Star Wars Rebels

The series is set five years before the events of Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope, which is fourteen years into the reign of the Galactic Empire. The general idea behind the series is described in the following way: "In the galaxy, a difficult period has begun, as the sinister Galactic Empire increases its control of power across numerous worlds. As the story unfolds, Imperial forces have taken over a remote planet, governing harshly and negatively impacting the lives of its inhabitants. However, a small number of individuals possess the courage to oppose the vast numbers of Stormtroopers and TIE fighters of the Empire. These brave souls are the resourceful and varied crew of the starship Ghost. Together, this diverse group will encounter dangerous new adversaries, embark on thrilling adventures, and ultimately become heroes."

Dave Filoni, Simon Kinberg, and Carrie Beck are credited as the creators of Star Wars Rebels. Beck initially came up with the concept, suggesting it should be about "this A-team type of group that travels around correcting injustices." This idea reminded Filoni of his original concept for Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which he described in The Art of Star Wars: The Clone Wars: "My basic idea revolved around a small group of characters [a Jedi Master and their Padawan, a smuggler and their partner, and a Gungan "strongman" named Lunker], who would operate from a Millennium Falcon-esque smuggling ship and be involved in black market activities, war espionage, and other narratives that existed outside the main galactic conflict."

Discussions about where Rebels would fit within the Star Wars timeline resulted in the decision to focus the series on the Rebel Alliance. Consequently, the series was set between Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope, during the Galactic Empire's rule, but not too close to A New Hope to avoid repetition. Unlike the galaxy-spanning structure of The Clone Wars, Rebels was designed to portray the Rebellion from the perspective of a single group of characters. Filoni mentioned that Kinberg compared it to imagining a show set during the American Revolution "that focused on a small group of people hiding in a farmhouse, fighting against the local British forces without much knowledge of the broader political landscape." He also highlighted how the original trilogy mentioned events like the disbanding of the Imperial Senate without actually showing them.

The development team aimed to distinguish the series from The Clone Wars by heavily incorporating the designs of Ralph McQuarrie, the artist responsible for the concept art of the original trilogy. Rebels drew inspiration from ideas developed by George Lucas for Star Wars: Underworld, and many of the action sequences in Rebels were influenced by the Indiana Jones franchise. In the early stages of development, Disney wanted a more comedic series than Lucasfilm was interested in creating. Kathleen Kennedy and the Rebels creative team had to argue against this direction. At one point, Filoni considered including the Death Star plans in the show but abandoned the idea when Rogue One began development. He later considered appearances from the Death Star and Orson Krennic, but ultimately decided it was better to focus on elements that directly impacted the Ghost crew.

Darren Marshall, a seasoned sculptor from Lucasfilm Ltd. who had previously worked on Star Wars: The Clone Wars, created sculpts for the main characters of Star Wars Rebels before leaving Lucasfilm in June 2013. By December 2013, the production team had completed the development of the series' first season and had started animating the first script. As of January 2014, the scripts for the first season were about halfway done. Voice recording had been completed for five episodes, with three more episodes in the storyboarding phase, two more in animation, and the first episode undergoing lighting. Sound design was also in progress, with a theme established for the series. Greg Weisman joined the project as an executive producer in May 2013, although the series had been in development for some time before that.

On January 17, Keith Kellogg, the animation supervisor, announced that the production team had finished animating the first episode of the series. To assist in the animation process, Lucasfilm developed a special tool for Adobe Photoshop that mimicked Ralph McQuarrie's artistic style. The character Zeb Orrelios is based on McQuarrie's original concept art for the Wookiee Chewbacca. The series' visual style is also influenced by the work of Hayao Miyazaki, a favorite of Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy. Filoni requested that the animation team study the Disney film Tangled, which used 3D animation to create 2D facial expressions. Simon Kinberg wrote the series' first two episodes, which serve as a brief story arc to introduce the main characters. By March 2014, the entire first season had been outlined, and according to Greg Weisman, the series as a whole is structured as a three-act play. The first season acts as the first act of the overall series, with the second and third acts potentially spanning multiple seasons.

Star Wars Rebels was overseen by three executive producers: Dave Filoni, Simon Kinberg, and Greg Weisman. In addition to Filoni, the Rebels production team included several returning crew members from Star Wars: The Clone Wars, such as Athena Yvette Portillo as line producer, Kilian Plunkett as art director, Joel Aron as CG effects supervisor, Keith Kellogg as animation supervisor, and Steward Lee as episodic director. Lee, who was Filoni's longest-serving episodic director on The Clone Wars, was joined by his brother Steven G. Lee, a veteran of LucasArts, in directorial duties. Kevin Kiner, who previously composed the music for Star Wars: The Clone Wars, returned as the new music composer for Star Wars Rebels. Lucasfilm enlisted music producer Flux Pavillion to remix Kiner's main theme for Rebels. Other returning crew members from The Clone Wars included Amy Beth Christenson, Andre Kirk, Pat Presley, and Chris Glenn on the concept art team, managed by Liz Cummings, as well as Paul Zinnes on the development team. Pablo Hidalgo, a member of the Lucasfilm Story Group, also assisted the team as a fact-checker. The crew aimed for an overall aesthetic similar to that of the original trilogy. To achieve this, Joel Aron attempted to give the visuals a "grainy look," Matthew Wood used many of the original trilogy's sound effects for the series' soundtrack, and the crew animated the lightsabers to emulate the look of those in the original trilogy.

The initial announcement of Star Wars Rebels occurred on March 11, 2013, as an unnamed animated series intended to replace Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Its official title and planned premiere in the fall of 2014 were revealed in a press release on May 20, 2013. The first Star Wars Rebels teaser trailer was released on the Star Wars YouTube channel on October 7, 2013. The main characters of the series were first introduced at the January 2014 Nuremberg International Toy Fair, which showcased upcoming LEGO Star Wars Rebels sets. These sets, which featured the Ghost and the attack shuttle Phantom, included minifigures of Ezra Bridger, Zeb Orrelios, Hera Syndulla, and a placeholder for Kanan Jarrus. The initial packaging incorrectly identified Zeb's last name as "Orretios," but the finalized packaging at the New York Toy Fair shortly after corrected the name and included Jarrus' minifigure.

On February 4, 2014, Lucasfilm exclusively distributed six original artwork pieces by Amy Beth Christenson to six select websites across the Internet—Empire, ET Online, IGN, Mashable, Omelete and TheForce.net—to promote Star Wars Rebels. The artwork, presented as Imperial propaganda posters, was part of an exclusive mailing campaign where limited-edition cards featuring the artwork were sent to 2,500 people worldwide on February 5. The mailings arrived in black-embossed envelopes from the Commission for the Preservation of the New Order on Coruscant and included a letter encouraging citizens to proudly display the posters in support of the Imperial occupation of Lothal. When combined, the six card backs formed the Rebels phoenix logo.

Starting with Chopper, the "grumpy astromech droid" on January 28, a series of videos were released to introduce each member of the Ghost crew. Kanan was introduced as "the Cowboy Jedi" on February 12, followed by "the Street-Smart Hero" Ezra Bridger on February 14. Two Rebels teasers, titled "Spark" and "Ignite," were released on February 17, and videos introducing Garazeb Orrelios, "the Muscle," Sabine Wren, "the Explosive Artist," and Hera Syndulla, "the Pilot," were released on February 18, 19, and 20, respectively. These videos were released through independent news sources such as TV Guide, IGN, and Entertainment Weekly, and then posted on the official Star Wars YouTube channel shortly after. On April 16, a clip featuring the character Hera Syndulla was released on the Star Wars YouTube channel in conjunction with a panel at WonderCon 2014.

The first full-length trailer for Rebels was released on May 4, 2014. A thirty-second preview of the trailer was broadcasted on Good Morning America on May 2, followed by the full trailer on May 4, which aired throughout the day on various Disney networks and was made available online at StarWars.com and Disney.com. On July 9, 2014, ESPN's Wednesday Night Baseball game between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Pirates featured a Star Wars theme, incorporating elements from Star Wars Rebels. On July 24, 2014, Lucasfilm hosted a panel at the 2014 San Diego Comic-Con titled "The Heroes of Star Wars Rebels," featuring Dave Filoni, Simon Kinberg, and the series' main voice cast. Attendees were given "HoloNet registration cards" that directed them to a re-launched version of HoloNetNews.com featuring videos of Imperial propaganda. Around this time, several more promotional videos were released, including two more full-length trailers, two previews exclusive to San Diego Comic-Con, and videos introducing Imperial Security Bureau Agent Kallus and The Inquisitor. August saw the release of a seven-minute preview, a four-minute preview, and three television spots. Starting on August 11, four three-minute prelude shorts were released consecutively (weekly) on Disney XD. In September, six more TV spots and another trailer were released. Also that month, the Toys "R" Us website began releasing a series of promotional videos called "Secrets of the Star Wars Rebels" that would continue through October.

On October 2, 2014, Disney announced the renewal of Star Wars Rebels for a second season. The series premiered the following day on the Disney Channel with the TV movie Star Wars Rebels: Spark of Rebellion. Two final TV spots were released before the debut of regular episodes on Disney XD on October 13.

All four seasons of the series are available on the Disney+ streaming service, which was launched on November 12, 2019.

Pablo Hidalgo from Lucasfilm initially established the timeline for Star Wars Rebels as approximately fourteen years after the events of Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith, placing it about five years before the events of Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope. Although the official StarWars.com press release announcing the Rebels character Chopper later suggested a timeline of four years prior to A New Hope, Hidalgo quickly confirmed the original timeframe via Twitter. In reprinting parts of the original StarWars.com Chopper press release, the Launch Pad section of Star Wars Insider 148 also stated the series timeline as 4 BBY. Simon Kinberg told Empire magazine that the series would have strong connections to the broader saga: "[I've] always felt [Star Wars Rebels] would lead into IV and potentially set up characters you might not meet until V, or VI, or even VII, but the notion was that this would stand alone from Episode VII. That doesn't mean that we can't introduce Easter eggs that will pay off in VII, VIII, IX."

Dave Filoni initially stated that Zeb Orrelios was a new species based on Ralph McQuarrie's concept art for the Wookiee Chewbacca, but the Expanded Universe already had a species known as the Lasat that was based on the same concept art. Star Wars Insider 148 identified Orrelios as a Lasat, but misspelled his last name as "Orrelious." Star Wars Insider 149 issued an apology for the misspelling but still misspelled the character's name again, this time as "Orrilios."

John Jackson Miller's novel A New Dawn, which serves as a prequel to Star Wars Rebels, is considered the first narrative to be part of Lucasfilm's Story Group.

• Star Wars Rebels on StarWars.com (backup link)
• Star Wars Rebels on Lucasfilm.com (backup link)
• Star Wars Rebels Playlist on Disney.com (backup link)
• Official Site on Disney XD on Disney.com (content now obsolete; backup link)
• Star Wars Rebels on Wikipedia
• Star Wars Rebels (@starwarsrebels) on Facebook (backup link (starwarsrebels) not verified!)
• Star Wars Rebels at the Internet Movie Database