'Star Wars Rebels' showrunner says series won't end with 'Rogue One' cameos

— -- For three seasons, the adventures of a scrappy band of rebels taking on the Galactic Empire have taken place on the small screen.

That is, until filmmakers behind last December's "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" added a few "Star Wars Rebels" Easter eggs to scenes at the rebel base on Yavin IV — like spunky droid Chopper, a PA announcement summoning a main "Rebels" character, and the TV show's iconic ship, the Ghost.

With the announcement today that the show will end its critically acclaimed run on DisneyXD after the upcoming fourth season, speculation is ripe among fans curious about how it all will end for characters Hera, Kanan, Ezra Sabine and Zeb (and Chopper, of course).

Since the Ghost also pops up in several quick space battle shots during the epic Battle of Scarif finale in "Rogue One," ABC News asked the show's executive producer Dave Filoni if the end of "Rebels" will play out in a big-screen "Star Wars" offshoot.

The answer, he said, is no.

"I wouldn't like hanging this entire series we've done and my characters on something else we've already seen," Filoni told ABC. "There would have to be something really epic that my guys are doing in that battle. And if there was something epic, it should've been in the movie."

That means that, while the "Rogue One"–"Rebels" connections are cool for fans, Filoni said, the "Rebels" characters — voiced by actors Freddie Prinze Jr., Tiya Sircar, Taylor Gray, Vanessa Marshall, Steve Blum and others — will get their own "epic finale" without relying on any other "Star Wars" stories.

"If you started with 'Rebels,' you can watch the entire thing and never see any of the movies and still get the spirit of what 'Star Wars' is and how it all works," Filoni said.

"Star Wars Rebels" will begin airing its fourth season in the fall on DisneyXD and is produced by Lucasfilm, a division of Disney, the parent company of ABC News.