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Star Wars: The Clone Wars To Return With New Episodes

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Star Wars: The Clone Wars is coming back.

Let that sink in. Because you helped make it happen with your love for the series and unwavering support.

Just announced by Dave Filoni at San Diego Comic-Con during a 10th anniversary celebration of the beloved animated series, Star Wars: The Clone Wars will be returning with 12 all-new episodes on Disney’s direct-to-consumer streaming service. Created by George Lucas, the show first aired in 2008 and became an entry point into Star Wars for an entire generation, following fan-favorites like Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Padmé Amidala, while introducing major new characters like Jedi Padawan Ahsoka Tano and Captain Rex. Its stories were complex, its heroes and villains were perfectly imperfect, and its look was captivatingly beautiful. It became a multi-Emmy winner and is now regarded as essential Star Wars.

But it was never finished. The Clone Wars ended after five broadcast seasons — just as Ahsoka left the Jedi Order. A few post-Season Five episodes were later released as “The Lost Missions,” but the story wasn’t over. Fans have clamored for Disney and Lucasfilm to finish what was started ever since. And now it’s actually happening.

Check out the trailer here!

StarWars.com recently caught up with Filoni, supervising director and shepherd of the series, to discuss the shocking return of The Clone Wars.

StarWars.com: Did you ever think this would be possible? That we’d get here?

Dave Filoni: No. I didn’t, I really didn’t.

StarWars.com: What can you say about the fans’ enthusiasm over the years and, really, their role in making this happen?

Dave Filoni: Well, thankfully, their enthusiasm is relentless. Their love of these characters and stories hasn’t diminished. I actually think their voice has gotten louder as the years have gone by. It’s been very humbling to have their support and to have people continue to hashtag me, “#SaveTheCloneWars.”

StarWars.com: To you personally, what does it mean to get to finish it?

Dave Filoni: Personally, it’s very rewarding. Any opportunity to put the final pieces of the story in place is meaningful as a storyteller. I’m happy for the opportunity to define these things and the end of this part of the Clone War. It also makes me reflect on all the people that I got to work with over the years. It reinforces the things I learned from George. It reminds me of the important elements that go into making Star Wars. So, it’s nice on several levels, and I think for the crew that’s still here that worked on Clone Wars, they feel that, as well.

StarWars.com: What do you think it is, 10 years later now, that made this show resonate so much with people, and made it stick with them, and gave it the strength to come back?

Dave Filoni: I think the variety of stories was a big part of it. You also can’t underestimate how important it was that so many people grew up with the show. Clone Wars was a piece of Star Wars that older fans might have, initially, not taken seriously because it was animated, but that wasn’t a barrier for kids. They loved the clones and identified with them. Ahsoka gave kids a character that was like them — someone their age that was experiencing life’s challenges and learning along the way. Plus, having a new episode each week really allowed us to explore what was going on with the new and legacy characters in a dynamic way, including Anakin and Obi-Wan. I think the stories left an indelible impression and, of course, George knew it would. He always knew.

SW.com Source

 

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I guess this is somewhat surprising, though not too shocking. They obviously have the means and the audience.

Can’t say I personally care very much, but I’ll definitely be watching.

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Since I actually like TCW, I’m not apathetic or antipathic towards this news.

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I’m pretty excited about this. I love (most of) seasons 3-6 of TCW, and was always bummed we never got to see the Siege of Mandalore animated. I figured if we ever got that, it’d be a TV/DVD/Netflix movie.

But holy shit - 12 new episodes?!

I just hope none of them are simply the story reel episodes fully animated. We’ve seen those already. Ditto any of the 8 Dark Disciple episodes, or the Son of Dathomir episodes. I imagine they’ll need to do some flashbacks to Son of Dathomir for Maul’s part of the Siege of Mandalore to make sense to those who haven’t read the comic, but I’ll be disappointed if they waste four (or more) of the new episodes on stuff that already exists in some form in canon.

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I’d be surprised if they only dusted off old scripts and produced those. If this is Filoni’s chance to “finish” Clone Wars, he’s going to have to shuffle around, condense, and combine things.

Then again, maybe this won’t actually be the end.

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They had two whole seasons recorded before it was cancelled.

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Tobar said:

They had two whole seasons recorded before it was cancelled.

What do you mean by recorded? Because if you mean what I think, I find that hard to believe.

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The voice tracks I presume?

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Where were you in '77?

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The plan was to end at Season 8 (which is two seasons and a half). I don’t think they were all recorded, but a good deal of them were. All had drafts.

We know the season will include the Bad Batch arc (four episodes) and the Siege on Mandalore (three episodes). That leaves five extra slots. I predict they won’t do Dark Disciple or Son of Dathomir considering they already have “finished” versions. Crystal Crisis, being a pre-vis reel and not a finished product, might be redone. But personally that arc doesn’t sound very exciting when they only have 5 episodes to finish the entire series. I really want to see the Cad Bane - Boba Fett shoot out.

Maul- A Star Wars Story

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nice. they listened to the fans. though, this announcement demands that diehard clone wars fans cannot dislike the new season of clone wars. under any circumstances. it’s gotta be all fan-service, callbacks and expositional dialogue shoehorned into the plot of each episode.

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DominicCobb said:

Tobar said:

They had two whole seasons recorded before it was cancelled.

What do you mean by recorded? Because if you mean what I think, I find that hard to believe.

Voice recording. Dee Bradley Baker has come out and said as much.

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Tobar said:

DominicCobb said:

Tobar said:

They had two whole seasons recorded before it was cancelled.

What do you mean by recorded? Because if you mean what I think, I find that hard to believe.

Voice recording. Dee Bradley Baker has come out and said as much.

I somehow doubt very much that that’s actually true.

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DominicCobb said:

Tobar said:

DominicCobb said:

Tobar said:

They had two whole seasons recorded before it was cancelled.

What do you mean by recorded? Because if you mean what I think, I find that hard to believe.

Voice recording. Dee Bradley Baker has come out and said as much.

I somehow doubt very much that that’s actually true.

The Lost Missions were 13 episodes long. They’ve publicly shown an additional eight episodes in rough animatic form, comprised of two arcs, the second of which was the season 7 opener. As well as a glimpses of fully voiced scenes from two other arcs that were four episodes long each.

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a_o said:

nice. they listened to the fans. though, this announcement demands that diehard clone wars fans cannot dislike the new season of clone wars. under any circumstances. it’s gotta be all fan-service, callbacks and expositional dialogue shoehorned into the plot of each episode.

Uh… what?

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Tobar said:

DominicCobb said:

Tobar said:

DominicCobb said:

Tobar said:

They had two whole seasons recorded before it was cancelled.

What do you mean by recorded? Because if you mean what I think, I find that hard to believe.

Voice recording. Dee Bradley Baker has come out and said as much.

I somehow doubt very much that that’s actually true.

The Lost Missions were 13 episodes long. They’ve publicly shown an additional eight episodes in rough animatic form, comprised of two arcs, the second of which was the season 7 opener. As well as a glimpses of fully voiced scenes from two other arcs that were four episodes long each.

Well okay, I thought you had meant two seasons recorded in addition to all that they’ve already released. Even still, the suggestion that the dialogue recordings (and thus scripts) for the entirety of two seasons were all completely done seems somewhat unlikely to me. At least some of those episodes were probably still in progress when they were cancelled.

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I sincerely hope the 12 episodes are just the second half of season 6, and that we get seasons 7 and 8 after that. That way, we’d have every planned episode completed. That said, if it does come down to only 12 episodes, I agree we shouldn’t waste them on stories that have already been told. If they stop at twelve, I’ll be annoyed they even wasted four on the Bad Batch arc.

BTW, I can’t be the only one who noticed Anakin’s longer hair. I hadn’t even noticed it was any shorter in TCW than RotS, but I guess not anymore. Actually, upon closer inspection, it appears to be the same length, just wavier.

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Anakin had really short hair at the start. It gradually got longer as the war progressed.

The whole “revived” series looks much more film accurate. The Jedi now wear full robes. Before only had a variant of clone armor, due to technical restrictions. Over time animation quality gradually increased, and it looks like they finally reached accuracy.

JEDIT: I agree with more seasons. The streaming service could probably survive on its own with just a rebooted clone wars series. But at the same time I’m just happy they can finish it off.

Maul- A Star Wars Story

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Obi Wan did wear armor sometimes in the hand drawn micro series though.

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Where were you in '77?

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OutboundFlight said:

The whole “revived” series looks much more film accurate. The Jedi now wear full robes. Before only had a variant of clone armor, due to technical restrictions. Over time animation quality gradually increased, and it looks like they finally reached accuracy.

A shame, 'cause the “clone armour variant” looks better.

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I started rewatching the series in the chronological order (thanks to doubleofive for sharing the order list). The two episodes I watched before this weren’t any kind of bastion of great pacing or anything, but, damn, the movie is tedious.

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I seem some people speculating that these 12 episodes might only be the beginning of even more episodes in the future, but based off the last clip in the trailer and the poster itself, we will be getting the Siege of Mandalore arc, and I believe that is meant to be the last arc in the series, since it coincides with Revenge of the Sith.

Yes, the show isn’t in chronological order, so they could keep going with stuff that happened before Order 66, but I don’t see that happening. So I think these 12 episodes are it.

I’ve heard that the Siege of Mandalore is a 4-Episode arc, so if I had to guess, we’ll be getting the Bad Batch arc (based off the middle clip), the Crystal Crisis on Utupau (since this arc and Bad Batch seem to have been in the same stage of development this is an educated guess), and the Siege of Mandalore.

I guess it might be a tad dissappointing, but not everyone has seen the unfinished episodes, and I’m just happy we are getting more Clone Wars. I also think those are all three solid arcs to end it with.

Maybe I’m wrong and they’ll go with two two-part arcs, or one of them is a three-part arc and we’ll get a standalone episode too. Or maybe each episode we’ll be an hour rather than 30 minutes, which would double the room for more episodes. But the most realistic answer to me is we are getting three four-part arcs and that will be it.

Regardless, I’m looking forward to whatever they decide to show us!

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It seems likely that they’ll skip Dark Disciple and Son of Dathomir as they’ve already been turned into a novel and a comic series. I’d personally love to see the Dark Disciple story-arc in episode form, but finishing the half-completed episodes (which also focus more on more important main-characters like Anakin, Ashoka, etc.) seems to make more sense financially.

Star Wars is Surrealism, not Science Fiction (essay)
Original Trilogy Documentaries/Making-Ofs (YouTube, Vimeo, etc. finds)
Beyond the OT Documentaries/Making-Ofs (YouTube, Vimeo, etc. finds)
Amazon link to my novel; Dawn of the Karabu.