The Star Wars franchise is an ever-expanding one, with a plethora of projects lined up for the future, including Star Wars: Skeleton Crew and Ahsoka. Star Wars Rebels is a seminal animated television series in the Star Wars universe, providing important context for the events that took place between Episode III and Episode IV. However, is Star Wars Rebels canon?
The series follows a group of rebels who live aboard a starship named Ghost, and band together to fight the Galactic Empire. Key among the rebels is Ezra Bridger, an orphan from Lothal who comes to know that he is Force-sensitive. Other rebels include Kanan Jarrus, Sabine Wren, Zeb, Hera Syndulla, and an astromech droid named Chopper. The concentrated efforts of these individuals eventually lead to the formation of the Rebel Alliance.
The enduring legacy of Star Wars Rebels
The events of Star Wars Rebels are considered canon, as is the Clone Wars animated series. While Clone Wars provides a glimpse into familiar and new characters while being set during the Prequel era, Rebels fills in the gaps in terms of how the Rebel Alliance came to be, while offering a fresh direction to the franchise as a whole.
The legacy of Rebels is further cemented by the limited series Obi-Wan Kenobi, which provides a backstory of sorts to the character of the Grand Inquisitor, who is a key antagonist in season one of Rebels. Another reason why Rebels proves to be so crucial for the future properties in the franchise is the fact that it sets up the upcoming Ahsoka series, providing key context to Ahsoka’s dynamic with Ezra and her motivations behind hunting down Grand Admiral Thrawn.
Ahsoka’s character has been introduced in live-action already, as she first appeared in The Mandalorian, and later in The Book of Boba Fett. Rebels (and Clone Wars) allows fans to track her arc as a character, which might prove instrumental in understanding the upcoming series.
Apart from this, Rebels acts as the perfect jumping-off point for the introduction of characters like Ezra in live-action, while offering greater insight into the Mandalorians, including Bo-Katan Kryze. The animated show also touched upon the Darksaber and explained why the artifact is so important to Bo-Katan in particular, and a part of that story plays out in season two of The Mandalorian.