The 13 Best Star Wars TV Shows, Movies, And Specials On Disney Plus That You Might Not Have Seen

The canon Star Wars universe has expanded greatly since the launch of Disney+, with nine saga films, two standalone films, and four live-action shows all available to watch on the streaming platform. The world of Star Wars goes far beyond the big-name live-action titles though, and there's no better time to dive into the extended Star Wars canon as the new TV shows continue to reference the older animated TV shows.

Since the release of The Mandalorian, Disney+'s first original show, Disney has also released a number of behind-the-scenes features, showing the creative work that goes into making your favorite Star Wars shows.

So whether you want to explore the extended canon or get a peek behind the scenes, here are some of the best Star Wars titles beyond the main features to watch on Disney+.

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The Clone Wars is an animated series that ran between 2008 and 2014, filling in the time skip between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. After originally being cancelled, it eventually had a final season produced for Disney+, which brought the Clone Wars story all the way up to the events of Revenge of the Sith.

With Dave Filoni at its helm and George Lucas consulting, The Clone Wars became the basis of much of modern Star Wars' extended canon. Most notably, the show introduced Anakin’s former padawan Ahsoka Tano, with the character coming back in live-action for The Mandalorian, and soon getting her own show.

With seven seasons and 133 episodes, The Clone Wars is a long watch, but worth it for any big fan of Star Wars.

A spin-off of the final season of The Clone Wars, The Bad Batch follows a squad of mutated clone troopers known as Clone Force 99 through the time period after Revenge of the Sith. A must-watch, Bad Batch also fills in an interesting niche in Star Wars history. The show gives fans an insider's perspective on the rise of the Empire, as the prequel trilogy's clone troopers are replaced by the ubiquitous stormtroopers.

The first season of The Bad Batch was released for Disney+ in 2021, with a second season on the way.

Released between 2014 and 2018, Star Wars Rebels is an animated TV show that follows a cell of rebels operating on and around the planet Lothal in the period leading up to Star Wars: A New Hope. With a fully new cast of Rebels, the show also contains cameos from Clone Wars characters, as well as characters from the films.

Plenty of ideas first introduced in Rebels have made their way into the live-action TV shows, with Obi Wan's Inquisitors making their first appearance in the animated show, along with Mandalorian's Bo Katan.

Rebels consists of four seasons and 75 total episodes, as well as four shorts made to introduce the new characters, which are also available on Disney+.

Forces of Destiny is a series of animated shorts that focus mainly on the female characters of the Star Wars universe, spanning many different locations and eras. With short scenes following Leia Organa, Rey, Ahsoka Tano, Padme Amidala, Jyn Erso, Rose Tico, Sabine Wren, and Hera Syndulla, Forces of Destiny is mainly aimed at a younger audience, but is a quick watch that includes some fun scenes for fans. While not being a major part of Star Wars canon, Forces of Destiny still features many of the original actors, such as Lupita Nyong'o as Maz Kanata, Daisy Ridley as Rey, and Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker.

Forces of Destiny consists of two seasons, each with 16 short episodes spanning multiple eras of Star Wars.

A stylish animated series produced by Genndy Tartakovsky, this Clone Wars mini series is no longer considered canon, but the Emmy Award-winning series is now available on Disney+ and still worth a watch. Produced and aired between 2003 and 2005, this take on the Clone Wars also fills in the gap between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, with many of the same story beats and characters being picked up for its successor, Filoni's 3D-animated Clone Wars.

While originally aired as 25 short episodes, this show is available to watch on Disney+ condensed into two longer specials.

Star Wars Visions is an anthology show consisting of nine episodes, each animated by one of seven Japanese animation studios. It's debatable whether the Visions shorts are canon or not but existing in that gray area gave the studios a lot of freedom to play around with Star Wars lore, resulting in some interesting concepts (and some creative takes on the classic lightsaber).

Star Wars Visions consists of one season, with nine standalone episodes in total. A second season is being developed with episodes from a wider range of international animation studios.

One of the first behind-the-scenes features released on Disney+, this chronicle of what went into making The Mandalorian is also one of the most extensive features available to stream. The show consists of eight episodes following the making of the first season of The Mandalorian, with each episode focusing on one area of production and interviewing key Star Wars creatives such as Dave Filoni, Jon Favreau, Bryce Dallas Howard.

The Mandalorian Gallery also includes two longer specials focused on the show’s second season, with one special feature focused entirely on the season’s bombshell finale.

Not as extensive as the original Disney Gallery, the hour-long behind-the-scenes feature for The Book of Boba Fett is still worth a watch for fans of the universe. The feature dives into everything that went into bringing Boba Fett back to the screen, from the cast, to the impressive special effects and practical effects.

Breaking away from the Disney Gallery branding, A Jedi's Return is an hour-long feature that runs through the making of Disney’s Obi-Wan TV show, featuring interviews with Ewan McGregor, Hayden Christensen, and director Deborah Chow. As well as showing the practical work that went into making Obi-Wan Kenobi, the special also looks at the legacy of the characters, their actors, and the work that goes into making a show that bridges the prequel trilogy with the original films.

As its name suggests, this Disney+ exclusive documentary explores the legacy of Boba Fett, asking how a character with almost no screen time or dialogue became such a fan favorite. The documentary goes through the history of the character both behind the scenes and on screen, including interviews and footage of many of the creatives involved with bringing the character to life.

For fans who are interested in the technical work that goes into bringing Star Wars to the screen, Light & Magic is a six-episode Disney+-exclusive documentary series that explores the early days of Lucasfilm's visual effects company, Industrial Light & Magic. The documentary digs into the history of the company and its creative minds, who were brought together by George Lucas to bring his vision for Star Wars to life. The series is directed by Star Wars writer Lawrence Kasdan, who was given extensive access to film the documentary.

One of the few Star Wars documentaries to predate Disney+, Empire of Dreams follows the making of the original three Star Wars films, making use of archival footage and interviews with cast and crew members. The documentary was made in 2004 to align with the DVD release of the original films, providing an ambitious look at the making of the iconic trilogy, as well as attempting to provide some sociological and political context for the films.

The documentary runs for two and a half hours, following the trilogy’s production chronologically.

For something completely different, check out Star Wars' take on slow TV. Star Wars Biomes is a unique special that features a number of the universe's unique landscapes, taking viewers on slow journeys across different planets including Hoth, Tatooine, and Sorgan. While not the most engrossing Star Wars content on Disney+, Biomes makes for great background watching for dedicated Star Wars fans.