Looking to watch Star Wars Rebels for free? Sorry to disappoint y’all, but that is just not possible anymore! Yes, you may have found several different websites promising you just that.
Watch Rebels season 1 for free. Watch all three Rebels seasons for free. Well, none of those links will work anymore. Here’s why.
It was back in 2015 when Disney first announced that all 14 episodes of the Star Wars Rebels season 1 would be made free to stream online.
The spin-off series, set in between Episodes III and IV, had just completed premiering its first season in March 2015. Since then, Rebels became Disney’s favorite free treat for its newly-acquired Star Wars fanbase.
But are these free treats, or ways to watch Star Wars Rebels online for free, still available? Well, not legally, they aren’t. We can no longer stream Star Wars Rebels for free online.
Being the home of Lucasfilm, Disney has collected all the Star Wars movies and TV shows in one place — its streaming arm — Disney Plus. That too, with a paid Premium/VIP subscription only.
There are other ways to watch all four Rebels seasons, but none of them are free.
(When I say free, I mean legal and free. There are many illegalways to watch all shows, and Rebels is no different! Torrent it. Hire a hacker. Or become one. Coding is the new fad, after all. Pretend to pay the subscription.)
Read on to find out why all the confusion and where else can you watch Star Wars Rebels besides Disney Plus.
Where Can I Watch Star Wars Rebels?
Streaming Service | Price of Star Wars Rebels |
Amazon | $2.99 per episode, $19.99 per season |
YouTube | $64 per month for overall subscription |
Google Play | $3.99 per episode, $39.99 per season |
iTunes | $2.99 per episode, $19.99 per season |
As of December 2020, Disney Plus is the sole owner of all things Star Wars.
You can only watch Star Wars Rebels on Disney Plus with its Premium or VIP subscription. The English language is available in Premium while regional languages in VIP.
Besides Disney Plus, Rebels is also available on the cable channel Disney XD. But as far as online streaming goes, Disney Plus is all there is for the entire Star Wars franchise, and Rebels in particular.
Netflix had a couple of Star Wars films streaming on its platform till July 2020, which were removed once its annual contract with Disney expired. None of the Star Wars films are available via subscriptions for Hulu, Amazon Instant Video, or Sling TV.
You can always purchase various episodes and seasons digitally on Amazon, YouTube, Google Play, and iTunes. Here is a break up of their asking prices.
Why Did Disney Make Rebels Free to Stream?
Disney had wanted to launch a streaming service of its own long before Disney Plus was born in November 2019. It all started in 2015, around the time Disney produced star Wars Rebels along with Lucasfilm, which it acquired in 2012.
Realizing the Star Wars universe’s importance to its entertainment business, Disney wanted to have exclusive rights to the multi-million dollar franchise as soon as possible.
Back then, all of Disney’s productions were distributed across several platforms like Netflix, Amazon’s Prime Video, Hulu, among others.
But Disney wanted Rebels all for itself. Almost every Star Wars movie and show have been sporadically available on the streaming giant Netflix’s libraries, but Rebels was never one of them.
Star Wars Rebels was one of the major Star Wars productions after Disney acquired Lucasfilm, besides the sequel trilogy. The first season of Star Wars Rebels was released in 2014 and went on till March 2015.
However, around this time, talks of a private streaming platform for Disney were also gaining ground. In December 2015, Disney even launched a streaming service in the United Kingdom called DisneyLife to test the waters.
So in the absence of a streaming service of its own but wanting to keep the new Star Wars baby in the house, Disney decided to stream the first season of Rebels for free on its Disney Now app. This was done in the days leading up to the 2015 Star Wars Day, i.e., May 4.
Two years after the first free streaming of Rebels, when season 4 was ready for the premiere, Disney announced in 2017 that all three seasons will be made freely available on the Disney Now app.
This was done to prepare the audiences for what was declared the upcoming season four of the series. However, once season 4 premiered, all three seasons went right back behind the paywall.
By then, Disney had already bought itself a small share in BAMTech, a streaming technology business inspired by MLB Advanced Media.
In 2017, Disney was also ready to purchase some key shows and films from 21st Century Fox, for its streaming content portfolio, of course.
So you see that in Disney’s bid to steal audiences from streaming giants like Netflix and Hulu, Rebels was one of the essential baits.
About Star Wars Rebels
Star Wars Rebels is a four-season-long animated TV series animated and produced by Lucasfilm Animation. Rebels aired its first episode on October 14, 2014, and follows the story of rebels who make the rebellion happen against The Empire in the Star Wars Universe.
The plot revolves around a team of Rebels and clearly the most unique team combination we have seen in Star Wars so far. The rebel team is led by Jedi Knight Kenan Jarrus and Hera Syndulla – daughter of Cham Syndulla who once fought the Separatists with Jedi Master Windu during the Clone Wars.
We also have an R2D2-style astromech – Chopper, an ex-Mandalorian – Sabine Wren, and a Lasat – Garazeb Orellios. The team’s rebellion starts escalating quickly when they encounter a strong force-sensitive boy, Ezra Bridger on the planet of Lothal.
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