Though it may be a little late, 3rd October 2014 was the date Spark of Rebellion premiered, and despite it being another busy year I couldn’t let 2024 go by without a special look at this landmark show. The Phantom Menace took up a lot of airtime with its 25th anniversary and rightfully so, but this animated series that ran from 2014 – 2018 consisting of 75 episodes has become a solid favourite in the fandom, and much like The Clone Wars before it, Rebels was the entry point for many in their Star Wars journey.
Rebels will always hold a significant place in the canon of Star Wars. The Disney acquisition was in the rearview mirror and The Force Awakens was still over a year away from release meaning that this show was the first offering from Lucasfilm as part of the House of Mouse. With Dave Filoni at the helm, we were introduced to a band of rebels in the years between Episodes III and IV. This was also quite important as up until that point we hadn’t seen this part of the timeline onscreen before. The Empire reigned supreme in the canon and soon the rebels would rule the Star Wars culture.
The notion of following five or six lead characters was originally the pitch for The Clone Wars until Lucas decided to shift the narrative, but here we were introduced to Ezra, Kanan, Sabine, Zeb, Chopper and Hera – the latter becoming one of the strongest elements of the show in my opinion. We came to care about this misfit family in the best way Star Wars knows how. Though none of them were bonded by blood, life is about the family you choose along the way and the people you love and care about. In many ways, these characters were more of a family than most.
Rebels also gave us fan-favourites, but never in a way that was exploitative or shoe-horned in. Lando Calrissian would turn up with all the charm and swagger we’d expect, voiced by the legendary Billy Dee Williams himself. No Star Wars would be complete without C-3PO and R2-D2, and in later seasons we saw Yoda and Ben Kenobi play pivotal roles. Wedge Antilles and Princess Leia would also appear on screen and Darth Maul would go on to serve a crucial part of the story as his own journey would reach its conclusion. Meanwhile, Ahsoka Tano would return as Fulcrum and face her old master Anakin Skywalker in the emotional episodes and often highest ranked – Twilight of the Apprentice Parts I & II. When this episode aired for the first time it, was genuine edge-of-your-seat stuff.
There’s no denying that the show started out very kid-friendly. It did, after all, air weekly on Disney XD and was there to pull in the child audience, but as the show progressed so did the themes and challenges that The Ghost crew faced. I remember when Kanan Jarrus was blinded – there was no going back from that. It was powerful and heartbreaking and this was a kid’s cartoon show. Ezra would later go on to face difficult choices and tap into his anger, while Sabine would face choices that most grown-ups would struggle with. Rebels was doing what the original trilogy did a generation before, showing young people who were coming-of-age how to deal with the conflicting emotions within themselves and make the right choices about the people they loved.
Rebels also added to the canon in powerful ways. Bendu, the ancient being strongly connected to the Force, dates back to 1973 in early story treatments by Lucas himself who once wrote about the ‘Jedi Bendu.’ The Inquisitors were also introduced and would go on to play a pivotal role in future Star Wars projects and, of course, so beloved are these characters that when Ahsoka made its debut in 2023, for many the series was essentially Rebels Season 5. Grand Admiral Thrawn also made his onscreen debut to the delight of many after years of waiting and the stories that unfolded were tense and felt like they mattered to the larger story.
This series was also able to play about with ideas that if introduced in live-action might have caused uproar, but because it was animation there was more leeway. I’m talking specifically about the World Between Worlds and the mysteries surrounding it. Introduced as it was in Rebels, this gave way to the brilliant fifth episode of Ahsoka titled “Shadow Warrior” where Hayden Christensen made his epic return as The Chosen One to teach Ahsoka one final lesson.
As the series headed towards its final few episodes, we were left in the rare position where all possibilities were on the table and we couldn’t guess the fate of our characters. Kanan sacrificed himself in a heart-wrenching moment before the finale, a finale that became must-see television, marking the end of an era. After this, all future shows would stream on Disney+ as the days of terrestrial televisions were left behind. The events of this series would be so consequential that they would affect the narrative of the live-action ‘Mandoverse’ and perhaps the upcoming Dave Filoni movie that will tie all this together.
As we ponder where that decade has gone, the legacy of this show is clear to see. Many households have received their HASLAB Ghost. It’s amazing to think that a ship that started life in a cartoon show has become so important to many and, of course, the characters with the HASLAB are also having a life of their own.
The adventures of our rebel heroes are far from over now that they’ve made the successful jump to live-action and cameras will roll next April for the second season of Ahsoka. Just like The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels has aged incredibly well and stands out as among the finest of Star Wars storytelling. Not only did this show give us a spark of rebellion but continues to give us a spark of hope for future Star Wars stories.
