45 years after the very first Star Wars film arrived in theaters, the franchise is still going strong.
Stronger than ever, in fact. Several popular series keep the franchise alive, as new corners of the Star Wars galaxy are explored through a number of spin-off series and films. The animated series behind some of the live-action characters currently debuting via shows like The Book of Boba Fett and Ahsoka has been a crowd favorites for years, laying down deep Star Wars lore via colorful characters and thrilling — but kid-appropriate — storylines.
The two most popular of these series have both come to an end, with Star Wars: The Clone Wars polishing off a seven season run in 2020, and Star Wars: Rebels airing its fourth and final season in 2018. As beloved animated characters prep to make their way into live-action, fans have questions about where in the timeline the original series’ fall. While Clone Wars is rather clear about where it falls in the broad Star Wars timeline, Rebels is less obvious.
When does Rebels take place?
Each of the Star Wars animated series hones in on a previously ignored part of the larger story’s canon. The main library of Star Wars films ignore a huge amount of events that are mentioned in lore, like the Clone Wars and the rise of the Rebellion, leaving plenty of space for supplemental material to swoop in and fill in the gaps.
The animated series have done an incredible job of filling in those gaps, fleshing out races and characters with far more dedication and care than many of the live-action releases. This is exactly what Rebels accomplishes over its four season run, as it focuses on a handful of stellar characters — some of whom made their debut in Clone Wars — and adds a wealth of new information and depth to the Star Wars archives.
The story in Rebels takes place just under a decade and a half after the events of Revenge of the Sith. The fall of the Jedi Order and the rise of the Empire has changed the face of the galaxy, leaving many of its inhabitants cowering. The remaining Jedi are hunted by the intimidating Inquisitorious, a capable group of Force-sensitive warriors who will stop at nothing to wipe every last trace of the Jedi from the galaxy.
This tumultuous state lays the groundwork for the inception of the Rebellion. Rebels follows several of the remaining Jedi as they work to avoid detection by the Empire and form a genuine alliance to fight back. The story takes place over the course of approximately five years, between 5 BBY and 0 BBY. It ends just before stories like Rogue One and A New Hope begin, providing the groundwork for the stellar Star Wars stories we’ve known and loved for years. It fills in the gaps between the end of Revenge of the Sith and the start of the original Star Wars trilogy, and helps to explain several inconsistencies in the story.
Love it or hate it, Rebels persists as an excellent source of expanded Star Wars lore. It helps to further explain some of the most vital details in George Lucas’ sprawling galaxy, and introduces characters that continue to populate Star Wars content to this day. Fans are clamoring for the live-action introduction of the series lead, Ezra Bridger, as other crowd favorites like Ahsoka Tano set their sights on a solo series. Perhaps we’ll get the chance to see Ezra, Hera — and most importantly Chopper — translated into live-action next.
