With a 19-year gap between the prequel trilogy and the original trilogy of Star Wars, it only makes sense that a good chunk of content created takes place in that timeframe.
Easily the strongest of those media — and indeed the strongest media outside of the films — has to be Star Wars Rebels, which ran from 2014 to 2018 on Disney XD.
Rebels was the first new project released since Disney’s acquisition of Lucasfilm. It served as a sequel series to Star Wars: The Clone Wars and featured a handful of characters from the earlier show reappearing in the Empire timeline.
The show centers on the crew of a ship called The Ghost, which frequently attacks Imperial networks on the planet Lothal. The crew of The Ghost is led by former Jedi Kanan Jarrus (Freddy Prinze Jr.) and his lover Hera Syndulla (Vanessa Marshall), who is the captain of The Ghost. Their crew is rounded out by Zeb Orreilios (Steve Blum), Mandalorian Sabine Wren (Tiya Sircar) and C1-10P, also known as Chopper (voiced by creator Dave Filoni).
In the pilot episode, young Lothal resident Ezra Bridger (Taylor Gray) crosses paths with the crew of The Ghost, and Kanan recognizes Ezra’s potential and begins to train him as a Jedi.
Rebels first takes place about five years before Rogue One and A New Hope, with each season taking place approximately six months to a year after the previous season. It ends about a year before the destruction of the Death Star, although there is an epilogue that details how many of the show’s main characters continued to serve the Rebellion through the Battle of Endor in Return of the Jedi and beyond.
There are many reasons to love Rebels. It has all of the ingredients that should be present in Star Wars and it adds to the mythology of the saga, while explaining in detail how the Rebellion came to be leading up to Rogue One and A New Hope.
Found Family
The crew of The Ghost is established as a familial unit, with Kanan and Hera operating as the de facto parents of the crew. This element becomes further crew when Ezra joins the crew, having lost his parents some time before the events of the show.
The crew of The Ghost. Pictured from left, Ezra Bridger, Kanan Jarrus, Zeb Orrelios, Hera Syndulla, Sabine Wren and Chopper.
Ezra and Kanan have a master and apprentice role not unlike that of Obi-Wan and Anakin seen in the films. Kanan acts as a father figure to Ezra, while Ezra helps Kanan learn to trust himself, even though he is weary of the possibility of Ezra being corrupted by the Dark Side.
Although not established until the final episodes, Kanan and Hera clearly have a mutual attraction from each other from the get go. It is heavily implied they are lovers throughout the show, and it’s finally confirmed late in the final season.
Ezra and Zeb behave like brothers, constantly bickering and picking on one another and playfully wrestling with each other. They even share a room together on board The Ghost, although Zeb is initially put off having to share with the new crew member.
Ezra and Sabine, meanwhile, behave as if they might have attraction to each other, but it’s never fully established if they do. Rather, the two behave similar to Han and Leia before they fell in love, often bickering and making fun of each other. They have a mutual trust of each other and often go to great lengths to save one another when fighting the Empire.
Chopper is quite possibly the best character on the show. He’s similar to other droids in the saga, always needed to bypass security or jam Imperial transmissions, among other things. However, Chopper definitely has a mind of his own, as he frequently complains when he’s asked to do things and he spends much of his time aboard the ship gently bullying the rest of the crew, especially Ezra.
Characters Return
Numerous favorite Star Wars characters reappear in Rebels, as it takes place late in the era between the prequel and original trilogy.
Darth Vader is the first of these characters to appear. He is first seen in the opening scene, dispatching the Grand Inquisitor to Lothal to handle the crew of The Ghost. Later, Vader takes over the mission to try and capture The Ghost’s crew, eventually coming face-to-face with Kanan and Ezra on Malachor.
A character codenamed Fulcrum is revealed in the season one finale to be Ahsoka Tano (Ashley Eckstein), the former apprentice of Anakin Skywalker. Ahsoka is no longer a Jedi, but she still wields lightsabers (with white blades in Rebels) and serves the Force. She and Vader later have a confrontation, where Ahsoka learns the truth about her former master’s fate.
Former Jedi Ahsoka Tano confronts her former master, now Darth Vader, in a duel during the season two finale of Rebels.
Captain Rex (Dee Bradley Baker) from The Clone Wars also returns, now a much older clone due to the accelerated growth rate of the clone troops. Rex is revealed to have avoided engaging in Order 66 (the order for all Clone Troops to see their Jedi commanders as traitors and to eliminate the Jedi) because he removed the inhibitor chip that contained the protocol for Order 66. Rex joins the crew of The Ghost and the Rebellion, happy to have been able to choose to fight, rather than be forced to like he did as a soldier for the Republic.
One of the most popular characters from Star Wars Legends, the original canon of Star Wars, appears in Rebels. Grand Admiral Thrawn appears as a high-ranking Imperial official. Thrawn is more observant than fellow Imperial officers and lets the Rebels have their small victories, with his ultimate goal being to destroy the Alliance.
Several Imperial and Rebellion characters introduced in the films also appear throughout Rebels. These include Grand Moff Tarkin, The Emperor, Bail Organa, Princess Leia Organa, Wedge Antilles (whose introduction to the rebellion is told during the show) and more.
Seeing these familiar characters interact with the crew of The Ghost helps establish Rebels as a definitive part of the Star Wars canon.
Legacy
Some elements of Rebels appears in other Star Wars media.
The Ghost appears in Rogue One, both on Yavin IV and during the climatic space battle over Scarif. Hera’s name is heard being paged over an intercom during a scene on Yavin IV, and Chopper is seen rolling around at the Rebel base. The Ghost also appears during the final battle in space in The Rise of Skywalker.
****THE RISE OF SKYWALKER SPOILER****
Kanan’s voice is also heard in The Rise of Skywalker as one of the voices of Jedi who comfort Rey during her fight with Emperor Palpatine. He tells Rey the strength of the Jedi lies in their heart.
****END OF SPOILER****
In the epilogue scene of Rebels, Sabine narrates what’s happened to members of the Ghost crew. It’s revealed that both Hera and Captain Rex fought in the Battle of Endor alongside Han, Leia, Chewie and the rest of the rebels dispatched to the planet.
In addition, Disney has officially retconned the identity of one older Rebel seen in Return of the Jedi. Filoni supported a fan theory that the elder Rebel was in fact Captain Rex, which has now been confirmed in a Star Wars Galaxy of Adventures episode . So, retroactively, Rex first appeared during the Battle of Endor in Return of the Jedi.
This character was originally called Nik Sant in Star Wars Legends. As of a July 2019 episode of Star Wars Galaxy of Adventures, the character has been retconned to be Captain Rex, a veteran of the Clone Wars.
Rebels is available for streaming on Disney+.
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