Last night was the season two finale and was an hour long.
Mods, can you fix that spoiler tag
Lots of old friends showed up, including one gate crasher that I am kinda fuzzy on the story.
Maul, Aka Darth Maul. Now I could distinctly remember that he was falling down a shaft, after Ben had cut him in half, avenging Liam Neeson. Now he shows up about 15 years later, and seems to be a whole individual. Now Disney and special effects can do wonders, but is this the original Maul, or is it the 2.0 from the clone wars.
Clone Wars is considered canon, and Rebels is a direct follow on from it (interrupted by Revenge of the Sith). Characters who appear in both are the same character. This is the same Darth Maul from the Clone Wars cartoon, who went through a bit of a crisis and now has robotic legs, which was all detailed in that show (and was based on what was written in other media, comics and such), and who was also in Phantom Menace.
For the most part, anything that happens in these animated shows will not affect the movies, but they are based on ideas that are consistent with the movies. And there’s a tiny part of us who wish that Rogue One, set in the same era as Rebels - about five years after I think - will tie in directly with it somehow, with a crossover character or something.