Star Wars Rebels appropriately revealed the origin of the Rebel Alliance’s logo, but while the reason was a somewhat satisfying one for fans of the animated series, it contradicted George Lucas’ original explanation for the symbol – which itself had been rendered non-canon years before. When Lucas sold Lucasfilm to Disney in 2012, the Mouse House then spent the next few years retooling the entire franchise. A significant part of that process included de-canonizing the Expanded Universe and renaming those stories Legends.

While restarting the Star Wars canon from the ground-up was smart, using only the movies and a handful of other projects as a basis for the new continuity, several backstories and explanations for major characters, organizations, or events were tossed aside. One of those stories happened to be for the founding of the Rebel Alliance as well as where its symbol, the Alliance Starbird, came from. So Disney’s Star Wars era had to come up with a new origin for the Rebellion’s prominent logo.

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Disney’s new canon explanation for the Rebel Alliance logo came in the animated series Star Wars Rebels. In that show, the Mandalorian Sabine Wren used her art not only as an inspiration for the Ghost’s crew but also as an act of rebellion against the Empire. One such piece of art was a phoenix starbird, which Sabine drew based on ancient legends about a bird that couldn’t die. By combining that personal logo with the three-pronged symbol that Saw Gerrera would wear from his early days in the Clone Wars, the Rebel Alliance had their new official symbol.

Before Disney acquired Lucasfilm and disregarded all the Expanded Universe stories, there were tiers to what was considered canon and what wasn’t. But for the most part, whatever Lucas worked or consulted on himself abided by the movies’ continuity. One such story was The Force Unleashed video game, which was set in the era between Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. And in that game, Darth Vader took Galen Marek as his apprentice, whom he and the Emperor used to destroy the Rebels hiding throughout the galaxy.

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After being betrayed multiple times by Vader, Galen aka Starkiller gave his life to save the Rebellion, making sure that they could survive and, in turn, ultimately defeat the Emperor. For his sacrifice, Princess Leia used Galen’s family crest – the Phoenix – for the Rebel Alliance’s logo. It was considered to be a symbol of hope and something the Rebels could rally behind, according to Leia. Since Lucas consulted on the game and Lucasfilm’s licensing team agreed to the story, it’s fair to say this was Lucas’ approved version of the Alliance Starbird – and it was a good one. But Star Wars Rebels‘ new canon origin is just as personal.

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Mansoor Mithaiwala
(1887 Articles Published)

Mansoor Mithaiwala is Screen Rant’s TV Lead Editor. He originally joined the site as a freelance writer on the Lists team before moving over to News and Features, eventually becoming an editor in 2018. Over time he’s done quite a few different things, including helping launch gaming on the site, often handling news, features, and guides simultaneously. Now he sticks primarily to movies and TV, and spends way too much time looking at analytics. It sure seems like he’s put his Political Science degree to good use, huh?

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