star wars time travel rebels

This Mysterious Place Could Introduce Time Travelling to 'Ahsoka'

We first saw this place in 'Star Wars Rebels,' but have we seen the last of it?

Editor's Note: The following contains mild spoilers for Ahsoka Episodes 1 & 2.

The Big Picture

• Star Wars Rebels introduced time travel through the World Between Worlds, allowing characters to alter the past and future in the franchise. We saw this when Ezra went back in time to save Ahsoka during her duel with Darth Vader.
• The exact nature of time travel in Star Wars remains vague, leaving open the possibility of changing events and altering the canon.
• Introducing time travel poses risks for the franchise, as it could disrupt continuity and potentially upset fans, making it crucial for future stories to build on what has come before.

Time travel and Star Wars seem like they should go hand in hand. The beloved sci-fi media franchise has made use of almost every kind of science fiction character or concept throughout its more than forty-year history, from robots to clones and including practically everything in between. Many characters in the Star Wars universe are able to perceive time in unusual ways through their connections to the Force, but actual physical travel between different points in time has remained exceedingly rare in the franchise and for a long time only occurred in obscure works in the Expanded Universe. It wasn’t until relatively recently that a more mainstream Star Wars project introduced time travel to the Disney-era canon. In the final season of the animated series Star Wars Rebels the lead characters discovered a mysterious realm called the World Between Worlds which seemingly allowed one of them to go back in time and make a major change to Star Wars history.

Rebels ’ fourth and final season focused on the main characters, the Rebel Alliance’s Spectre unit , returning to Lothal, home planet of Jedi Padawan Ezra Bridger ( Taylor Gray ), to free it from occupation by the Galactic Empire. During the conflict, the team discovered that the Empire was devoting extensive resources to researching the planet’s ancient Jedi temple, which Ezra and his master, Kanan Jarrus ( Freddie Prinze Jr. ), had visited in the past. Hoping to find out why the Empire was so interested in it, Ezra and Sabine Wren ( Tiya Sircar ) snuck into the temple site. The Empire found that a section of the temple wall featured a painting of the Father ( Lloyd Sher ), Daughter ( Adrienne Wilkinson ), and Son ( Sam Witwer ) of Mortis, powerful Force-wielding beings that Anakin Skywalker ( Matt Lanter ), Ahsoka Tano ( Ashley Eckstein ), and Obi-Wan Kenobi ( James Arnold Taylor ) encountered in Star Wars: The Clone Wars . Ezra connected to the wall through the Force and paintings of local creatures called loth-wolves began moving, leading him to another section, where he found a portal that he then stepped through.

After stepping through the portal Ezra found himself in a mystical space, where voices from other points in time (including those of many other characters from the Star Wars franchise) could be heard and which featured doorways to other places and times. After wandering through the space for a time Ezra found Morai the convor, an owl-like creature he had often seen in Ahsoka’s company, perched atop one of the doorways. In the doorway, he saw Ahsoka in the midst of her fateful duel with Anakin (who by this time had taken his place as Darth Vader), which had occurred years prior. As the Sith temple around them began to crumble Ezra pulled Ahsoka through the doorway. Ahsoka described the space as “a world between worlds.”

RELATED: What Happened to Ezra Bridger Before 'Ahsoka'?

How Does Star Wars' Time Travel Work?

Rebels left the exact nature of the World Between Worlds’ time travel vague. It is unclear if Ezra actually changed the future by saving Ahsoka, or if his interference in her duel always occurred as part of a time loop, like the ones depicted in films such as Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and The Terminator . When they left the World Between Worlds, Ahsoka went through a different door than Ezra and wasn’t seen again until the series finale, suggesting that she may have returned to her time and lived the intervening years naturally. It’s even possible that she was always fated to survive the duel, the outcome of which had always been intentionally vague, and that Ezra’s involvement didn’t really change things much. But if that’s the case it raises the question of why Ahsoka wouldn’t have returned to her Rebel allies, or at least let them know she was alive, sooner.

In addition, Ahsoka did convince Ezra not to save Kanan from dying when they saw his death in another doorway because she feared how this would change the present and future, meaning she at least believed it was possible to do so. Emperor Sheev Palpatine/Darth Sidious’ ( Ian McDiarmid ) interest in the World Between Worlds also makes the most sense if he could use it to control the future. In Rebels ’ final episodes, Ezra was brought before a hologram of the Emperor, who showed him that he had salvaged a piece of the Lothal temple. This was implied to have a connection to the World Between Worlds, as a doorway opened to a scene from Ezra’s childhood. Palpatine tried to tempt Ezra to go through the doorway and prevent his parents’ deaths, although the evil Sith Lord could have of course been lying and wanted Ezra to go through it for some other reason. But the way Palpatine spoke about it made it seem like he most likely wanted to use the World Between Worlds to control fate. Based on all of this the most likely conclusion is that the World does in fact create the possibility of altering the past and future.

Time Travel Is a Risky Introduction to Star Wars

Introducing time travel to mainstream Star Wars in this way was one of the boldest storytelling choices in the Disney era. But while this opens up a lot of exciting possibilities for the franchise’s future it also poses significant risks. It may be fun to imagine what would happen if say, Luke Skywalker ( Mark Hamill ) went back in time and met Anakin before his turn to the Dark Side, or if a character from the Prequel Trilogy was thrust into the time period of the Sequels, but events like this could also throw the franchise’s continuity into turmoil.

Films like the later installments in the Terminator series and X-Men: Days of Future Past used time travel to erase the consequences of storylines from some of their less popular predecessors, but this wouldn’t work for the Star Wars franchise. The history of Star Wars, or at least that of the live-action films, is so entrenched in popular memory that any significant changes to the canon, like bringing back a long-dead character or altering the outcome of a certain plot, would likely be wildly unpopular. There may be a vocal minority of viewers who would like it if the World Between Worlds was used to alter the events of the Sequel Trilogy , but ultimately the creators of future stories are better off building on what has come before, the good and the bad, rather than trying to change it.

It's uncertain if and where time travel will be used again in the franchise. The Ahsoka series is serving as a live-action sequel to Rebels , continuing many of its most significant storylines. This has led many fans to expect it to expand on the mythology of the World Between Worlds, but there is no guarantee this will happen. Between the search for the missing Ezra ( Eman Esfandi ) and Grand Admiral Thrawn ( Lars Mikkelsen ), Ahsoka’s ( Rosario Dawson ) dysfunctional partnership with Sabine ( Natasha Liu Bordizzo ), and the pair’s conflict with Dark Jedi Baylan ( Ray Stevenson ) and Shin ( Ivanna Sakhno ), the series already has a lot going on and adding in the World Between Worlds and time travel might make it too convoluted. It’s possible that these elements will remain exclusive to Rebels , where they served an important purpose by facilitating Ahsoka’s survival, without contradicting any of the more widely-known parts of canon.

Den of Geek

How Time Travel Works in Star Wars

We examine how Rebels' "A World Between Worlds" changes what's possible in Star Wars.

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This Star Wars article contains spoilers.

Once hyperspace is conquered, the next step is to explore the timeline.  Star Wars Rebels recently opened up a new dimension with the starry sky of the World Between Worlds, a mystical place where all times happen at once. By unlocking the Jedi Temple on Lothal and finely attuning himself to the Force, Ezra Bridger enters this strange space and finds himself able to visit doors into the past and future. 

The temple has one last lesson for Ezra, and with it comes a slew of new possibilities for the saga. The voices of Rey, Alec Guinness as Obi-Wan Kenobi, Qui-Gon Jinn, and many others from different eras of Star Wars can be heard as Ezra explores the World Between Worlds.

So what are the rules here, and what happens if someone tries to break them? Each doorway indicates a potential space for Ezra to walk into, a potential chance for him to change the course already set in stone … perhaps. 

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There’s actually a precedent for time travel in the galaxy far, far away. Here’s how the sci-fi concept has worked in Star Wars in the past:

How Time Travel Works in Rebels

The reveal of the World Between Worlds, the place where a Force user can access doorways to other times, is visually linked to the Mortis gods from The Clone Wars . The three aspects of the Force represented by the Mortis gods (light, dark, and balance) are all symbolically connected to the ability to travel in time. Time works a bit differently in the World Between Worlds as it did in the realm of the Force wielders, which I’ll talk about in a minute, but their presence in the painting at the entrance to the chamber indicates that the Jedi Temple on Lothal taps into aspects of the Force more strange, more powerful, and more embodied than the telepathy and telekinesis Ezra has already learned.

His Force abilities and connection to Lothal enable him to enter the World Between Worlds and find a portal to the time in which Ahsoka dueled Darth Vader in the Sith Temple on Malachor in season two. There, voices from the past and future drift through the black-and-white dreamscape. One could imagine that it was the will of the Force which led him to the particular portal behind which Ahsoka is fighting, since the Force has been connecting Ahsoka and Ezra for a long time. Or, it was the will of the plot: Ahsoka later helps rescue Ezra from Emperor Palpatine, who also has access to the in-between plane. 

Although Palpatine can threaten their lives within the World Between Worlds, the Force seems very particular about making sure that no one can change anything while inside. Ahsoka returns to the time from which she was pulled, dropping right back into the scene where she disappeared . Or is this non-interference policy a moral choice rather than a physical law? 

Ezra almost tests it out himself. He wants to rescue Kanan, and the Force allows him to see a doorway to the time and place where he could do so. Ultimately, the World Between Worlds is a place of emotional catharsis for Ezra. He’s forced to not only relive the traumatic death of his father figure, but also to realize that he has the control and the authority to stop it — and then come to terms with the fact that Kanan’s death was meant to be all along. If Ezra had rescued Kanan, the rest of their found family would have died, possibly trapping Ezra in a time paradox where he himself is both alive and dead.

Ahsoka doesn’t use this scientific argument with Ezra, though. Instead, she focuses on his emotional needs. He should not trade several lives to save one, and he should learn that a Jedi can accept loss without being consumed by grief. 

Palpatine seems to have known about the World Between Worlds for a while, since he accessed it himself and sent an Imperial researcher to oversee the ruins. Along with the planet’s ore, it’s one of the reasons the planet Lothal is so important.  Darth Sidious’ knowledge of time travel might be the best proof that the Force does not allow the time stream to be manipulated. If it could be, the Emperor would have changed certain things in the timeline by now. 

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How Time Travel Works in The Clone Wars

Although time travel was not explicitly used or even introduced into the realm of possibility as much as it recently was in Rebels , the Mortis gods – Father, Daughter, and Son – are shown to exist outside of time in The Clone Wars as well. Their planet exists in an invisible pocket of time and space, technically undetectable even when viewed from a starship nearby. When Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Ahsoka return from the Mortis realm to the natural world, no time seems to have passed at all since they arrived at the anomalous region of space. 

Seasons and days are also distorted on the planet where the Force wielders live. Time passes quickly. With night comes a cold and barren winter and the morning brings an impossibly vibrant spring. The Jedi cannot control this passage of time at all. The Mortis gods do not weaponize it either, inasmuch as their knowledge of the past and future is not a threat.

The veil between different times also seems thin here, allowing Obi-Wan and Ahsoka to have visions of the past and future respectively. However, Anakin’s similar vision turns out to be a trick of the Son, the aspect of the dark side, so it’s hard to say what was the direct influence of the Mortis gods and what was the veil in the time-stream fluttering in that space. 

How Time Travel Worked in the Old Expanded Universe (Legends)

Time travel also appeared in the old Expanded Universe (now known as Legends canon) in several different forms, often in the realm of rumor or the unexplained. 

In the Ewoks comic book series, a hyperdrive malfunction leads to R2-D2 and C-3PO traveling into the future. In the ancient Sith Order, an artifact called the Darkstaff could create a Force storm that transported its bearer to the future. A few other examples could be found in comic books, including “Tilotny Throws a Shape” by Alan Moore. This story features creatures with godlike powers, reminiscent of the Mortis trio only in that they were similarly powerful. 

In the Legacy era, “Flow-walking,” a skill learned by a select few Jedi decades after the events of the Original Trilogy, enabled a person to appear as a disembodied perspective in the past, like a view through a camera into another world. Jacen Solo uses this to visit the Jedi Temple during Order 66. He wants to find out what drove Anakin Skywalker to the dark side in order to justify his own dark side actions and inner turmoil. He is tempted to step into the past and make a change, but such manipulation is impossible. Flow-walking allows for only small changes, which are inevitably caught up in the continuous flow of time and do not change history. 

While the effect is similar, the nature of flow-walking is different from the time portals in Rebels . It is described as a Jedi’s ability to access a stream of Force energy, instead of a physical location where the past and future can be opened like doors along a hallway. In both instances, events can’t actually be manipulated or changed.

Flow-walking is used as a way to connect Jacen’s story to the story of the Prequel Trilogy, as well as to show the similarities between Anakin’s fall and Jacen’s own. Does the dark side run in the Skywalker family blood, the scene indirectly asks? Since Jacen’s sister, mother, and uncle remain in the light side of the Force, it doesn’t seem to. Instead, the flow-walking shows the way cycles of peace and war turn and turn — in the Star Wars universe as well as our own.

Megan Crouse

Megan Crouse writes for Star Wars Insider and Star Wars.com and is a co-host on Den of Geek's Star Wars podcast, Blaster Canon. Twitter: @blogfullofwords

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Rebels Just Introduced Something We Never Thought We'd See in Star Wars

Monday’s penultimate pair of Rebels episodes, “Wolves and a Door” and “A World Between Worlds,” revealed a new part of Star Wars mythology we’ve never seen before. It’s something that could potentially change everything on Rebels , but also the movies—all while setting up a finale that will probably do just that.

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The episodes began with Ezra, Hera, Zeb, Sabine, and Chopper making their way across Lothal to its Jedi Temple, where Ezra believes he’ll find some answers about Kanan’s death. Once they arrive, though, they’re greeted by a massive Imperial force led by a mysterious new character named Minster Hydan (voiced by the amazing Malcolm McDowell). Hydan is some kind of Imperial historical authority on the Jedi and the Force, hired by Emperor Palpatine (voiced, once again, by Ian McDiarmid) to open this important temple and unlock some kind of massive secret. But, of course, only one person there can actually open it and his name is Ezra Bridger.

When Ezra opens the temple, it’s a dark, mysterious place—a near infinite black with thin white lines delineating small passageways. And there are voices. Lots of voices. At first, these voices make narrative sense. Yoda. Obi-Wan Kenobi. Qui-Gon Jinn. Kanan Jarrus. Anakin Skywalker. All Jedi who have all existed before this moment in time. But then we hear Obi-Wan Kenobi talking to Luke Skywalker, and then Princess Leia—voices from the future.

Then Rey. Yes, Rey . And Kylo Ren . Star Wars characters who won’t exist in this universe for decades, but whose voices and actions already reverberate in the temple. What is this place?

Outside it, Hydan explains to Sabine that the temple is a pathway to all time and space. Whoever controls it controls the universe, so it’s no wonder Palpatine wants it. Inside, Ezra watches Ahsoka fight Darth Vader from Rebels two seasons ago, reaches back in time, and saves her from the falling debris of that temple.

Yup, Rebels just introduced Star Wars time travel. Canon time travel. (In the old expanded universe, time travel was a thing, but it was extremely rare—whether in the form of hyperspace accidents or Jacen Solo’s “flow-walking” ability. But now, it’s actually canon.)

This place makes it possible for people to change the past. And it’s out there, right now, for (almost) anyone to access. Ezra even almost uses it to try and save Kanan, which he could have, but Ahsoka talks him out of it, leading Ezra to a lesson we have yet to fully grasp.

And yet that’s not all. Palpatine tries to capture Ahoska and Ezra in the temple but they both escape to their original time and places, with Ezra yelling to Ahsoka to find him. Then, right before everyone is captured, Ezra closes the temple, making it sink into the ground, inaccessible to anyone, including the Empire. At least for now.

The implications of this are just too large to handle. It’s way bigger than Luke Skywalker Force-projecting himself across a galaxy or Princess Leia flying through space. There is literally a mechanism in Star Wars where, if someone can access it, they can change the course of any and everything.

It also raises the question, had Ahsoka been dead this whole time? Did the temple crush her and she was gone until Ezra reached back in time and pulled her out of the battle? That would certainly explain her absence but, if that’s true, wouldn’t bringing her back suddenly change the events of the past two seasons? Or is it possible a future Ezra always saves Ahsoka in that moment after her fight with Vader? But if that’s the case, where did she go after that moment? As is usually the case with time travel, there’s a lot to unpack here.

And we only have a week to do it. On March 5, the final three episodes of Star Wars Rebels will air, back to back to back, making for a kind of mini-movie that will bring the story to a close. Dave Filoni never got to end his last series, The Clone Wars , on his own terms. He’s finally getting his chance with Rebels , and he’s not going to leave anything on the Dejarik table. He’s exhibiting a penchant for storytelling as epic as anything we’ve seen in Star Wars so far.

Update : In Rebels Recon , the official Star Wars recap of Rebels, they say that Ezra “destroyed” the Jedi Temple. So, maybe, the time travel isn’t possible anymore. There’s also insight at how Filoni seeded ideas throughout the seasons to lead to this place. Worth a watch. Check it out.

Attempting to Make Remote Sense of ‘Star Wars Rebels’ Time-Turning Twist

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The final episodes of Star Wars Rebels have already brought with them some shocking reveals , but few with such mind-boggling implications as this week’s “World Between Worlds.” Our brains are still breaking, but allow showrunner Dave Filoni to clear up some major points of [SPOILER]’s return.

You’re warned of full Star Wars Rebels spoilers for “Wolves and a Door” and “The World Between Worlds” from here on out, especially that big honkin’ part where Ezra – oh, I don’t know – traveled through time to a nexus of the Star Wars universe, and plucked Ahsoka Tano from history. That was *a lot* to take in from the franchise’s generally-consistent space fantasy rules, as were the echoes of Star Wars dialogue ranging from The Phantom Menace to The Last Jedi . Destruction of the Lothal temple leaves it unlikely any future Star Wars properties will revisit the whole time-travel thing, but we had at least a few questions.

For one, what exactly does it mean that Ezra ripped Ahsoka out of her “Twilight of the Apprentice” duel with Darth Vader, and sent her back shortly thereafter? The obvious implication is that Ahsoka is alive and well for a return in next week’s finale, but is time in the Star Wars universe a closed loop? Did Ezra *always* rescue her, or is there a timeline in which Ahsoka died? According to supervising producer Dave Filoni (h/t Nerdist ), there is:

So, the only thing Kanan really engineers, that I think is questionably a little bit selfish, is he engineers the rescue of Ahsoka. He wants to see if Ezra can figure out that’s what he’s capable of doing in that moment. So, he puts him in this place where he can do that. That’s why the big wolf is saying restore the past and you redeem the future. Kanan’s correcting that thing where she otherwise dies. Now she’s back in play which is, I think, a good thing because she’s an interesting character.

For what it’s worth, the show’s accompanying Rebels Recon also revealed that we’d seen the “World Between Worlds” before, both in Season 1 designs for the Lothal temple and Ezra’s subsequent contact with Yoda (cued up around 7:17 below):

The implication then becomes that Yoda had remote access to this nexus of time and space, as well that The Last Jedi and Snoke may have used the same realm. Many were quick to connect Rey and Kylo Ren’s cross-galaxy Skype sessions and Luke’s projection to this same Ezra-Yoda scene, raising all manner of questions as to what Jedi and Sith have visited (or changed) historical events in the actual nexus.

We’re not likely to get crystal clear answers in next week’s three-part finale, but you can watch the full trailer below and stay tuned for more. Has Star Wars Rebels otherwise officially broken your brain?

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Star Wars Rebels Brings Back Mortis: Is Time Travel Now Possible?

It's official: the force transcends time and space..

Since its debut in the third season of The Clone Wars, Mortis has been one of the most unique and divisive elements in the Star Wars canon.

Combining strands of Force mysticism and ancient Jedi lore in ways never before seen in a Star Wars story, Mortis continues to be a much debated topic in the fandom; and this week on Star Wars Rebels, its presence was felt again.

Where It Began

A three episode story arc in The Clone Wars, the Mortis episodes find Anakin Skywalker, Ahsoka Tano, and Obi-Wan Kenobi responding to a Jedi distress code that appears to be thousands of years old. Upon arriving, they’re drawn into a strange, diamond-shaped monolith, and transported into what appears to be an entirely different dimension.

This barren “world” is called Mortis, and on it the Jedi encounter the only residents: three Force wielders who claim to have become so powerful that they have escaped the physical world. They now dwell in a sort of Force-powered limbo, and seemingly represent different facets of the Force itself.

The “Daughter” represents the ability of the Force to preserve and create life, while the “Son” represents destruction and death. The third figure, the “Father,” keeps the two in balance. According to him, Mortis itself is key in keeping a balance to the galaxy, and perhaps even the source of the Force itself.

Eventually, Anakin, Ahsoka, and Obi-Wan thwart a plot by the Son to disrupt this equilibrium, resulting in the apparent deaths of all three of the Mortis “gods.” The Jedi are returned to physical space, only to find that mere seconds have passed since they were taken.

Following the conclusion of the Mortis arc, many fans pondered the ramifications of what all of it meant in the context of the larger Star Wars narrative. Was it meant to be taken literally, or as sort of an illusionary parable? How did it change our larger understanding of the Force? And would it ever be explored further in the canon?

What It Means for Rebels

We received an answer to at least one of those questions in this week's Star Wars Rebels, with Ezra and crew assisted by Loth-wolves in reaching the Jedi temple on Lothal. There, Ezra and Sabine decipher a mysterious wall painting depicting the Mortis gods. This unlocks a portal to a place outside of normal time and space, not unlike Mortis, which fans are referring to as the “World Between Worlds” (taken from the title of the episode).

While exploring this place, Ezra is guided to its incredible true purpose: it is a conduit that connects every point in time and space. Ezra hears voices from across the Star Wars timeline, including lines from Rey and Kylo Ren, who haven’t even been born yet. Furthermore, Ezra discovers that the World Between Worlds not only allows someone to witness these points in time, but to actually manipulate past events.

Ezra uses this power to rescue Ahsoka from her duel with Darth Vader, bringing her into the World Between Worlds. Ahsoka then reveals a bombshell: the convor that had been accompanying her is actually a manifestation of the Daughter, revealing that some aspect of her survived death.

Eventually, Emperor Palpatine himself projects his presence into the realm, and Ezra and Ahsoka escape separately; Ezra back to the exterior of the Jedi temple, and Ahsoka seemingly back to her own timeline.

Ezra then closes the portal to the World Between Worlds, and the voice of the Son can be heard saying, “the future, by its nature, can be changed.” With the portal shut (seemingly for good), the temple itself collapses upon itself, sinking into the ground.

All of this obviously shakes up the Star Wars mythos in some huge ways. From this episode, we now understand that the Force isn’t just limited to the physical world, but actually transcends time itself, stitching together past, present, and future. Sure, future stories involving time travel are now a possibility to an extent, but more importantly, this episode revealed a game-changing revelation about the nature of the Force.

With the Mortis gods on the temple wall, and the Daughter’s spirit inside of the convor bird, we can be fairly certain that the storyline that began years ago in The Clone Wars is not quite over yet.

What's Next?

Considering how momentous of a reveal these episodes proved to be, it’s no surprise that fans have been speculating non-stop as to where it all could be heading. With just three more episodes left in the series, Rebels has some big questions to answer regarding Ezra, Ahsoka, and the Force.

While the return of the Mortis gods might seem a little out of left field, there have been little hints as to where this story was going for some time now. Additionally, the concept of Mortis and its inhabitants have always held a bit of a unique position in the canon. George Lucas himself was the one who first imagined the characters, and he personally outlined the three-episode arc in which they appear. Clearly the concepts at play there were very important to Lucas, and so it’s not entirely surprising that they will continue to be explored.

But what does it all mean?

It’s possible that what we’ve learned of the Force in this episode could explain some of what we saw in The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi. In particular, Rey seems to have the ability to access memories of things she’s never seen, a power that could be linked to the Force’s ability to reach out across time itself.

As far as the series finale though, one possible direction that the show could go in is further exploring the characters’ relationships with the mysterious animals on Lothal. The convor that has been following Ahsoka around (revealed to be named Morai) was heavily implied to be some kind of manifestation of the Daughter. Meanwhile, the Loth-wolf that Ezra communed with earlier this season was imbued with the spirit of Kanan Jarrus/Caleb Dume in some way.

That leaves one more animal, one that debuted in the very first episode of Rebels, and has continued to appear with regularity since then: the Loth-cat.

It’s interesting to consider that the Loth-cat has been very meaningful to Ezra during his tutelage under Kanan. Early on in his training, Ezra learned to feel the living Force by connecting with a Loth-cat. Years later, a strange white Loth-cat would guide him to revelations regarding his parents. This same white Loth-cat appeared again much more recently, in the company of a Loth-wolf, in the Season 4 episode, Flight of the Defender.

Could all three of these animals have some kind of connection to Mortis? We already know the bird is related to the Daughter, and the Loth-wolf is pictured beside the Son on the mural. Could that mean the Loth-cat has some kind of connection to the Father?

Perhaps our three Jedi are destined to one day take up the mantle of these Mortis gods, with the Daughter choosing Ahsoka to replace her, the Son choosing Kanan, and the Father seeing some kind of great potential in Ezra to keep the Force in balance. After all, the original Mortis storyline set the Father, Daughter, and Son up as important in some way to the overall balance of the Force.

Surely their deaths had some reverberations across the Star Wars galaxy, perhaps creating a void that must now be filled by three new Force wielders.

As far as this larger Star Wars galaxy goes however, there may be even bigger ideas at stake. It's certainly possible that this episode could open the door for an exploration of stories beyond the 70 odd years between The Phantom Menace and The Last Jedi. After all, with the Force connecting all of time and space, it doesn’t seem quite so far-fetched anymore to consider the possibility of seeing eras well outside the three trilogies.

The Old Republic, the far-flung future, alternate timelines; it all might be on the table now that this door has been opened. With at least two new trilogies and multiple TV series in development, Lucasfilm is surely looking for ways to continue to expand the universe, and this might be a hint of what is to come.

It’s certainly an exciting future for Star Wars fans to look forward to, one in which almost anything now seems possible.

For more on Star Wars Rebels, check out our recap of episodes 12 and 13 .

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Star Wars Rebels just made time travel canon - how will it affect a galaxy far, far away?

The chance to change everything? It’s about time

How far can Star Wars push the boundaries? Star Wars: The Last Jedi took a few controversial steps when it comes to treating fan-favourites, as did Star Wars: Rogue One . But what if it could all be undone? Theoretically, that’s now possible, thanks to (canonical) TV show Star Wars Rebels.

A hearty hat tip to the folks over at /Film for dissecting Star Wars Rebels episode A World Between Worlds. Here’s the important bit: main series protagonist Ezra has stumbled upon the secrets of a Jedi Temple on the planet of Lothal. There, it’s clear that a Jedi (or a Sith, for that matter) can travel backwards and forwards through time through several portals – as Ezra does in the episode.

While the Lothal Temple is rendered inaccessible by the episode’s end (sinking into the ground tends to do that to a place), the echoes of such a reveal might reverberate for some time to come. Firstly, the Emperor – ol’ lightning hands himself – knows about it. If he knows about time travel then there’s a good chance that knowledge has been passed down somewhere.

What does that mean for the future of Star Wars?

Honestly, probably not a lot (for now). Star Wars Rebels may be officially part of the universe, but it’s not on the tip of the tongue of most casual fans. Still, though, the possibility remains that time travel is absolutely possible – which is very exciting.

Key characters could be revived. Imagine plucking Jyn Erso from death and placing her in a post-The Last Jedi world, or putting Ewan McGregor’s Obi-Wan further into the timeline so he can finally get his own movie.

The timey-wimey scenarios are seemingly endless – and Star Wars Rebels makes a point of including the voices of the vast majority of iconic heroes throughout time. Leia, Rey, Jyn, they’re all there, just waiting to be meshed together. My dream? Let’s do a Star Wars Avengers. Chuck everyone together with the fate of the universe at stake. Han interacting with Jar Jar, Darth Maul scrapping with Finn. You know it makes (no) sense, but it could be bloody brilliant if done right.

Until you have the ability to go back in time and put away your wallet, here is our list of the best Star Wars merchandise.

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I'm the Senior Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, focusing on news, features, and interviews with some of the biggest names in film and TV. On-site, you'll find me marveling at Marvel and providing analysis and room temperature takes on the newest films, Star Wars and, of course, anime. Outside of GR, I love getting lost in a good 100-hour JRPG, Warzone, and kicking back on the (virtual) field with Football Manager. My work has also been featured in OPM, FourFourTwo, and Game Revolution.

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Time travel

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Time travel was a form of transportation through time into the past [2] or the future. [1] Although some beings sometimes wished they could travel back in time to change mistakes they made in their lives, [2] [3] such a thing was still widely thought to be impossible, even during the height of the New Republic . [4] A hypothetical device for allowing so was known as a time machine . [3]

The World Between Worlds

Access to the World Between Worlds made time travel possible through many of the doors and pathways to the past, present and future. However, the mystical Force realm's existence was mostly unknown, and only a few Force-users could enter it. In 0 BBY , Jedi Padawan Ezra Bridger entered the World Between Worlds through a portal in the Lothal Jedi Temple and rescued the former Jedi Ahsoka Tano from being killed by Darth Vader during the mission to Malachor , which had occurred three years before, by pulling her through a portal. During their time there, Bridger briefly considered rescuing his master Kanan Jarrus , who had died during the rescue of Hera Syndulla , by pulling him through a portal. However, Tano talked him out of it by pointing out that rescuing Jarrus would mean that all of the other Spectres present, including Bridger, would have died in the explosion of the Imperial gas refinery, causing a paradox. After being attacked by Darth Sidious , Bridger and Tano returned through the same portals they had entered, emerging on Lothal and Malachor respectively, three years apart. [5]

Luke Skywalker , when asked by C-3PO how the latter could help the former, sarcastically suggested that the droid could help by altering time far enough into the future to bypass the harvest season so he could join the Imperial Academy . [1]

Behind the scenes [ ]

Time travel was first mentioned, sarcastically, in Star Wars : Episode IV A New Hope . [1] It first appeared in Star Wars canon in the second issue of the 2016 comic book series Star Wars: Doctor Aphra . [6]

The non-canon LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special has time travel as a major part of its plot, as Rey Skywalker is guided to a Jedi Temple on the planet Kordoku . She finds a portal there that sends her on a journey through time to meet many important figures from galactic history. [7]

Appearances [ ]

• The High Republic: Cataclysm (Indirect mention only)
• The High Republic: Cataclysm audiobook (Indirect mention only)
• Master & Apprentice (Mentioned only)
• Master & Apprentice audiobook (Mentioned only)
• Lost Stars (Mentioned only)
• Lost Stars audiobook (Mentioned only)
• Servants of the Empire: The Secret Academy (Indirect mention only)

• Star Wars : Episode IV A New Hope (First mentioned) (Mentioned sarcastically)
• Star Wars: A New Hope junior novelization (Mentioned only)
• Doctor Aphra (2016) 2 (First appearance) (In flashback(s))
• " The Crimson Corsair and the Lost Treasure of Count Dooku " —  Tales from a Galaxy Far, Far Away: Aliens: Volume I (Mentioned sarcastically)
• Phasma (Mentioned only)
• Phasma audiobook (Mentioned only)

Non-canon appearances [ ]

• The LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special

Notes and references [ ]

• ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Star Wars : Episode IV A New Hope
• ↑ 2.0 2.1 Lost Stars
• ↑ 3.0 3.1 Servants of the Empire: The Secret Academy
• ↑ " The Crimson Corsair and the Lost Treasure of Count Dooku "
• ↑ Doctor Aphra (2016) 2
• ↑ The LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special

External links [ ]

• 1 The Cavalry Has Arrived
• 3 Project Necromancer

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Time travel in Star Wars? It happened, and Ahsoka did it

Time travel? In Star Wars? It's more likely than you think.

Years after the fall of the Empire, Anakin Skywalker’s former padawan Ahsoka made a surprise return in Season 2 of The Mandalorian on Disney+. Now, Ahsoka is on the verge of embarking on her own journey, in a spinoff series debuting August 22. But for those unfamiliar with her past, her presence in the story here raises questions. First and foremost: how is she still alive? After over 20 years of Imperial rule and Jedi purges, wouldn’t someone have brought her out into the open? If she was around this whole time, then where was she for the entirety of the Original Trilogy? Couldn’t Luke have used her help? As a matter of fact, why didn’t she do anything about Vader?

The answer to all of that involves a concept introduced in Season 4 of the animated series Star Wars: Rebels, 'The World Between Worlds.' But first, a quick catch-up on what brought her there.

How Ahsoka survived

Part of the reason Ahsoka survived the Jedi Purge is that when it happened, she was no longer a Jedi. In the final seasons of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, shortly before the end of the Clone Wars, Ahsoka stood accused by the Jedi Council for a crime she did not commit. Even after her name was cleared, Ahsoka was disillusioned by the Council’s lack of faith in her, and she chose to leave the temple and walk her own path.

On the day that Anakin fell to the Dark Side and Order 66 was enacted, Ahsoka had returned to the Republic to aid with one final mission. When the clones were activated, it was Anakin’s training, as well as an early warning from a clone named Fives who had inadvertently discovered Order 66 early, which allowed Ahsoka to survive the assault by the clones assigned to her, and even rescue her closest friend within the clone troops, Captain Rex, by disabling his neural implant. Fives and Ahsoka faked their deaths to escape Order 66, and went their separate ways for a time.

As we learn in both the novel Ahsoka, and the Tales of the Jedi animated series, after attempting to build a new life for herself on a farming world, one of the Empire’s Inquisitors arrived to upend her life. Ahsoka fought back, exposing herself and slaying the Inquisitor, and realized she could not longer live on the run. She got in touch with Bail Organa, and worked as a secret agent to help bring together the nascent rebel cells across the Galaxy which would become the Alliance to Restore the Republic.

The Vader encounter

In Season 2 of Star Wars: Rebels, set a few years before A New Hope, Ahsoka accompanies the young Force sensitive Ezra Bridger to a Sith temple on the planet Malachor – where she finally encounters her former master for the first time as Darth Vader. Ezra is forced to leave Ahsoka behind to her fate, one we wouldn’t get to learn for two more seasons.

It’s in Season 4 that we learn Ahsoka never really walked away from that duel. But nor did she die. Through a buried Jedi temple on Ezra’s homeworld of Lothal, Ezra was able to open a portal in time and space to the duel where Ahsoka had been lost, and pull her into the nowhere realm in which he found himself. Ahsoka Tano had entered The World Between Worlds.

The World Between Worlds

The World Between Worlds only appears in three episodes near the very end of Star Wars: Rebels. We only know its name because one episode, “A World Between Worlds,” apparently tells us. Throughout Star Wars: Rebels, the Empire takes a special interest in the Outer Rim world of Lothal, which the rambunctious Rebel recruit and Jedi in training Ezra Bridger calls home. Ostensibly, it’s been scoped as the site for a new TIE Fighter factory. But in Season 4, we learn the true reason for the Emperor’s interest: Lothal is the site of an ancient Jedi temple which potentially holds the key to accessing any point in time or space.

Solving the riddle of a gateway illustrated by a tableau of the Ghosts of Mortis- three still more enigmatic figures from Star Wars: The Clone Wars representing different aspects of The Force- Ezra was able to penetrate the temple’s sanctum, which appeared to him as a void in space decorated with intersecting bridges of light. Voices from all the Star Wars films, set in past, near future, and even the distant future of the sequels, echoed through the void for Ezra to parse. Tempted by its power to alter any point in time, Ezra is drawn to the moment in the Sith temple where Ahsoka apparently meets her fate, and pulls her through. But before they can make any more changes, Ezra realizes that the gateway he opens goes two ways – the more he uses it, the more chance the Emperor has to take control of it, granting him mastery over time as well as the Galaxy. Ezra and Ahsoka resolve to destroy the temple rather than allow it to fall into the Emperor’s hands.

And that’s how Ahsoka made it through most of the Imperial era, right up until A New Hope. What she was up to during the trilogy itself, well… that’s a story that the Ahsoka series might answer.

Admittedly, the World Between Worlds is a pretty heavy concept to drop in season 4 of an animated TV show which originally ran on Disney XD, a network which no longer produces original programming. Showrunner Dave Filoni has said that, like many of the concepts in Clone Wars and Rebels, the World Between Worlds was developed in conversations with his mentor George Lucas, and was partially inspired by “the wood between the worlds” in CS Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia.

But even with Lucas’ apparent sign-off, does time travel really belong in Star Wars?

Time travel in Star Wars

To many, introducing the concept of time travel to Star Wars feels like anathema. It’s an element which carries enormous ramifications for the entire timeline, and one which may feel a little more “hard sci-fi” than fans are used to. More Trek than Wars, if you will. But conceptually, time travel has existed within the world of Star Wars since the very first film. You may recall this exchange between C-3PO and Luke Skywalker on Tatooine:

“Is there anything I might do to help?” C-3PO asks.

“No,” Luke says. “Not unless you can alter time, speed up the harvest, or teleport me off this rock.”

“I don’t think so, sir,” C-3PO says. “I’m only a droid, and not very knowledgeable about such things. Not on this planet, anyway.”

It’s that qualifier at the end which should give us pause. Such things may not be possible on a backwater world like Tatooine, but the Galaxy is a vast and mysterious place. And in fact, many Star Wars stories from before we even caught a glimpse of the World Between Worlds have evoked time travel – from before the original trilogy was even finished, to mere months before Disney’s acquisition of Lucasfilm, refreshing the canon.

The first time travel story in Star Wars, if you can believe it, was written by Watchmen and League of Extraordinary Gentleman author Alan Moore, for a 1982 comic feature in Empire Strikes Back Magazine. The story, “Tilotny Throws a Shape,” introduces a race of omnipotent beings unbound by the traditional constraints of time or space. In their galavanting across the mortal plane, they send a cadre of Stormtroopers pursuing Princess Leia 8,000 years into the past. This means that time travel has technically been a part of Star Wars longer than Ewoks.

Speaking of Ewoks, however, perhaps the most significant time travel story up until the Ahsoka affair was a 1986 crossover between Droids and Ewoks, two comic book tie-ins to animated series of the same name. Bringing these two titles together was an obvious bit of synergy. But the problem was that Droids was set 15 years before A New Hope, whereas Ewoks was set right before Return of the Jedi. Author David Manak gets around this with a simple plot device that carries enormous ramifications: a botched entry into hyperspace sends the droids hurtling temporarily forward through time, where they encounter the Ewoks on Endor. The droids eventually return to their own time, mystifying the Ewoks… and, perhaps, explaining why the next time they encounter C-3PO in Return of the Jedi, he’s revered as a god.

In a 2002 Star Wars Tales comic, “The Secret of Tet-Ami,” Mace Windu encounters an artifact which can send him back in time by millennia. In the 2008 novel Legacy of the Force, Jacen Solo, son of Han and Leia, learns “flow-walking,” an arcane Force technique which allows one to project themselves backwards or forwards through time. Even in the 2012 novel Darth Plagueis, Palpatine’s master speculates that there may be a Sith technique to travel through time, but he has not yet cracked its secrets.

Before the current state of Star Wars continuity, there wasn’t just one way to travel through time, but half a dozen. The World Between Worlds may seem like a radical departure for Star Wars, but it’s ultimately a streamlining of a concept which has always been a part of the Galaxy… and one which hews closer to the themes of its mystic elements that Lucas and his collaborators have been sharing with us from the very beginning.

Through The Force, everything is connected. Even time.

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Star Wars Rebels’ 'Time Travel' Won’t Affect the Rest of the Franchise

Star Wars Rebels co-creator Dave Filoni hopes that the "time travel" used in the series won't become standard for the franchise.

WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for last week’s episodes of Star Wars Rebels, “Wolves and a Door” and “A World Between Worlds,” which aired Feb. 26 on Disney XD.

Last week's episode of Star Wars Rebels saw the return of fan-favorite character Ahsoka Tano, with Ezra Bridger reaching back in time to Season 2 to seemingly save her from her fate in the Sith temple on Malachor. However,  Rebels  co-creator Dave Filoni hopes that the episode's time travel plot device won't become standard in the  Star Wars  universe.

"No, I hope not," Filoni told CinemaBlend . "I mean, because this is important for this particular story, and I think we'd have to be very careful about how it would be used otherwise. It's why we destroy the temple in the episode. It's mainly a place that people would go to see the future and the past. It's not such an active place and Ahsoka, for her part when she's pulled out of that moment, is placed back in that same timeline and not very long after she left it. So again, she's smart enough to know that she cannot go back with Ezra, so there is not this big time travel thing. She knows she has to remain a part of her world and her timeline."

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Filoni also went on to explain that saving Ahsoka doesn't, in his opinion, constitute time travel. "I don't really think of it as time travel," he said. "It's not really a thing where you go through one door and out another in a different time." Instead, the episode's "time travel" is actually just an extension of a Jedi's Force powers, as described in previous  Star Wars films.

"The world between worlds is really about knowledge and gaining knowledge," Filoni continued. "As the Dume wolf says, what's in there is knowledge and destruction. You can gain knowledge of the future or futures that may happen, and you can see things that happened in the past. You can at times choose to alter them, but it's perilous to do so and when you alter something you don't know if that's not the way it always happened. So destruction is the other half of what's in there. When you go through these doorways, you're in peril of destruction because you're missing all sorts of things that would have happened or things would've happened otherwise, you know, so it's a dangerous game but it's not something we're here going in and out of different doors. It's an extension of the Jedi's ability to perceive the future and the past, as described in Empire Strikes Back ."

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Returning Monday, March 5, at 8:30 p.m. ET/PT on Disney XD, Star Wars Rebels stars Freddie Prinze Jr. as Kanan, Vanessa Marshall as Hera, Steve Blum as Zeb, Tiya Sircar as Sabine, Taylor Gray as Ezra, Dee Bradley Baker as Captain Rex, David Oyelowo as Kallus, Mary Elizabeth McGlynn as Governor Pryce, Lars Mikkelsen as Grand Admiral Thrawn and Warwick Davis as Rukh.

An Unexpected Star Wars Time Jump Just Created A New Hope For The Franchise

One of the best star pilots in the galaxy could return.

In the series finale of The Bad Batch , one of the most underrated Star Wars TV series wrapped up all of its storylines with its signature heartfelt bravado. As a show that focused on rejecting clones from the prequel era, The Bad Batch , has, over three seasons, revealed how outcasts among outcasts made their way in the galaxy as the Republic morphed into the Empire. Along the way, The Bad Batch has posited a found-family theme, with Clone Force 99’s fierce protection of their younger clone sister, Omega, at the heart of the series.

Appropriately then, it’s the story of Omega that wraps up the show in the series finale, “The Cavalry Has Arrived.” Like Rebels and The Clone Wars before it, the ending of The Bad Batch gives us a Star Wars time jump, one which seems to suggest that one hero will be back — just not the way we expected. Spoilers ahead.

Bad Batch finale time jump, explained

Hunter and Omega in the finale moments of The Bad Batch .

The ending of The Bad Batch largely takes place in the primary time frame of the show; roughly a year after the events of Revenge of the Sith and the ending of The Clone Wars . But, after Hemlock (Jimmi Simpson) is defeated, and the Batch escapes with the clone prisoners, we flash forward to a final coda. Now, Hunter (Dee Bradley Baker) is older, clearly retired, and is being visited by an adult Omega (Michelle Ang), saying goodbye to her family before heading off to her own life. Specifically, Omega is going to be flying starfighters for the Rebel Alliance. “The Rebellion needs pilots more than ever,” Omega tells her defacto dad, Hunter. “I’m not a kid anymore.”

Like Boba Fett in Attack of the Clones , Omega is a clone of Jango Fett but allowed to age naturally. So, in the time frame of most episodes of The Bad Batch , she’s about 12 and turns 13. But, in this time jump epilogue, Omega is clearly older, no longer a kid, but a young woman. So, when does this scene take place?

Because the Rebellion existed about five years before A New Hope and then lasted through Return of the Jedi , and beyond, this scene could exist anywhere within that time frame. The Rebellion needed pilots “more than ever” pretty much always . So, this could be before the events of A New Hope , right after A New Hope , somewhere in between, or even, before the Battle of Endor in Return of the Jedi . In any case, the fate of Omega after The Bad Batch is clear: she became a star pilot for the Rebels. Did she fly with Wedge Antilles? Luke Skywalker? Did she even show Biggs and Porkins a thing or two? At this point, anything is possible, including Omega’s return in several upcoming Star Wars projects.

The Future of Omega

The adult version of Omega in The Bad Batch series finale.

By establishing that Omega —a clone with mysterious midichlorians — is still alive during the Rebellion era, Star Wars has just given itself another hero who could easily appear in future TV series or films. If Omega is in her early twenties in the timeframe of the classic trilogy, then she’d be in her thirties in The Mandalorian- era. This makes her significantly younger than Clone Wars characters like Bo-Katan and Ahsoka Tano , who made their way to live-action long after debuting in animated form.

But, interestingly, Omega has way less baggage than any other characters from a similar era, making her a perfect candidate to appear in future shows set in this era, like Skeleton Crew , or quite possibly, the upcoming Star Wars feature film, The Mandalorian and Grogu . Then again we don’t know exactly when Omega is joining the Rebellion, which could mean she’s around in the era of Andor Season 2, flying for a version of the Alliance that has just formed, before Rogue One .

The bottom line is, because of her age and the nature of the time jump in Bad Batch , Omega could reappear in several Star Wars projects, at any time. And, because Omega is a clone, she literally carries the DNA of the entire franchise, making her, in some ways, the perfect microcosm of all Star Wars heroes. She was born from a terrible situation, and became, over time, one of the greatest beacons of hope. And for that reason alone, this doesn’t feel like the end of Omega’s story. It’s probably just the beginning.

The Bad Batch streams on Disney+.

• Science Fiction

After Finally Watching Star Wars: Tales Of The Jedi, Here's What I Want To See From Tales Of The Empire

Let's go back to the galaxy far, far away.

The galaxy far, far away is expanding even further in the 2024 TV schedule , with The Bad Batch ’s final season, the series premiere of The Acolyte , and likely at least news of Andor Season 2 among the upcoming Star Wars TV shows . A nice treat was announced not too long before its release as well, with Tales of the Empire set to premiere on – when else? – May 4th, a.k.a. Star Wars Day. It follows the release of Tales of the Jedi , which consisted of six episodes back in 2022. I finally watched Tales of the Jedi ahead of Tales of the Empire , and now I know what I want to see from the upcoming show.

What Is Star Wars: Tales Of The Empire?

Like Tales of the Jedi , the upcoming Tales of the Empire will consist of six episodes and release streaming for Disney+ subscribers , but the new animated series’ trailer shows just how different they will be from a story perspective. This show will be set in the era of the Galactic Empire, and not through the eyes of a hero this time around.

Morgan Elsbeth of The Mandalorian and Ahsoka will be a major character, with live-action actress Diana Lee Inosanto providing the voice . Former Jedi Barriss Offee will be the other major character (voiced by Meredith Salenger), and the episodes should provide Clone Wars fans with the first update on Barriss since her exit from Season 5 back in 2013.

Both characters have big choices to make; while we know where Morgan Elsbeth ends up thanks to Ahsoka , the fate of Barriss is unknown. The trailer indicates that there will be some big names from the Imperial era on board, including Darth Vader and Thrawn. So, in light of what we know of the series and now that I finally got around to Tales of the Jedi , here’s what I’m hoping to see… and in one case, hear.

Longer Episodes Than Tales Of The Jedi

While episodes of Star Wars ’ various animated series are generally shorter than live-action episodes, the longest installment of Tales of the Jedi is listed as 19 minutes on Disney+... and that’s including about two and a half minutes of credits. Considering how much is unknown about Morgan Elsbeth, how long Clone Wars fans have been waiting for Barriss, and everything else packed into the trailer, I’d love to see episodes running closer to the lengths of Rebels , Clone Wars , and Bad Batch , all of which are closer to 30 minutes.

I’m not too confident that this one will actually happen, but when I was binge-watching Tales of Jedi , I was jarred every time the credits started to roll. It would be fun to get run times at least out of the teens for the new show.

Foreshadowing Of The Original Trilogy

It remains to be seen at this point just where in the timeline Tales of the Empire will take place; if it’s anything like the Jedi version, then the episodes could jump around to different times in the same era. Still, its likely a safe bet that the Barriss portions are set between the end of Revenge of the Sith and start of A New Hope . Considering how much of Tales of the Jedi revolved around the prequel stories, I’d love to see Tales of the Empire give the same treatment to the original trilogy.

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To use another animated show set in the Imperial era as an example, Star Wars Rebels did an excellent job of foreshadowing the events of Rogue One and the original trilogy without making it the main focus. Perhaps Tales of the Empire could do the same, but from the Imperial point of view. It could also shine the spotlight on some characters who were mostly in the background of other projects, like what Tales of the Jedi did with Yaddle .

Lighter Moments Despite The Dark Storyline

This might be a tall order since storylines centered on Imperials probably aren’t going to be full of laughs from start to finish. Of the two shows set between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, Obi-Wan Kenobi was short on any light moments that didn’t involve young Leia or Luke, and even the humor on Star Wars Rebels – which aired for kids on Disney XD! – got darker by the later seasons.

But if Tales of the Jedi could include some foreboding and dark moments in stories that otherwise might have been lighter, I’d love to see Empire do the opposite and find a way to include some lightness. After all, Jedi ended in one of the darkest points in the Star Wars timeline. Empire is presumably a precursor to what will eventually be the brightest spot in Star Wars : the original trilogy's eventual happy ending... if you ignore the sequel trilogy, anyway, which I often do.

Ties To Star Wars Rebels

As a Star Wars Rebels loyalist who can and will debate that Rebels is a stronger show than The Clone Wars from start to finish, the presumed setting between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope makes me want to see ties to the animated series that preceded Rogue One in the timeline. In fact, as soon as I saw the trailer for Tales of the Empire and did some quick math, I realized that I would absolutely love to see the origin of Kanan and Hera as partners . They’d been together many years by the time Rebels even started, after all.

And then I watched Tales of the Jedi and spotted the cameo from young Caleb Dume and Depa Billaba, and wanting “ties to Star Wars Rebels ” changed from what I’d like to see in Empire to what I’d absolutely love to see. Besides, it’s been fun to see Rebels racking up the cameos over the years, considering its humble Disney XD origins.

The Ghost appeared in Rogue One and Rise of Skywalker . Kanan got a Clone Wars cameo from his Caleb Dume days, and Hera and Kanan each had a role in Bad Batch . That's not even to mention Ahsoka , where Rebels characters got more than just cameos ! Why not add Tales of the Empire to the list, particularly with Ahsoka Season 2 in development?

Kevin Kiner And Co. Crushing It

If there’s one thing that I’m absolutely confident of when it comes to Tales of the Empire , it’s that the music will be fantastic. Kevin Kiner returned to the galaxy far, far away to score Tales of the Empire , with his children Sean Kiner and Deana Kiner credited as his collaborators. He has composed the score for many of the Star Wars shows to this point, including Tales of the Jedi , The Clone Wars , Star Wars Rebels , The Bad Batch , and Ahsoka . There’s every reason to believe that the Kiner team will crush it again for Empire , and I’m already looking forward to the music.

And the wait for Tales of the Empire isn’t much longer. All six episodes of the series will be available streaming on Disney+ on Saturday, May 4th. You can also find every other Star Wars TV show on the streamer, along with the films.

Laura turned a lifelong love of television into a valid reason to write and think about TV on a daily basis. She's not a doctor, lawyer, or detective, but watches a lot of them in primetime. CinemaBlend's resident expert and interviewer for One Chicago, the galaxy far, far away, and a variety of other primetime television. Will not time travel and can cite multiple TV shows to explain why. She does, however, want to believe that she can sneak references to The X-Files into daily conversation (and author bios).

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Screen Rant

Ahsoka trailer secretly brings back star wars' time travel.

Star Wars' first trailer for Ahsoka is full of reveals, including the subtle confirmation that time travel will likely come into play in the series.

The first trailer for Ahsoka subtly teases the return of time travel to the Star Wars galaxy. First seen in the Star Wars Rebels animated series which also featured the titular Jedi outcast, a supernatural plane within the Force was revealed known as the World Between Worlds, a cosmic reality that allows those who find it to travel to different points across time and space. As such, it looks as though this Force vergence will play a significant role in the upcoming Ahsoka show from Dave Filoni.

As seen in the new trailer for Ahsoka released during Star Wars Celebration 2023 , a new agent of the dark side known as Baylan Skoll makes his debut, played by Ray Stevenson. Wielding an orange-bladed lightsaber, he's paired with Ivanna Sakhno's Shin Hati, who looks to be his apprentice. As a result, Skoll is seen dueling Tano in the new trailer, though the locale in which they're fighting is far more important than the battle itself.

Related: Ahsoka Show Cast & Star Wars Character Guide

Ahsoka Brings Back Star Wars' World Between Worlds

Debuting in Rebels , the World Between Worlds is featured in season 4 with Ezra Bridger entering the mystic plane ahead of Emperor Palpatine, who discovered an entrance via a Jedi Temple on Lothal. Using the World Between Worlds, Ezra was able to look through a portal to the past and save Ahsoka Tano during her duel with Darth Vader on Malachor, which occurred at the end of Star Wars Rebels season 2. Together, Ahsoka and Ezra destroyed the entrance on Lothal, despite Palpatine's attempt to use them to enter the Force vergence himself, having intended to use its power for his own dark ends.

Now, it looks as though Baylan and his apprentice will attempt to access the World Between Worlds in Ahsoka, as evidenced by the same ethereal circles and glowing markings floating in the background behind Skoll and Tano during their duel. They look exactly like the ones seen in the World Between Worlds and have been heavily used in the series' marketing as well (like the show's logo). As such, it looks as though one of Ahsoka's chief goals will be to prevent these new dark siders from traveling back in time in a bid to potentially rewrite reality.

Star Wars' Time Travel Could Play A Major Role In Ahsoka's Show

Clearly, there's an inherent danger to the World Between Worlds and how it could affect the entire galaxy. However, the realm could also explain why Ahsoka was absent during the events of Star Wars' original trilogy. Although she was a critical figure in the Rebellion's inception, Ahsoka is nowhere to be seen during the Galactic Civil War itself. Instead, Ahsoka shows up years later to help Sabine Wren find Ezra, who went missing a year prior to A New Hope , as seen in the epilogue for Star Wars Rebels .

Perhaps Ahsoka returned to the World Between Worlds and inadvertently traveled into the future to a time after the Empire had already been defeated by the Rebellion. Something along those lines would explain where she was and why she didn't help train Luke Skywalker, the son of her corrupted master. Regardless, Ahsoka is confirmed to be continuing the narratives from Rebels , so the World Between Worlds will more than likely play a major role in the upcoming Star Wars show.

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How Rebel ‘Star Wars’ Fans Saved the Original Movies

George Lucas wants them to fade into oblivion. But some fans spent more than a decade digitally restoring the original “Star Wars” trilogy, preserving the movies as they were shown in theaters.

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By Sopan Deb

Han shot first.

As we celebrate the most hallowed of holidays — May the Fourth, also known as “Star Wars Day” because, you know, “may the Force be with you” — let us all agree that a long time ago, in a galaxy that now feels very far away indeed, Han shot Greedo first. No amount of special editions or George Lucas declarations will change that, even if, uh, Lucas actually did change that scene. If you seek the originals, these aren’t the films you’re looking for.

A rebellion began in 1997, when Lucasfilm first released altered “special editions” of the first trilogy, adding new or revised scenes, computer-generated effects and expanded worlds. Ever since, fans have clamored for high-definition releases of the unaltered movies. Lucas has resisted and has continued altering them, insisting he is fulfilling his vision for the films, which was technologically and financially impossible when they were first made — though he once called altering art “barbaric .”

So if you want to see the original “Star Wars” trilogy — as they were shown in theaters, a bit softer and grainier (and with Han Solo definitely shooting the bounty hunter Greedo first , not in self-defense, as he now does) — you’ll have to rely on some rebel fans like Robert Williams.

Williams, a Philadelphia-based computer programmer, is part of a group of five people called Team Negative One, one of a few “Star Wars” fan groups that, for more than a decade, have collected 35-millimeter prints of the first “Star Wars” movies and laboriously restored them in 4K. Known as Project 4K, the movies are titled by the years they were released: 4K77 , 4K80 and 4K83 .

“Our goal was to find a way to make it look as good as the official releases ,” Williams said.

The restorations are not authorized and come from film reels that were meant to be returned or destroyed after cinemas were done with them. While their legality is in question, fans and preservationists argue the public has a right to view art, including film, in its original form. Lucas, however, has reportedly said to fans : “Grow up. These are my movies, not yours.”

In February, Team Negative One announced the completion of the trilogy project, with a 4K version of “The Empire Strikes Back.”

Many of Lucas’s edits of the original movies were cosmetic changes. An extended shot here. A beep there. More computer-generated background figures, some replacing models or puppets, and color changes.

But some changes shifted character arcs, such as the famous scene in the original “Star Wars” with Greedo and Han Solo, played by Harrison Ford, at the Mos Eisley Cantina . In that 1977 release — later retitled “A New Hope” — the outlaw Han shoots and kills the bounty hunter, without much provocation, setting up a redemptive arc.

Since the 1997 edition, Han fires in self-defense, an edit that drew scorn from some fans, who took up “Han shot first” as a battle cry (featured on unofficial merchandise ) and boycotted DVD releases. Even “South Park” pilloried Lucas over the edits.

Lucas, in 1997, said the new special editions would be the definitive versions. “The other versions will disappear,” he said. “Even the 35-millimeter tapes of ‘Star Wars’ out there won’t last more than 30 or 40 years. A hundred years from now, the only version of the movie that anyone will remember will be the DVD version.”

Williams, 49, met his fellow restorers on the message boards of a site called Original Trilogy . Williams, who grew up in Britain, first saw “Star Wars” in theaters in 1977 and in the 1980s fell in love with the films by watching them on television every Christmas.

Team Negative One wasn’t the first to attempt such an ambitious project. One, known as the “ Star Wars Despecialized Edition ,” led by Petr Harmy , reassembled the movies from DVDs, VHS tapes and laser discs . Harmy’s and Williams’s groups have collaborated.

Restoration begins with finding the original film reels and digitizing them. Williams said that over the years, his group’s sources for the reels had included eBay and collectors who had them in storage. The films are then run through an old-school projector. Once the film is scanned, the team goes through it frame by frame, cleaning and upgrading it.

The first restoration was done in 2016 with “A New Hope.” Over the next year, the group came across an almost pristine reel of “Return of the Jedi,” the third film in the trilogy. It was completed in 2017 — without Darth Vader yelling “Nooooo!” as he kills the emperor.

“The Empire Strikes Back,” however, took seven years, because the group had to restore a damaged print of the film .

Lucas, in an interview with The Associated Press in 2004, said that the altered versions of the films were what mattered to him.

“It’s like this is the movie I wanted it to be, and I’m sorry you saw half a completed film and fell in love with it,” Lucas said at the time . “But I want it to be the way I want it to be.”

In 2012, Disney purchased the rights to the “Star Wars” franchise along with Lucasfilm . Williams said he had never heard from either Lucasfilm or Disney about the unauthorized theatrical editions. Representatives for Disney did not reply to a request for comment.

In the meantime, new film reels have been found, meaning the work on the trilogy continues. Williams’s group is also working on a 1977 documentary, “The Making of Star Wars,” the 1997 “special editions,” because they were also altered, as well as the prequel trilogy, to preserve how they looked on film before being digitized. Team Negative One’s works aren’t posted in full on platforms like YouTube but are downloadable on forums like Original Trilogy and on archive.org.

The fans who restored the films aren’t rejecting Lucas’s creative vision, Williams said.

“ They’re not really upset that he made the changes, because some of them are pretty cool and actually make the films better,” Williams said. “They’re really upset that he didn’t also release the original version alongside it. Just put two discs in the box. We’d have been happy.”

Sopan Deb is a Times reporter covering breaking news and culture. More about Sopan Deb

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The Bad Batch's Finale Mirrored Clone Wars & Rebels In The Best Way

Warning! This article contains SPOILERS for the Star Wars: The Bad Batch season 3 finale.

• Star Wars: The Bad Batch 's finale mirrors The Clone Wars and Rebels , offering a satisfying conclusion and connecting to previous shows.
• The series finale ends with a time skip, showing an older Hunter and Omega, leaving room for speculation on Omega's journey.
• The possibility of future Star Wars shows ending with a time skip is raised, potentially linking to previous series for continuity.

After three seasons of top-notch Star Wars storytelling, Star Wars: The Bad Batch has aired its final episode, and the finale surprised viewers by mirroring Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels . This was a fitting way to end the show, as The Bad Batch serves as a direct continuation of The Clone Wars while incorporating characters and plotlines from Star Wars Rebels . It allowed Dave Filoni and the creative team to bring the show to a satisfying conclusion, connect its story to the previous shows, and tease where the Bad Batch may appear next in Star Wars .

This parallel between each series illustrates how The Clone Wars , The Bad Batch , and Rebels have become a trilogy of shows that perfectly complement each other. They stand well on their own and have endings that provide closure to the main story, but they're also pieces of a much larger narrative, creating an animated saga that runs alongside the live-action Star Wars movies and TV shows . The final scene of The Bad Batch 's series finale demonstrates this exceptionally well and creates a beautiful moment that reflects similar execution in The Clone Wars and Rebels .

Star Wars: The Bad Batch Season 3 Ending Explained (& What Happened To Clone Force 99)

The bad batch series finale ends with a time skip.

While the final shot of Clone Force 99 sitting together would have been a perfect way to conclude the series, The Bad Batch 's finale goes a step further by showing an older Hunter and Omega . This is a popular plot device for the final episode of a TV series, especially for Dave Filoni's animated Star Wars shows, and the creative team behind The Bad Batch was wise to implement it in the show's final moments. It offers greater closure to the story by showing Omega's fate, while keeping the universe in motion for the characters long after the credits role.

The time skip is also short enough that it leaves room for viewers to speculate on Omega's journey and how The Bad Batch 's final scene fits into the Star Wars timeline . It could take place around the time the rebel cells came together in Star Wars Rebels , approximately 15 years after The Bad Batch , giving Omega the chance to fight alongside the Ghost crew. However, Omega may also be joining the Rebellion during the Galactic Civil War against the Empire in the original trilogy , which would place the time skip approximately 20 years after The Bad Batch .

Omega may also have joined a rebel cell before the Rebel Alliance was formed, maybe even fighting alongside Rex and Echo.

The Clone Wars And Rebels Also Ended With A Time Skip

The Bad Batch is the third time a Star Wars series finale concluded with a time jump, as Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels have epilogues set years after the end of the series. Star Wars Rebels ends by showing what happened to the Ghost Crew after Return of the Jedi , particularly Sabine Wren and Ahsoka Tano, who set off to find their missing friend Ezra Bridger. Because the Rebellion's victory had to happen in the original trilogy, Star Wars Rebels ' time skip helped the show feel complete within itself while teasing the next adventure.

The Clone Wars ' time skip is short compared to Star Wars Rebels or even The Bad Batch , yet it made for an unforgettable ending when the show returned for a final season. The final four episodes already crossed over with Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith , so showing Darth Vader brought closure to The Clone Wars , just as Star Wars Rebels time skip did. It now foreshadows Vader and Ahsoka's tragic duel on Malachor in the Star Wars Rebels season 2 finale, creating more connective tissue across Star Wars animation.

The Bad Batch's Finale Completes A 15-Year-Old Clone Wars Story

Is the bad batch's ending setting up the next star wars show.

Since previous time skips set up future storylines, it's reasonable to wonder if The Bad Batch 's finale is already setting up the next Star Wars show. Star Wars Rebels ' epilogue eventually set up Ahsoka season 1 , and Sabine and Ahsoka's final scene on Lothol was recreated in live-action. Before that, The Mandalorian built off what had been established about Mandalorians in The Clone Wars and Rebels , with later seasons directly picking up where the animated shows left off. Even the Bad Batch themselves became the main characters of their own spinoff after one arc in The Clone Wars season 7.

Given the very real possibility, there are many ways Omega and Clone Force 99 could return. While another full-length series set during the Rebellion era is unlikely, the Bad Batch could appear in an existing show , including a cameo in Star Wars: Tales of the Empire or a live-action debut in Andor season 2. However, The Bad Batch 's time skip doesn't limit the characters to that era, meaning they could return in any of the Mandoverse TV shows or be revealed as one of the many ships present at the Battle of Exegol in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker .

Will Future Star Wars Shows End With A Time Skip?

The Bad Batch also demonstrates how more Star Wars TV shows could continue this time-skip trend , even in live-action. Andor season 2 will lead into the events of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story , but the finale could show how Cassian Andor's friends and family responded to the Battle of Scarif. Even The Acolyte , set 100 years before Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace , could benefit from jumping ahead in the timeline. Showing Palpatine and Darth Maul just before the Invasion of Naboo would show the culmination of the Sith's plans with new context from The Acolyte .

As for the end of the Skywalker Saga, there were thousands of ships at the Battle of Exegol in The Rise of Skywalker , so Mandoverse characters not killed off in their respective shows could be shown taking part in the final victory over the Sith. This would be especially beneficial for Ahsoka since season 1 ended with Ahsoka and Sabine trapped on Peridea in another galaxy. Not every Star Wars TV show ends with a time skip, but after the finale of Star Wars: The Bad Batch , it's fun to consider how future projects will use it to their advantage.

Star Wars: The Bad Batch

Cast Noshir Dalal, Gwendoline Yeo, Sam Riegel, Liam O'Brien, Rhea Perlman, Michelle Ang, Dee Bradley Baker, Bob Bergen

Release Date May 4, 2021

Franchise(s) Star Wars

Writers Damani Johnson, Gursimran Sandhu, Amanda Rose Munoz, Tamara Becher, Matt Michnovetz, Jennifer Corbett, Christian Taylor, Dave Filoni

Directors Saul Ruiz, Nathaniel Villanueva, Steward Lee, Brad Rau

Showrunner Dave Filoni

Creator(s) Jennifer Corbett, Dave Filoni

Where To Watch Disney Plus