WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for the series finale of Star Wars Rebels, “Family Reunion and Farewell,” which debuted Monday night on Disney XD.
If you're a Star Wars Rebels fan, it's likely you shed a tear watching the show's series finale. Knowing it would be the last time we would see these freedom fighters rally together carried considerable emotional weight. It didn't hurt that the quality and attention-to-detail of the 45-minute closer was more akin to a feature film than the last episode of a cartoon.
Star Wars animation guru Dave Filoni didn't get a chance to end The Clone Wars the way he had planned. In fact, there were tons of loose threads left dangling when the series ended, many of which were tied up in novels, comics and even episodes of Rebels. There was also one character in specific whose story fans and Filoni agreed was cut way too short: Ahsoka Tano. It was no surprise, then, that when given a chance to helm a new animated series, not only did he make sure to bring Ahsoka back, he also planned the show to be only four seasons from the get go. By doing this, Filoni was able to lay out the basic beats of the whole series, from start to finish.
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Of course this is Star Wars, so nothing is ever fully finished. Filoni knows this, and it appears he's had an eye on what would come after Rebels since the start. Based on the final episodes, as well as what we know about Filoni’s predilections, it's possible to glean a few hints as to what’s next for Star Wars animation.
Ahead of the finale's debut, we postulated that the next Star Wars animated show would be set after The Battle of Endor. As we saw, Sabine’s epilogue took us to exactly that moment. The question now, is, what will the story be about?
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There were a number of clues in Rebels' penultimate and finale episodes. First off, we see that Ahsoka has survived Malachor and is planning to keep her promise to Ezra from A World Between Worlds, which was to find him. Obviously, from how the series finished, we can see Sabine will be joining her on the mission. This alone could be the basis of the next series.
Filoni confirmed, in the last ever episode of Rebels Recon (the Rebels companion talk show), that Ezra and Thrawn both survive their wild Purrgil ride. It's likely, then, that the space whales have taken the young Jedi and Grand Admiral into the Unknown Regions. That’s not just a random guess; both in his Expanded Universe debut and his in-canon appearances in Rebels, Thrawn’s species, the Chiss, are from the Unknown Regions. We don’t think the Purrgils are taking him home, per se, but we do think Filoni wants to explore the Unknown Regions, and possibly even the Chiss.
The Unknown Regions are also where the last of the Empire retreated to during the rise of the New Republic. This last contingent of Imperials eventually regrouped and returned as The First Order. The Star Wars: The Force Awakens - Incredible Cross-Sections reference book goes into a little more detail.
“When the Empire collapsed, the Emperor’s servants fled into the Unknown Regions with some of his regime’s greatest secrets. For years, military scout ships had explored far beyond the galactic frontier, surveying star systems and blazing hyperspace routes known only to a select few. Far from the prying eyes of the New Republic, the remnants of the Empire established new bases, shipyards, and weapons labs, and began plotting a return to power.”
So, will Thrawn be there at the start of The First Order? Or will The Chiss give the Emperor’s loyal refuge and protection? Who wouldn’t want to see a show about the dawn of The First Order that involves Thrawn, Ezra, Ahsoka and Sabine?
On the other hand, another big clue about what story Filoni and crew may tell next was the introduction of Hera Syndulla and Kanan Jarrus’ (aka Caleb Dume) son, Jacen, in the finale. We speculate that he will grow up to fly and fight for the Resistance. And though we do know quite a bit of Poe Dameron’s history from his comic series and a bunch of novels, it is very possible he and Jason fought together. Their mothers would have flown together in The Battle of Endor, and the boys would have been born around the same time. So, there’s another show we would watch the hell out of!
Now, for all the diehards that are mad Ezra survived because of what it means to canon, we're guessing Yoda didn’t include Ezra when telling Luke he was the last Jedi in the galaxy in The Empire Strikes Back because the Unknown Regions somehow obscure the Force. Regardless of where Dave Filoni and his team are taking the Star Wars story next, we have faith it will be worth watching.