One of the most fascinating episodes of Star Wars Rebels created the possibility of a Star Wars multiverse. In Rebels season 4, Ezra Bridger enters a realm called the “World Between Worlds,” which exists outside of normal time and space. Within this plane, Ezra hears voices from throughout the Star Wars saga and sees various portals to specific points in time, connected by luminous pathways. Using one such portal, Ezra saves Ahsoka from certain death on Malachor, pulling her out of her season 2 duel with Darth Vader before a killing blow is dealt. This was one of the few times that Star Wars explored time travel, but the mysterious plane could also be used to visit entirely different timelines.
The Star Wars franchise has existed since 1977 and has unsurprisingly had multiple continuities in its decades of existence. The first timeline, the Expanded Universe, is now called Legends, and while it launched shortly after the first Star Wars movie, it was largely discontinued in 2014, following Disney’s acquisition of Lucasfilm and announcement of a sequel trilogy. The current canon includes the original and prequel trilogies as overlapping continuity with Legends. Legends is now a secondary timeline, with few instances of new content being added to it since 2014. The upcoming anime, Star Wars: Visions, is an anthology series that exists outside of the current canon, allowing for maximum creative freedom. Each episode could potentially exist in a self-contained continuity.
The World Between Worlds allowed Ezra to view and visit other points in time and space with seemingly limitless potential for exploration. With this in mind, it’s not difficult to imagine that other timelines could be reached as well, should the realm reappear in Star Wars canon. As shown in the Arrowverse, Marvel Cinematic Universe, and DCEU, multiverse storytelling is becoming increasingly popular among mainstream audiences. With Star Wars having two main timelines and numerous minor ones, including Visions, a Star Wars multiverse could make for exciting storytelling opportunities in which characters from one continuity interact with those from another, pleasing longtime fans and newcomers by acknowledging all of their legitimacy.
Similar to Marvel’s What If…?, the Star Wars franchise once published a series of comics called Star Wars Infinities, which explored alternate versions of the original trilogy in which one changed detail, such as Yavin IV being destroyed in A New Hope or Luke dying on Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back, completely changing the events of the films. Similarly, Legends-era video games often included hypothetical endings based on player choices. Thanks to the World Between Worlds, Star Wars Infinities could make a comeback, applying to both canon and Legends stories.
In many cases, the Legends versions of Star Wars saga characters are quite different from their canon counterparts. While Han Solo and Chewbacca aren’t too different in Legends when compared to canon, other characters, such as Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, and Boba Fett, have different origins, personality traits, and character trajectories. If Rey were to seek help in reestablishing the Jedi Order, the Legends universe’s Luke Skywalker would be the ideal assistant, given his success in the old Expanded Universe. The World Between Worlds would also allow for the reappearance of Legends characters who don’t have canon counterparts, such as Mara Jade or Kyle Katarn.
Considering both the potential of the World Between Worlds and the growing popularity of multiverse-centered fiction, a story that bridges the canon and Legends universes has incredible storytelling potential. Canon already takes heavy inspiration from the Legends universe, so it’d be fascinating to see in-universe comparisons between characters like Kylo Ren and Jacen Solo or events like the battles of Scarif and Toprawa. With a plethora of alternate timelines and a means to connect them all, Star Wars Rebels unlocked the potential for a Star Wars multiverse and connected timelines.