Nearly eight years after Star Wars: Rebels ended, executive producer Henry Gilroy is offering a new look at how the animated series came together under Disney’s watch. The series premiered on Disney XD in 2014 as the first original Star Wars project after Disney bought Lucasfilm in 2012. It followed Phoenix Squadron, a small band of rebels battling the growing Empire before the events of the original 1977 film. The four-season series wrapped up in 2018 and has since become one of Disney’s key pieces of Star Wars canon.
Speaking on the podcast Pod of Rebellion, Gilroy said producing Rebels felt far different from his work on Star Wars: The Clone Wars. The reason, he explained, was simple. On The Clone Wars, there was only one person to answer to: George Lucas. On Rebels, everything went through layers of committees. “When you’re working on Clone Wars, you have one boss. And that’s George Lucas,” Gilroy said. “On Rebels, you’re getting notes from Lucasfilm’s story group, the Disney team, BS&P, the studio, and the Disney Channel.” He described color-coded scripts packed with feedback from multiple departments. Despite the added oversight, Gilroy said he was proud of how the show turned out, crediting his team’s persistence and the creative trust earned while working with Lucas.
Gilroy also pointed out the financial contrast between the two shows. While Disney had far greater resources, Rebels worked with a tighter budget than The Clone Wars, which Lucas had personally financed. “Even with Disney’s resources, Rebels was not as expensive as Clone Wars,” Gilroy said. He added that cost concerns were part of why Disney canceled The Clone Wars. “When it got canceled, people were upset, which is why Netflix thought it was worth funding another season,” he recalled, referring to the show’s brief revival for Season 6.
Some of the strict oversight during Rebels may have had a purpose. The Disney and Lucasfilm teams wanted continuity between the show and the new feature films. Gilroy said the staff coordinated with plans for the main movies, including designs like the cross-guard lightsaber from The Force Awakens trailer and characters like Saw Gerrera, who appeared in Rogue One. This careful alignment helped unify a franchise once known for its scattered expanded universe.
Since its finale, Star Wars: Rebels has become central to Disney’s ongoing live-action efforts. Several of its heroes and villains have moved into series such as The Mandalorian and Ahsoka. Characters like Hera Syndulla, Sabine Wren, and Ezra Bridger now appear in live-action, while Zeb Orrelios is set to join The Mandalorian and Grogu. Grand Admiral Thrawn, reintroduced in Rebels Season 3, is being positioned as the main villain for the next phase of the franchise. Actor Lars Mikkelsen, who voiced Thrawn in the animated series, will continue the role on screen. The result is that the animated show, once viewed as a side story, now anchors much of the Star Wars universe under Disney’s control.
***
English (US) · 