After the purchase of Lucasfilm back in 2012 and before the arrival of Episode VII in late 2015 came Star Wars Rebels, the first Star Wars series to launch during the Disney era. Launching on 3rd October on the Disney Channel with the one-hour long Spark of Rebellion, the series began on 13th October on Disney XD and for the next four years thrilled audiences worldwide as the show expanded through the half-decade that led to the events of A New Hope.
Its featured characters became household names, as did the stars who voiced them and now, a decade later, we can look back on those incredible adventures, watch them on Disney Plus and marvel at the fact that each of those surviving characters have made their way into live action (with Kanan getting his own 12 issue Marvel Comic series in 2015 and appearing as his younger self in The Clone Wars, The Bad Batch and Tales of the Jedi along with his disembodied voice in The Rise of Skywalker).
Lucasfilm Animation has never shied away from telling sweeping, emotionally-driven stories, and Star Wars Rebels swiftly took its place alongside The Clone Wars with an opening sequence introducing Darth Vader, the former Anakin Skywalker, now working for the Empire and hunting down the last of his Jedi brethren. But this wasn’t Vader’s story, and before long, the real stars of the show were introduced: Ezra Bridger, a pickpocket with a Han Solo-esque heart of gold; Kanan Jarrus, a former Jedi now in hiding (but not for long!); Zeb Orrelios, a hulking Lasat with a killer Wookiee impression; Sabine Wren, a colorful Mandalorian with an expertise in explosives; Hera Syndulla, everyone’s space mom and the captain of the Ghost; and her loyal droid companion, Chopper (he’s also a war criminal.)
Dave Filoni, Greg Weisman and Simon Kinberg take a bow. As much as the cinematic and live action television projects captured the attention of the entire entertainment world, the missions of Phoenix Squadron captured the hearts of the Star Wars faithful, something that’s tremendously difficult to do.
