8 Years Later, Disney's Star Wars Still Has One Of The Best Jedi Moments In Franchise History

Courtesy of Everett Collection Published Jul 24, 2026, 9:00 PM EDT El is a Junior TV Features Editor for ScreenRant, with previous experience as The Mary Sue's UK and Weekend Editor. She holds a Bachelor's in International Media and Entertainment Management, as well as an MA and Ph.D. in Creative Writing. There is little she loves more than discussing her favorite TV shows with fellow fans. One day, she hopes to publish an original fantasy novel. Sign in to your ScreenRant account Eight years later, Disney's first major Star Wars release still has one of the best Jedi moments in the franchise's history. As the galaxy's peacekeepers, the Jedi have accomplished dozens of heroic and unbelievable acts, both individually and as a whole. Luke Skywalker's destruction of the Death Star, Obi-Wan Kenobi's defeat of Darth Maul, Yoda's duel against Darth Sidious; each scene has come to define what it means to be a Jedi, fighting against evil and protecting the light side of the Force. Crucially, though, that's not all there is to being a Jedi. Over the years, especially in the transition from the High Republic era into the timeline of the Star Wars prequel trilogy, the Jedi became blinded by their own hubris, so assured in their power and their place in the galaxy that waging war against the Separatists during the Clone Wars seemed like the only logical course of action. Yes, they were misled, but they were ignorant, too, leading to the eventual genocide of the Jedi Order and a galaxy ruled through tyranny. In 2014, the animated series Star Wars Rebels bridged that all-important gap between Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith and the original Star Wars movie, later retitled A New Hope. From the ashes of Order 66, Kanan Jarrus (formerly known as Jedi Padawan Caleb Dume) changed the galaxy forever, not only by teaching the next generation of Jedi but by saving them, as well. In Star Wars Rebels season 4, episode 10, "Jedi Night," Kanan Jarrus sacrificed his life to save his Padawan, Ezra Bridger, the Mandalorian Sabine Wren, and Rebel General Hera Syndulla, holding back an enormous wave of flames from an exploding Imperial fuel pod with the Force before pushing them to safety. Not only was Kanan's death one of the most emotional scenes in the franchise's history, but it was also one of the most true Jedi moments in all of Star Wars. He did what he did out of love. It was an act of protection, one that fundamentally altered the galaxy's future. Kanan Jarrus Is One Of Star Wars' Greatest Jedi MovieStillsDB Kanan's sacrifice was a tragic but fitting end to his legacy as a Jedi. Of all the Jedi ever introduced in Star Wars, Kanan perhaps embodied what it means to be a true peacekeeper better than anyone. He was never arrogant or prideful in his power. He overcame an incredible trauma — his master, Depa Billaba, died to protect him — and then still stood up to defend those in the galaxy who were being oppressed under Imperial rule. He didn't hide away like Yoda; he wasn't sequestered on Tatooine like Obi-Wan. Kanan was on the front lines every day. A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far, Far Away · Eight Questions How Well Do You Know Star Wars? “The Force will be with you. Always.” 🗡️Jedi OrderLight-side guardians ⚡The SithRule of two ⚙️The RebellionA new hope 🪓Bounty HuntersThis is the way 👑The EmpireOrder 66 PUNCH IT! → 01 The original Star Wars film — later retitled Episode IV: A New Hope — opened in just 32 American theatres and proceeded to become the highest-grossing film of its era, redefining what summer blockbusters could be. In which year did it premiere? A1975 B1977 C1979 D1980 ✓ Correct! 1977 — specifically May 25. 20th Century Fox had so little faith in the project they only opened it in 32 theatres at first; queues quickly stretched around the block, and the film expanded to over 1,000 screens within months. It earned $307 million in its initial domestic run, won six Academy Awards (with another four nominations) and inverted Hollywood’s economics for the next 50 years. ✗ Wrong. The answer is 1977. 1975 is when the script was being shopped around. 1979 is when Star Trek: The Motion Picture released as a Star Wars-shaped countermove. 1980 is The Empire Strikes Back. The original Star Wars is May 25, 1977. NEXT → 02 A New Hope’s writer-director was a then-32-year-old American Graffiti veteran who’d struggled to get the project greenlit and famously took back-end profit and merchandising rights in lieu of a higher salary — the deal that would build a billion-dollar company. He returned to direct the prequels but stepped away from the original-trilogy sequels. Name him. ASteven Spielberg BGeorge Lucas CFrancis Ford Coppola DIrvin Kershner ✓ Correct! George Lucas. The merchandising rights he kept (because Fox didn’t value them) became the financial bedrock of Lucasfilm and the basis of the modern toys-and-licensing megabusiness. After A New Hope, Lucas produced but didn’t direct Empire Strikes Back (Irvin Kershner) or Return of the Jedi (Richard Marquand), then directed all three prequels (1999–2005). He sold Lucasfilm to Disney in 2012 and stepped away from creative control of the sequels. ✗ Wrong. The answer is George Lucas. Steven Spielberg was Lucas’s close friend (and the godfather of his post-A-New-Hope career) but never directed a Star Wars film. Coppola was Lucas’s mentor at USC and at American Zoetrope. Irvin Kershner directed Empire Strikes Back. The original is Lucas’s. NEXT → 03 In 1980’s The Empire Strikes Back, Darth Vader delivers cinema’s most-misquoted line at the climax of his Cloud City duel with Luke Skywalker. Vader severs Luke’s hand and reveals their relationship. The exact line is — for the record — “No, I am your father.” What relationship does it confirm? AVader is Luke’s uncle BVader is Luke’s father (Anakin Skywalker) CVader is Obi-Wan’s brother DVader is Han’s father ✓ Correct! Vader is Anakin Skywalker, Luke’s father. The reveal was so jealously guarded that Mark Hamill was only told the real line on set the day they shot it (the script said “Obi-Wan killed your father”), and even James Earl Jones recorded the dub without knowing the full plot context. The line — commonly misquoted as “Luke, I am your father” — rewrote what trilogies could pull off and is broadly considered cinema’s most famous twist. ✗ Wrong. The answer is that Vader is Luke’s father, Anakin Skywalker. The whole foundation of the Skywalker saga collapses to this single twist: Anakin (the Jedi prodigy of the prequels) becomes Vader after his fall. Luke and Leia are revealed in Return of the Jedi to be his twin children, separated at birth. NEXT → 04 Yoda — the green, ear-twitching Jedi Master — was puppeted and voiced from his Empire Strikes Back debut through the prequels and the sequels by a single Muppet-show-veteran performer who also voices Miss Piggy and Fozzie Bear. Name him. AJim Henson BFrank Oz CSteve Whitmire DBrian Henson ✓ Correct! Frank Oz — longtime Jim Henson collaborator and voice/puppet work on Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Animal, Sam Eagle and Grover. Oz puppeted Yoda directly through The Phantom Menace before CGI took over for Attack of the Clones onward, but he’s continued to voice the character through the sequels and animated series. Yoda’s syntax was developed jointly by Lucas and Oz to feel old, foreign and hard-won. ✗ Wrong. The answer is Frank Oz. Jim Henson was Oz’s mentor and collaborator (he created the Muppets) but didn’t voice Yoda. Steve Whitmire took over Kermit after Henson’s 1990 death. Brian Henson is Jim’s son and runs the Henson company today. Yoda is Frank Oz’s. NEXT → 05 In a deal that reshaped Hollywood, Disney acquired Lucasfilm Ltd. for $4.05 billion in cash and stock — bringing Star Wars, Indiana Jones, ILM and Skywalker Sound under the Disney umbrella. The deal also kicked off the sequel trilogy production. In what year did Disney close the acquisition? A2009 B2010 C2012 D2014 ✓ Correct! 2012 — specifically October 30. The deal was announced with simultaneous reveal that a Star Wars Episode VII was being developed for a 2015 release. Lucas had been quietly preparing his exit from Lucasfilm for years; Kathleen Kennedy had been brought in as co-chair months earlier specifically to take over. The Force Awakens came out three years later, in December 2015, kicking off the modern era. ✗ Wrong. The answer is 2012. 2009 is when Disney acquired Marvel ($4 billion). 2010 is the year before Lucas began signalling exit plans. 2014 is when production proper began on The Force Awakens. Lucasfilm joined Disney on October 30, 2012. NEXT → 06 The Mandalorian launched as Disney+’s flagship original on November 12, 2019 — the day the streaming service itself launched. Created by Jon Favreau and run by Dave Filoni, the show centres on a helmeted bounty hunter who reluctantly becomes a foster father to “The Child” (Grogu). What is the Mandalorian’s real name? ABoba Fett BCobb Vanth CDin Djarin DBo-Katan Kryze ✓ Correct! Din Djarin — played by Pedro Pascal under the helmet (with body double Brendan Wayne handling much of the physical work). The Mandalorian is widely credited with reviving Star Wars on TV, popularising the StageCraft LED-volume virtual production technology now used across Hollywood, and turning baby Yoda — Grogu — into the meme-economy phenomenon of late 2019. Three seasons have aired with a feature film, The Mandalorian & Grogu, set for May 2026. ✗ Wrong. The answer is Din Djarin. Boba Fett is the famous bounty hunter from the original trilogy, with his own Disney+ spinoff (The Book of Boba Fett, 2021). Cobb Vanth is the Tatooine marshal played by Timothy Olyphant. Bo-Katan Kryze is the Mandalorian princess played by Katee Sackhoff. The Mandalorian himself is Din Djarin. NEXT → 07 Order 66 — the secret directive that turns the Republic’s clone troopers against their Jedi commanders and effectively ends the Jedi Order — is dramatised in the climactic third act of which prequel film? AEpisode I: The Phantom Menace BEpisode II: Attack of the Clones CEpisode III: Revenge of the Sith DRogue One ✓ Correct! Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005). Palpatine’s “Execute Order 66” comm to the clone armies leads to the methodical, planet-by-planet liquidation of the Jedi Order — one of the saga’s most operatic sequences, scored to John Williams’ “Anakin’s Betrayal” cue. The same film features Anakin’s fall to the Dark Side, the Mustafar duel with Obi-Wan, and his rebirth as Darth Vader in the suit. Widely re-evaluated as the best of the prequels. ✗ Wrong. The answer is Revenge of the Sith. Phantom Menace ends with Qui-Gon’s death and the unveiling of Darth Maul. Attack of the Clones ends with the Clone Wars beginning. Rogue One is set just before A New Hope, after Order 66 has long since happened. The Order 66 sequence is the climax of Episode III. NEXT → 08 Andor (2022–25) is widely regarded as the most adult, politically literate Star Wars project ever made — a slow-burn prequel to Rogue One charting Cassian Andor’s radicalisation against the Empire. The series was created and showrun by a writer/director best known for the original Bourne trilogy and Michael Clayton. Name him. ATony Gilroy BRian Johnson CJon Favreau DDave Filoni ✓ Correct! Tony Gilroy. He’d previously been brought in for extensive Rogue One reshoots in 2016, and Lucasfilm gave him near-total creative independence on Andor. Season 1 (12 episodes, 2022) is widely regarded as Star Wars’ finest dramatic writing ever; Season 2 (also 12 episodes, in four three-episode jumps across 2025) closes the gap to Rogue One’s opening scene. Gilroy’s prior credits: Bourne Identity / Supremacy / Ultimatum / Legacy, plus directing Michael Clayton (2007). ✗ Wrong. The answer is Tony Gilroy. Rian Johnson directed The Last Jedi (2017). Jon Favreau created The Mandalorian and is Lucasfilm’s Disney+-era animation/live-action lieutenant. Dave Filoni runs the Filoniverse (Clone Wars, Rebels, Ahsoka, the upcoming Heir to the Empire film). Andor is Tony Gilroy’s. REVEAL MY RATING → The Force Has Spoken · Final Tally Your Galactic Standing 🗡️ / 8 Jedi Master — or moisture farmer on Tatooine? ⤴ ANOTHER GO He became a Master before he ever officially graduated to Jedi Knight status. He learned to see through the Force when his sight was stolen from him. He maintained his attachments, even a romantic one, without letting his emotions overrule him. He acknowledged the dark side of the Force but wasn't swayed by it. He lived by his own rules and ideals, honoring the Jedi's most important beliefs while adapting to his environment and the galaxy's terrifying political landscape. Most importantly, Kanan was good to his very core, understanding, patient, kind, and caring, a Jedi in all the ways that mattered most. Kanan's Sacrifice Had A Major Impact On The Star Wars Galaxy Though Kanan's death was as much of a shock to the audience as his closest friends, that game-changing Rebels episode did imply that he knew it was coming. He cut his hair, handed over leadership to Ezra, and told Hera he needed to tell her something; while that could have been "I love you," it certainly also could have been "I know what I have to do, and I need to say goodbye." That makes his sacrifice all the greater, though. Kanan was a Jedi until the very end, and his heroic death had a massive effect on the Galactic Civil War. Not only did he inadvertently manage to destroy the Empire's fuel refinery on Lothal, greatly weakening their occupation of the planet, but his sacrifice also inspired his Padawan, Ezra Bridger, to do the same. In the end, Ezra defeated Grand Admiral Thrawn by sending them both into regions unknown, leaving his newfound family behind to save his homeworld and the galaxy at large. Lothal was liberated, and the Empire lost one of its most valuable tacticians, setting the stage for the Rebellion's eventual victory at the battles of Yavin and Endor. In the Star Wars Rebels epilogue, it was revealed that Kanan and Hera had a son together: Jacen Syndulla. Now, as Ahsoka season 2 draws near, Ezra can take Kanan's place, teaching Jacen about the Force the same way Kanan taught him. As devastating as Kanan's Star Wars death was, his legacy lives on in those he fought for and loved, including Ezra, Hera, current Jedi-in-training Sabine, and Garazeb Orrelios. That's what it means to be a true Jedi. All episodes of Star Wars Rebels are available to stream on Disney+.