Star Wars Rebels' Final Season More Serialized

Screen Rant

Star Wars Rebels' Final Season is More 'Serialized Than You're Used To'

By Ana Dumaraog

Published Oct 16, 2017

The final season of Star Wars Rebels takes on a more serialized way of storytelling compared to its predecessors, says EP Dave Filoni.

Season 4 of Star Wars Rebels will get more into serialized storytelling than its past three seasons. The final outing of the Disney XD Star Wars prequel is looking to wrap up its story beginning tomorrow. Executive producer Dave Filoni wants fans to know ahead of time that the final outing will get into a more connective narrative instead of jumping around in terms of the Ghost Crew's adventures week-by-week.

In Rebels season 4, the Empire will be gearing up to retaliate in the aftermath of the Rebels season 3 finale, where Grand Admiral Thrawn once again failed to capture the Ghost Crew. Despite the Chopper Base essentially being ransacked, prompting the team to start again elsewhere, we can expect that they will finally join the bigger faction spearheaded by Mon Mothma, leading viewers to the events of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

Speaking to Nerdist while doing the promotional rounds for the new episodes, Filoni shared that the final season of the show will tell more connected stories in immediate succession:

Thrawn and Governor Pryce in Star Wars Rebels

“I’ve been able to build a lot better connections and motivations across all the episodes as we go. It is very unlike other seasons, because while the episodes are self contained, they are very next to each other in progression. They affect each other more; it’s more serialized than you’re used to.”

This decision makes sense, as there is a lot on Rebels' plate in terms of narrative loose ends that need to be tied up before the series comes to a close. The list includes the fate of the Darksaber and Sabine's storyline. Also, the long-running mystery of Ahsoka’s whereabouts after she disappeared in Malachor at the end of the second season. Over on the Empire's side, fans are still expecting Thrawn to get more screen time. He is, after all, the main Big Bad of the show for two seasons now.

A more serialized way of storytelling means fewer filler episodes, which Fioni and his team have used to offer a breather from time to time. It's hard to imagine fans having much of an issue with that, however. Having said that, those small-scale, more lighthearted episodes are utilized to cater to the younger fans of the show, which makes sense given that despite its tendencies to get deeper into the lore, it is still as Disney XD production.