After months of rumors, speculation, and hopes for clues (like the purrgil) coming via the other shows, Ahsoka finally dropped a teaser trailer. While it doesn’t reveal much about the plot of the show that brings back Rosario Dawson as the live-action incarnation of the fan-favorite character, it did give the first live-action looks at some beloved characters from Star Wars Rebels. The animated show is, in my opinion, one of the most underrated entries in the Star Wars franchise. With Ahsoka about to shine the spotlight on Hera, Sabine, and more of the Rebels survivors, I’m officially ready to rewatch the series… and you should be ready to watch some Rebels too, whether you’re new to it or a veteran.
And let’s start with some spoiler-free discussion, in case you’re a Star Wars Rebels newcomer!
Why You Should Watch (Or Rewatch) Rebels
Now, if you’re not familiar with Star Wars Rebels, a lot of the Ahsoka trailer probably didn’t make much sense. You wouldn’t have known that Natasha Liu Bordizzo and Mary Elizabeth Winstead were playing Sabine Wren and Hera Syndulla, respectively, and might have only recognized Chopper from the cameo in Rogue One and Thrawn from his origins in the Star Wars expanded universe that was removed from Disney-era canon. If you are familiar with Rebels, however… well, the trailer might just have given you a thrill even bigger than when Zeb made a surprise appearance in The Mandalorian.
And that’s a thrill that Rebels fans deserve, as the second Star Wars animated show has long been overshadowed by The Clone Wars with its roster of legendary characters like Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker. Clone Wars was an anthology series featuring animated versions of many film characters, and does deservee the credit that it gets for its later seasons, whereas Rebels was more serialized and kept the focus on one group of characters.
That made it easy to become invested in the lives of those characters… and nervous about their fates. After all, The Clone Wars wasn’t going to kill off Yoda or Anakin or Obi-Wan, but the future wasn’t certain for most of the Rebels characters. It was a different kind of journey than any other Star Wars project, and with 75 episodes over four seasons, viewers actually spent more screentime with the crew of the Ghost than even the most iconic characters of the franchise.
Plus, there’s no ignoring that Rebels helps to fill in one of the gaps in Ahsoka’s history between the end of The Clone Wars and her Mandalorian appearance in the Star Wars timeline. Even though she was never a main character in the animated series, her appearances over the years were pivotal to the story, and she was part of what I maintain was one of the most impressive lightsaber duels in the entire franchise. In fact, the moment that the trailer used "JEDI" to describe her as well as "WARRIOR," "OUTCAST," and "REBEL" immediately made me think of one of her most famous Rebels lines.
Ahsoka obviously isn’t going to be Star Wars Rebels Season 5 with guest star Rosario Dawson, and it shouldn’t be. This is Ahsoka's story. But close ties are already there between the shows, and all we have to go on is a two-minute teaser trailer and a cast list! Besides, Ahsoka won’t debut on Disney+ until August, and Star Wars fans need something to pass the time once The Mandalorian wraps for the season. Why not revisit Rebels?
If those aren’t reasons enough, let’s get into spoilers!
Why I'm Ready To Experience Rebels Again
The epilogue of Star Wars Rebels literally ended on Ahsoka coming to retrieve Sabine so they could search for Ezra, who’d disappeared with Thrawn in the series finale, just in time to be conveniently absent from the Rebellion in the original trilogy era without being killed off. (R.I.P. to Kanan, who wasn't as lucky.) Ahsoka presumably isn’t going to be a series all about answering questions from Star Wars Rebels, but this is one that seems inevitable to be addressed based on the trailer. Rewatching Rebels could make it all the more fulfilling.
Plus, call me crazy, but Kanan Jarrus is one of my favorite Jedi from all of Star Wars, and the closest that the galaxy far, far away has come to including him in live-action is a voice cameo from Freddie Prinze Jr. at the end of Rise of Skywalker. He obviously can’t appear alive in Ahsoka unless there are scenes or flashbacks set before his death in the final arc of Season 4, but Ahsoka is the best chance of Kanan getting some well-deserved attention in the larger franchise. The show can’t cover a search for Ezra without mentioning his mentor, right?
There’s also the question of where Jacen is in Ahsoka. He doesn’t appear in the trailer, and Hera seems unlikely to bring her son on missions as dangerous as what the trailer suggests, but I can’t imagine that he won’t at least be mentioned. Ideally, he’d at least make a cameo, as it would be interesting to see a human-Twi’lek hybrid in live-action. Jacen seemed to take almost entirely after his human father in the finale of Rebels; maybe there would be more detail in Ahsoka.
And given that we can’t rule out some flashbacks to earlier days in Ahsoka’s life (which may be how the show incorporates Hayden Christensen), I’d love to see some iconic Rebels moments adapted into live-action. The lightsaber duel between Vader and Ahsoka in the Season 2 finale was epic in animation; just imagine how it could look in Ahsoka!
No more major spoilers beyond this point!
All in all, the trailer for Ahsoka left me thinking back to the days of watching Star Wars Rebels for the first time, and being surprised by how much I enjoyed a Disney XD animated series. I’ve actually always preferred Rebels from start to finish to The Clone Wars from start to finish, and love the little references in the other shows, ranging from Kanan’s cameo as Caleb Dume in The Clone Wars to his larger role in The Bad Batch to Zeb in The Mandalorian.
Rebels seems on the verge of getting its due via Ahsoka revisiting its characters and cliffhanger as part of her journey. With months to go before Rosario Dawson’s show premieres, why not rewatch? I think it’s safe to say that Ashley Eckstein would agree!
It’s certainly not hard to do, if you have a Disney+ subscription. All four seasons of Star Wars Rebels are available on the Disney streamer, as well as the other TV shows and the films set in the galaxy far, far away. The slate of films is finally going to expand with some exciting projects that were announced at the annual Star Wars Celebration event.
