Star Wars: The Animated Era
Where the Franchise Does Its Best Work
If you only know Star Wars from the cinema, you're missing the best of it. The animated shows — The Clone Wars, Rebels, The Bad Batch and now Maul — are where Dave Filoni and his teams have quietly built the most consistent, most emotionally honest, most complete storytelling in the whole galaxy.
We are not casual fans here. We think Rebels is one of the finest animated series ever made, full stop. We think Clone Wars earns every minute of its slow build and then pays it off with three of the best seasons of anything. We think Bad Batch's art direction is staggering, and that Maul is the best-looking Star Wars yet put to screen. This hub reviews them the way they deserve: season by season, with honest per-season ratings — because a great show isn't a flat line, it's a climb.
Below you'll find every season review grouped by show, plus the guide for slotting Clone Wars into the films. New seasons get added as they air (looking at you, Maul). Pick a show, start at season one, and clear your schedule.
Thematic Pillars
Best Animated Star Wars – Ranked for Families
Our complete ranked guide: where to start, what to watch with kids, and the full watch order.
View Series→The Clone Wars – Season-by-Season
The cornerstone. A slow-burn epic that climbs into three perfect seasons and the Siege of Mandalore.
View Series→Star Wars Rebels – Season-by-Season
Our pick for the greatest animated series ever. Four seasons, peaking at a perfect S3 and S4.
View Series→The Bad Batch – Season-by-Season
Clone Force 99, Omega, and the most beautiful animation Star Wars has ever produced.
View Series→Maul: Shadow Lord – Season-by-Season
Our show of the year. A noir crime saga and the boldest, best-looking Star Wars animation yet.
View Series→Tales of the Jedi & Empire – Character Connections
How Filoni's two anthologies deepen Ahsoka, Dooku, Morgan and Barriss — and tie the saga together.
View Series→The Thrawn Trilogy (Timothy Zahn) – Books
Hooked by Thrawn in Rebels? Zahn's canon novels are the essential deep dive into his backstory.
View Series→How to Watch Revenge of the Sith with The Clone Wars
The exact episode order that turns Episode III into a tragedy. Ahsoka, Rex, Order 66.
View Series→Ahsoka Tano – The Complete Journey
Her full arc from Clone Wars padawan to live-action legend — the right watch order and why she is modern Star Wars at its best.
View Series→Maul – The Complete Arc
Every significant Maul appearance from Clone Wars S4 through Rebels and Shadow Lord, tracked and rated in story order.
View Series→🎛️The Dadnology Star Wars Animated Standard
We rate each season on its own merit — which is why Clone Wars climbs from 'give it time' to a perfect final run, and why Rebels lands two flawless seasons back to back. A 10 here means animation, story and feeling all hit their ceiling at once. These shows do it more often than any live-action Star Wars.
★ Featured Picks
Star Wars Rebels: The Complete Series
Four seasons of the best animated series ever made. The Ghost crew is family.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars – The Complete Series
Seven seasons that turn the prequels into a genuine tragedy. The animated cornerstone.
Star Wars: The Bad Batch – The Complete Series
Three seasons of gorgeous, post-Order-66 squad storytelling. The art direction alone is worth it.
Star Wars The Black Series Maul Figure
Maul: Shadow Lord is Disney+ only — this Black Series figure is the way to own a piece of our show of the year.
Chronological Timeline
Young Jedi initiates learn the ways of the Force in the High Republic era. The perfect Star Wars gateway for ages 4-7.
Anakin Skywalker and Padawan Ahsoka Tano enter a galaxy at war. The episodic start of Filoni's masterwork — give it time.
Darth Maul survived. The Clone Wars shifts from episodic action to genuine tragedy as the Nightsisters fall and the galaxy fractures.
Ahsoka is framed for murder and tried by the Jedi Council. Her decision in the Season 5 finale is the pivot of the entire animated saga.
The masterpiece. Order 66 descends across the final four episodes while Ahsoka fights Maul over Mandalore. The peak of all Star Wars animation.
Six shorts tracing Ahsoka's earliest years and Count Dooku's fall to the dark side. Watch after Clone Wars — deeply rewarding.
Clone Force 99 and Omega navigate the sudden transition from war to Empire. The most beautiful animation in Star Wars begins here.
Clone Force 99 uncovers the Empire's cloning program while Omega comes into her own. The arc builds toward a tearful conclusion.
The franchise's great survivor rebuilds his criminal empire. The boldest, best-looking Star Wars animation to date — our show of the year.
Six darker shorts trace Morgan Elsbeth's rise under Palpatine and Barriss Offee's path through the Inquisitors toward redemption.
A scruffy band of rebels on a battered freighter. Ezra Bridger joins. The slow build that leads to the best animated finale in the franchise.
Grand Admiral Thrawn arrives. Season 3 is Rebels at its ceiling — precision storytelling and the beginning of the end for the Ghost crew.
One of the great Star Wars finales. Ezra, the wolves, the World Between Worlds, and a goodbye that earns every last moment.
The third Tales anthology — Hondo Ohnaka, Cad Bane, and the criminal galaxy across multiple eras. The underworld characters get their moment.
Franchise Archive
Explore every entry in the franchise.