What is it?
Star Wars: Rebels an animated series from 2014 to 2018 with 4 seasons and was the first new Star Wars project post Disney buying Lucasfilm after the end of the Clone Wars series (prior to the final season in 2020). The show follows the crew of the Ghost a smuggling/crew for hire set around 5 years before Episode IV: A New Hope.
The show features Hera Syndulla (the pilot), Kanan Jarrus (a surviving now grown up padawan), Sabine Wren (a Mandalorian from Madalore), Zeb Orrelios (the muscle) and Ezra Bridger (the newest crew member). Being post Disney purchase the series while animated is entirely canon with it being full of rich Star Wars lore closing the gap and brining a lot of pre-Disney lore into official canon including Ashoka from the Clone Wars series and the Darksaber.
 Wait, What?
Oh yes, the Darksaber, the Hyperspace Whales teased in the Mandalorian Season 3, cameos from Rogue One, it’s true. All of it. The series was actually the first show creator credit for Dave Filoni who is of course currently the everything Star Wars right beside Jon Favreau. Filoni previously worked on the Clone Wars after coming across from working on Avatar: The Last Airbender.
With the Clone Wars being wrapped up without a big finisher for the end of season (which we did get in 2020) Disney were clearly ready to move on with Star Wars as they prepared the sequel trilogies. Before the Force Awakens was released in 2015 however Rebels came out a year earlier focused on a new never before seen cast of characters set in the time before a New Hope where the Rebellion existed but the Empire was still firmly in control of the galaxy.
Across the entirety of the series a number of pre-Disney canon such as Admiral Thrawn and Ahsoka Tano were brought into major story arcs which also filled in a lot of details missing across Star Wars lore in addition to creating new lore in relation to things like the force or giant space whales that travel in hyperspace and the final fate of Darth Maul post Clone Wars.
How do I get into it?
The entire series is on Disney+ with 77 episodes across 4 seasons. The series began just as Star Wars animation was being moved under Disney so it definitely has a 2014 feel about it but does improve across the series run. While characters who were around pre-ANH appear you do not need an encyclopaedic knowledge of Star Wars to enjoy it as quite a few characters who might be familiar are really being introduced for the first time here.
The lore, story and references from Rebels was largely not used by the films. But inside of the new Star Wars streaming/TV universe Star Wars: Rebels is incredibly important with the Mandalorian already using (and slightly changing) some of the lore specifically around the Darksaber and how it is passed. Also the crew of the Ghost have already been cast in live action and will appear in the Ahsoka series which should deal and possibly continue from where and how Rebels finished (no spoilers).
Get it if you like…
Star Wars, Firefly and Robots with tiny arms the look like R2-D2 but you will forever watch every Star Wars series and movie from that point wondering if the Red and white droid you see is the same one.
