When Disney bought Lucasfilm in 2012, the possibility of a sequel trilogy to follow up George Lucas’s original trilogy became a reality as The Force Awakens was put into production. With it came the possibility of expanding the Star Wars mythology beyond the original films. Of course, this had already been done with the Expanded Universe and The Clone Wars television show, but Lucasfilm was committed to streamlining Star Wars stories into canon stories that officially happened and Legends stories that were basically myths told in the Star Wars galaxy.
The Clone Wars television show was abruptly ended (though it would be revived and finished in 2020), and The Clone Wars showrunner Dave Filoni, who worked closely with George Lucas on the series set between Episodes II and III, created a new animated series set just a few years before Episode IV. Star Wars Rebels introduced us to Ezra Bridger, the young Padawan of Kanan Jarrus, a Jedi who survived Order 66 when he was just a boy. Ezra quickly became a fan favorite, along with all of the other characters of the series. The end of the series, however, left Ezra’s fate up in the air.
In the season 4 series finale, Ezra faces off with Grand Admiral Thrawn aboard Thrawn’s Star Destroyer. In a last-ditch effort to free his home planet of Lothal from Imperial occupation, Ezra uses his unique connection to the Force to call upon space whales known as Purrgil for assistance. The Purrgil have the ability to jump to hyperspace, which is what they do, taking Thrawn’s fleet with them. To where exactly, no one is sure. The episode ends with an epilogue in which a post-Return of the Jedi Sabine and Ahsoka leave Lothal to search the galaxy for Ezra because he never returned after he left.
Of course, it was entirely possible that Ezra and Thrawn were killed from the Purrgil’s jump to hyperspace, but Dave Filoni himself, in a 2018 interview with the Star Wars Show, confirmed that this wasn’t the case. “I have a lot of theories about it and what I think happens and where they are,” Filoni said. “I’ll say this much, they’re not dead. Both of them survive, both Ezra and Thrawn I would say survive it.”
This, of course, leaves both Ezra’s and Thrawn’s fates up in the air, but there is cause to believe that Ezra is still alive even through the end of the Skywalker Saga. In The Rise of Skywalker, when Rey is calling upon the fallen Jedi of the past for assistance and guidance in facing Palpatine, she hears several past Jedi’s voices, including Hayden Christensen as Anakin, Mark Hammill as Luke, and Liam Neeson as Qui-Gon Jinn, among others. Most notably for our present concern is the voice of Freddie Prinze, Jr. as Kanan Jarrus, Ezra’s Jedi Master who died near the end of Star Wars Rebels. But a voice that is remarkably missing is that of Taylor Gray, who voiced Ezra Bridger on Rebels. Since Rey is hearing the voices of the Jedi who have died, the absence of Ezra seems to imply that he’s still alive at that time, somewhere in the galaxy.
With Ezra being such a well-loved character by the Star Wars fandom, it’s unlikely that we’ve seen the last of him. Perhaps he’ll make an appearance in the next season of The Mandalorian or in the upcoming series Ahsoka. Either way, it seems clear that Ezra Bridger is still very much alive.