Star Wars Rebels is the second animated show to be officially part of Star Wars canon, and it has now been confirmed that the previously announced fourth season will indeed be the end. Season 4 of Rebels will continue to move the Ghost squadron closer to the events of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and A New Hope, and with canon being so vital to building this universe, Lucasfilm has made the decision to end the series before its events would cause complications with the original trilogy.
Rebels closely follows the group led by Kanaan and Hera, but also includes Ezra, Zeb, Chopper, and more. The next season is building off the Empire's victory on Lothal and Grand Admiral Thrawn finally delivering on his strategic plans. With him set to be a big part of Season 4's arc, the fates of the heroes remains to be seen, but fans can now head into next season knowing it will all come to a close.
Dave Filoni is one of the creators of Rebels and made this announcement during their panel at Star Wars Celebration Orlando. It was a rather bittersweet moment for him as someone who has seen the show grow, but the most important thing for him is giving a satisfying conclusion to these characters:
"As a creator I think about where are we going, what so the characters need to go through. So this is where i have to tell you this is my decision as the creator of this show with Simon [Kinberg] that Season 4 is the final season of Star Wars: Rebels. I firmly believe that each generation needs to have their own piece of Star Wars and I feel that this show for a lot of kids growing up with it is very much as much a part as any of the movies and I really appreciate that love from you guys and I feel creatively that I can make this story about these characters the most meaningful that it can be by arcing it to where I need to get to the end of this season. Believe me - I can say I know what it's like when I don't get to end a series."
Sad as it may be, the announcement that Season 4 will be Rebels' last is something that has been theorized by viewers for some time. Season 3 brought the shows' events extremely close to the movies, and with there being no mention of these characters during the Rebellion's greatest victories and battles, something has to happen that helps their exclusion make sense. Whether or not that will come in the form of death, or simply retirement, is unclear at this time, but it does promise that Season 4 will be packed with big character and story developments as Filoni and crew work to wrap everything up nicely.
One of the biggest questions on the minds of viewers is what will happen with Kanaan and Ezra's relationship moving forward; there have been theories that Ezra could turn to the Dark Side and has flirted with that previously under Maul's tutelage. Rogue One already confirmed that Hera and Chopper will (most likely) make it out alive (unless the series finale takes place after the events of the first anthology film). Whatever the eventual outcome may be, this may actually be the right time for Rebels to come to a close, so hopefully Filoni and everyone else involved have crafted the perfect final season.
Source: Star Wars