part, or both. Stay tuned, and don't be surprised if the Star Wars sequel takes just a bit longer to make it onto theater screens.

Visit http://www.starwarscelebration.eu/Buy-Tickets/ to buy tickets online.

Star Wars Celebration Europe II takes place Friday, July 26 through Sunday, July 28, 2013. This second-ever Celebration Europe is presented by Lucasfilm in cooperation with the ReedPOP group within Reed Exhibitions, the world's largest event organizer. ReedPOP also runs the New York Comic Con, C2E2: Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo, and PAX Video Game Festivals. Reed has been doing a tremendous job with Star Wars Celebration in the U.S., producing the most enjoyable and successful Star Wars Celebrations ever. So, fans from all over the world are surely in for a fantastic time, which is likely to be well worth the trip for fans from the U.S..

The live action series is said to center on the criminal underground of warring organized crime families sparring to control the outlaw underworld on Coruscant, the newly-former capital world of the Republic. The series is set in the time period between the two trilogies, after Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, and before Episode IV: A New Hope. Other than the scripts, much of the existing material developed for the series has already been selectively mined for the development of Lucasarts upcoming video game, Star Wars 1313, which covers similar ground, also dealing with organized crime on Coruscant. The above concept drawing is concept work for the game, and is indicative of the milieu of the proposed live action series.

While the idea of the live-action series may gain new momentum now, it's still a long way from a truly green light. Many issues between the companies involved must be sorted out. And chiefly, now that Disney is moving ahead with new Star Wars feature films that would open as soon as 2015, the notion of a TV series being on at that time at all must be revisited. Disney does have a TV series in the works based on S.H.I.E.L.D., from the Marvel Universe, which does relate to the Avengers, which is Disney's wildly profitable film franchise. But the two come from Marvel material that is not one in the same. It remains to be seen how Disney might handle Star Wars in that regard. Also at play are the Star Wars animated projects aimed at Disney's kid-oriented TV networks, which have yet to settle into specific homes in Disney's stable.

The best news seems to be that the acquisition of Lucasfilm by Disney appears to be more like the landing of Noah's Ark, with a diverse wealth of pedigreed Star Wars goodies ready to march onto new soil and thrive, rather than a strip mining of a generation of audience's "childhood" to provide fuel for a dystopian dream knockoff factory.