TCW: The Complete Movie Series

What is this?

The plan is to create 1:30-2:30 hour long movies combining episodes from The Clone Wars series and 2008 movie (not the Tartakovsky microseries or unfinished episodes). This would mean around 16 feature film length Episodes. I am doing this to create a version of the Clone Wars series you could include in someone’s first watch of the main movies, to develop characters and expand the universe.

My approach

The movies will match the Skywalker saga movies in tone and pacing. The best way of summarizing the result is that I want it to feel like if it wasn’t animated but live action, it could be an entry in the main movie saga. That means taking out the narrator and adding the crawl, combining arcs and connected episodes into 90-150min “Episodes”, taking out unneeded comic relief lines (keeping some, Star Wars has always had them), etc. I also want to remove some episodes and plotlines that are filler, boring, visually uninteresting, or don’t develop known characters in a meaningful way, but keep everything else possible (don’t want to be too aggressive with trimming; if it’s not aggressively bad or meaningless, it stays). I was also thinking of removing or at least lowering the volume of music in some sections (I have a 5.1 version of the series so this is made easier by just isolating the center channel), and maybe replacing them with scores from AOtC and RotS.

Sources

So far I’ve made a rough draft of how episodes will be grouped, with help from EddieDean (creator of the Refocused version). I also got all seasons in the highest quality (10bit FHD with 5.1 sound), all the soundtracks from the series and the movies in lossless quality, as well as some SFX that I can use to mask removed lines, and made the After Effects template for the crawl.

Current order

This is by no means final, but it roughly represents how I’ve been thinking of splitting the episodes so far. The episodes without comments will be edited as well (based on the criteria mentioned before), just not as heavily.
Bold is for light trims, italics are for heavy trims.

Episode 1

216 Cat and Mouse
116 Hidden Enemy
The Clone Wars theatrical release (movie)
301 Clone Cadets
303 Supply Lines

Episode 2

101 Ambush
102 Rising Malevolence
103 Shadow of Malevolence
104 Destroy Malevolence
105 Rookies
302 ARC Troopers
108 Bombad Jedi (preserving Uncle Ono)
109 Cloak of Darkness
110 Lair of Grievous

Episode 3

111 Dooku Captured
112 The Gungan General
115 Trespass
204 Senate Spy
119 Storm over Ryloth
120 Innocents of Ryloth
121 Liberty on Ryloth

Episode 4

201 Holocron Heist
202 Cargo of Doom
203 Children of the Force
218 The Zillo Beast
219 The Zillo Beast Strikes Back

Episode 5

205 Landing at Point Rain
206 Weapons Factory
207 Legacy of Terror
208 Brain Invaders
209 Grievous Intrigue
210 The Deserter

Episode 6

212 The Mandalore Plot
213 Voyage of Temptation
214 Duchess of Mandalore
220 Death Trap
221 R2 Come Home
222 Lethal Trackdown

Episode 7

305 Corruption
306 The Academy
308 Evil Plans
122 Hostage Crisis
309 Hunt for Ziro
310 Heroes on Both Sides
311 Pursuit of Peace

Episode 8

312 Nightsisters
313 Monster
314 Witches of the Mist
419 Massacre
421 Brothers
422 Revenge

Episode 9

315 Overlords
316 Altar of Mortis
317 Ghosts of Mortis
318 The Citadel
319 Counter Attack
320 Citadel Rescue

Episode 10

415 Deception
416 Friends and Enemies
417 The Box
418 Crisis on Naboo
420 Bounty
414 A Friend in Need
501 Revival
514 Eminence

Episode 11

407 Darkness on Umbara
408 The General
409 Plan of Dissent
410 Carnage of Krell
502 A War on Two Fronts
503 Front Runners
504 The Soft War
505 Tipping Points

Episode 12

605 An Old Friend
606 The Rise of Clovis
607 Crisis at the Heart
506 The Gathering
507 A Test of Strength
508 Bound for Rescue
509 A Necessary Bond
515 Shades of Reason
516 The Lawless

Episode 13

411 Kidnapped
412 Slaves of the Republic
413 Escape from Kadavo
517 Sabotage
518 The Jedi Who Knew Too Much
519 To Catch a Jedi
520 The Wrong Jedi

Episode 14

601 The Unknown
602 Conspiracy
603 Fugitive
604 Orders
610 The Lost One
611 Voices
612 Destiny
613 Sacrifice

Episode 15

705 Gone with a Trace
706 Deal No Deal
707 Dangerous Debt
708 Together Again
701 The Bad Batch
702 A Distant Echo
703 On the Wings of Keeradaks
704 Unfinished Business

Episode 16

709 Old Friends Not Forgotten
710 The Phantom Apprentice
711 Shattered
712 Victory and Death

Episodes I didn’t include in the movies:
Ones I maybe still want to include somehow:
217 Bounty Hunters
211 Lightsaber Lost
321 Padawan Lost
322 Wookiee Hunt
404 Shadow Warrior

Ones I don’t want to include:
106 Downfall of a Droid
107 Duel of the Droids
113 Jedi Crash
114 Defenders of Peace
117 Blue Shadow Virus
118 Mystery of a Thousand Moons
307 Assassin
304 Sphere of Influence
215 Senate Murders
401 Water War
402 Gungan Attack
403 Prisoners
405 Mercy Mission
406 Nomad Droids
510 Secret Weapons
511 A Sunny Day in the Void
512 Missing in Action
513 Point of No Return
608 The Disappeared
609 The Disappeared: Pt. II

Contribution

I am open to any suggestions and ideas regarding the sorting, combining and trimming of episodes, as well as any other ideas you might have. The more people give their input, the better this project can become!

You should watch Smudger9’s TCW Episodes I-V tv-to-movie edits to get a basic idea of what he did, and then decide whether to either continue your current plans or rework the idea to be a continuation of his films. His plan envisioned a 9-movie saga, and started his edits before Canon Season 7 was announced. Maybe this edit works best as 12 movies rather than 14.

CourtlyHades296 said:

You should watch Smudger9’s TCW Episodes I-V tv-to-movie edits to get a basic idea of what he did, and then decide whether to either continue your current plans or rework the idea to be a continuation of his films. His plan envisioned a 9-movie saga, and started his edits before Canon Season 7 was announced. Maybe this edit works best as 12 movies rather than 14.

I am aware of his edits, however I feel like our goals differed somewhat (at least I don’t agree with some of the decisions he made, especially the grouping of episodes in the first few movies). I want to adhere more to the official chronological order to be easier to follow, and also want to remove as little stuff as possible as I said in the post. However I did get inspiration from some of his edits, especially the Nightsisters/Maul movie, and merging Mortis with the Citadel arc.

This is ambitious but I would worry based on the episode list that your films will feel episodic inside. For example, the three malevolence episodes edited together could easily make a film by itself. Why string the others into that when they will feel unrelated?.. Especially Bombad Jedi?

Alas, this is only my opinion, and I have to admit, I am curious how you would make it work.

I hope it goes well for you.

I’ve come up with a list of necessary episodes too that also is 14 movies, but that is just with a list of eps before trying to edit or anything. When actually editing, it will probably be less. I also have a different list of eps than you do. I looked at what actually had any permanence, and honestly cheated a bit on some arcs that I know aren’t faves (like I know almost everyone hates the D-Squad arc, but I loved it, and the Mortis arc could be removed too). Also, I would cut a crap-ton of the Martez arc down and pretty much move that into the Siege of Mandalore/final "Episode. So taking those three out would get me down to 11 alone, before any other edits.

So here would be my list of eps that I consider important to the overall saga, feel of it. And while doing it, I’d probably cut other things as well. I moved some eps around, grouped them together and such. Obviously, again, this would be before editing, transitions, trims, etc.

S2E16 CAT AND MOUSE
S1E16 THE HIDDEN ENEMY
THE CLONE WARS Movie (98m) 2h22m

S3E01 CLONE CADETS
S1E02 AMBUSH
S1E9 CLOAK OF DARKNESS
S1E10 LAIR OF GRIEVOUS
S1E11 DOOKU CAPTURED
S1E12 THE GUNGAN GENERAL 2h12m

S1E22 HOSTAGE CRISIS
S2E01 HOLOCRON HEIST
S2E02 CARGO OF DOOM
S2E03 CHILDREN OF THE FORCE 1h28m

S2E04 SENATE SPY
S2E05 LANDING AT POINT RAIN
S2E06 WEAPONS FACTORY
S2E07 LEGACY OF TERROR
S2E08 BRAIN INVADERS 1h50m

S2E12 THE MANDALORE PLOT
S2E13 VOYAGE OF TEMPTATION
S2E14 DUCHESS OF MANDALORE
S3E05 CORRUPTION
S3E06 THE ACADEMY 1h50m

S3E12 NIGHTSISTERS
S3E13 MONSTER
S3E14 WITCHES OF THE MIST
S4E19 MASSACRE
S4E20 BOUNTY 1h50m

S3E15 OVERLORDS
S3E16 ALTAR OF MORTIS
S3E17 GHOSTS OF MORTIS
S4E21 BROTHERS
S4E22 REVENGE
S5E01 REVIVAL 2h12m

• S5E10 SECRET WEAPONS
  S5E11 A SUNNY DAY IN THE VOID
  S5E12 MISSING IN ACTION
  S5E13 POINT OF NO RETURN 1h28m

• Yes, I know most can’t stand this one.

S4E14 A FRIEND IN NEED
S5E14 EMINENCE
S5E15 SHADES OF REASON
S5E16 THE LAWLESS 1h28m

S5E17 SABOTAGE
S5E18 THE JEDI WHO KNEW TOO MUCH
S5E19 TO CATCH A JEDI
S5E20 THE WRONG JEDI 1h28m

S6E01 THE UNKNOWN
S6E02 CONSPIRACY
S6E03 FUGITIVE
S6E04 ORDERS 1h28m

THE SITH LORD {JUSTICE} (From ‘Tales of the Jedi’)
S6E10 THE LOST ONE
S6E11 VOICES
S6E12 DESTINY
S6E13 SACRIFICE 2h17m

S7E5-8 MARTEZ SISTERS - Major edits to get to Bo-Katan (Unknown time)

S7E09-12 THE SEIGE OF MANDALORE - Opens with the final scene with their ship landing and then seeing all of the graves to Ahsoka looking down at her lightsaber and then a white fade indicating a flashback into the rest of the arc play out. Then we have the ship landing, see the grave markings, and then do the white flashback fade cut to the lightsaber in Ahsoka’s hand to show the flashback is over. From that we have the end of the scene to Darth Vader. Cut to the beginning of Ahsoka’s “Tales of the Jedi” episode, “Resolve” up to Bail given her a way to reach out to him. END. (Unknown time)

mrbenja0618 said:

This is ambitious but I would worry based on the episode list that your films will feel episodic inside. For example, the three malevolence episodes edited together could easily make a film by itself. Why string the others into that when they will feel unrelated?.. Especially Bombad Jedi?

Alas, this is only my opinion, and I have to admit, I am curious how you would make it work.

I hope it goes well for you.

Thanks for the feedback! Yes, the storylines feeling disjointed is one of the main risks when approaching the edit like this. However, in my opinion combining arcs that even though they aren’t strictly connected but feature the same characters (Grievous in this case) and happen close to each other chronologically is the best way to go about it if I want to make 1.5-2.5 hour long movies (which is one of the main goals). Bombad Jedi doesn’t feature Grievous but is part of the Nute Gunray arc which does.