Star Wars Rebels Timeline Explained: When Does Each Season Take Place?

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In the Disney era of the "Star Wars" franchises, there have been things that people loved and things that people didn't love so much. That's just how it's going to go when a giant corporation expands a beloved property with decades of history. But in the 10 years and change that Disney has been in charge of a galaxy far, far away, few things have matched "Star Wars Rebels."

Debuting in 2014, the animated series is set several years before the events of the original "Star Wars" film trilogy. It focuses on the rag-tag crew of the Ghost starship — Kanan Jarrus (Freddie Prinze Jr.), Ezra Bridger (Taylor Gray), Hera Syndulla (Vanessa Marshall), Sabine Wren (Tiya Sircar), Zeb Orrelios (Steve Blum), and Chopper — in order to tell the story of the Rebellion's beginnings as the Empire's tyranny spreads through the galaxy, pitting them against opponents like the scheming Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen). And not to put too fine a point on it, but "Star Wars Rebels" is some of the best "Star Wars" media ever made.

There's been a fair amount of storytelling set before the events of George Lucas' original movies, but where, precisely, does "Rebels" fall on the new "Star Wars" timeline? We're going to break that down in very simple terms that even the most casual "Star Wars" fans can understand. After all, this franchise takes place across an entire galaxy of stories that span centuries. It can sometimes be overwhelming. So, again, we're here to answer this question in the most basic terms possible.

First, we need to explain how time is generally measured in the "Star Wars" galaxy: BBY and ABY. But what does BBY and ABY in "Star Wars" actually mean? All time is measured before the Battle of Yavin (BBY), aka the assault on the Death Star at the end of 1977's "Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope," or after the Battle of Yavin (ABY).

We're going to use this dating system to explain when "Star Wars Rebels" takes place on the timeline. The entire series unfolds several years BBY, getting closer to the Battle of Yavin as it rolls on. Here's how it shakes out across the show's four seasons:

• "Star Wars Rebels" Season 1 — 5 to 4 BBY

• "Star Wars Rebels" Season 2 — 4 to 3 BBY

• "Star Wars Rebels" Season 3 — 2 BBY

• "Star Wars Rebels" Season 4 — 1 BBY

When the series begins, we encounter a young orphaned boy named Ezra Bridger on the planet Lothal. He's Force sensitive but doesn't have any real way of understanding what that really means. Ezra eventually becomes one of the strongest Jedi in the "Star Wars" franchise, but in 5 BBY, when he first meets Kanan and the rest of the Ghost crew, he's just a scrappy teen trying to make his way through a galaxy under Imperial rule.

The crew's adventures take up small chunks of time through the first two seasons. However, "Rebels" Season 3 skips further ahead in the timeline. As a result, Season 4 takes place pretty close to the events of "A New Hope," which marked a turning point in what's known as the Age of Rebellion. These heroes were hugely consequential in shaping the era.

Notably, the "Star Wars Rebels" series finale concludes with an epilogue that includes a major time jump. It leaves us with Ahsoka Tano (Ashley Eckstein), Anakin Skywalker's former apprentice, and Sabine Wren venturing into the wilds of space to find Ezra Bridger and Grand Admiral Thrawn after their disappearance into parts unknown in the finale's climactic battle.

This epilogue takes place around 8-9 ABY, which isn't too far removed from where Season 1 of the live-action "Ahoska" TV show begins. So, what happens to the characters of "Star Wars Rebels" in the meantime? Sadly, Kanan dies partway through "Star Wars Rebels" Season 4, but Ahsoka and the other members of the Ghost crew continue to rebel against the Empire.

Zeb, in particular, shows up briefly in "The Mandalorian" and will appear in the upcoming "The Mandalorian and Grogu," so he's still fighting the good fight. That goes double for Sabine, Chopper, and Hera. Thrawn, meanwhile, finds himself in an entirely different galaxy with Ezra leading up to their return to the main "Star Wars" galaxy at the end of "Ahsoka" Season 1. Hence, Season 2 is expected to focus on Thrawn's subsequent campaign against the New Republic.

Other than Kanan, then, all of the core characters from "Rebels" are still alive and well as late as 9 ABY, so far as we know. Zeb, notably, didn't appear in "Ahsoka" Season 1, but it would be surprising if he didn't show up in Season 2. After all, there's still more for these characters to do as the "Star Wars" franchise continues filling in the gaps between the original and sequel trilogies. 

You can grab "Star Wars Rebels" Season 1 on Blu-ray or DVD from Amazon.