Report: Clone Wars ‘bonus content’ to be two arcs

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TheForce.Net’s Eric Geller says that The Clone Wars’ ‘bonus content’ will be two story arcs from what would have been the show’s sixth season. What they won’t be? Bounty hunters:

Among the story arcs that will not emerge in this post-cancellation era is one that dealt with Boba Fett and the other bounty hunters who have menaced the heroes for several seasons. This story arc, which my source tells me was almost done, would have shown us the fates of Cad Bane and Aurra Sing.

It’s also being heavily implied that Lucasfilm Animation layoffs – or notifications thereof – went down on Friday.

Eric also had two takes on Lucasfilm Animation’s reaction to the fan reaction. (Which has since been… removed?) One was “shocked” by “tepid fan reaction;” The other “recognized the outpouring” of support.

It’s worth noting that these two accounts can be reconciled. I’m sure that everyone at Lucasfilm Animation, both current and former staffers, appreciates what support they’ve seen. The question is how much more support those staffers were expecting to see.

Which makes me wonder what reaction they were watching, because it seemed pretty outraged to me: Yesterday’s #SaveTheCloneWars protest drew over 7,000 tweets in 24 hours.

15 Replies to “Report: Clone Wars ‘bonus content’ to be two arcs”

  1. They probably said these thing before the twitter protest, because it is true that before that fan reaction wasn’t as big as it could have, should have been. Which makes me fear things like the twitter protest came too late. But better late then never; the fight must go on, it is not over yet. Fans should redouble their efforts, continue writing letters, e-mails and spread the word. This two arc things is not acceptable, it is the strict minimum of what would could have expected!

  2. While I’m glad some people are protesting, Disney is looking at a market of millions, not 7,000, with new films. Sadly, I think that means the CW protests will have to be a lot larger before Disney changes its mind.

  3. I think the problem was that we didn’t know what their announcement actually meant. For a while there it seemed like we would get season six, because they said it was finished several times, and the bonus content.

    I think if they had been clearer, confusion would have been eased, allowing everyone to be on the same page about what was actually going on.

    It looks like we’re getting two four part movies that do not really give us any closure.

    I think fans will be more disappointed and let down after they get the content and it offers no real closure.

    If they gave me closure movies with:
    -Maul
    -Ahsoka
    -Bounty Hunters
    -Padme Pregnant and the Outer Rim Sieges
    -Bo-Katan/what happens to them

    I would be more than happy, but that’s like 28 episodes and probably will never happen now.

    They’ve made it really hard to get into their next show. I just won’t trust it will be seen through. I gave The Clone Wars time to breath and enjoyed the off the wall arcs, I don’t think I can myself into that place for the next show. They’ve sort of regulated the story into a short game, which is a bummer.

  4. True, most fansites (at least the ones I checked) bought into the positive spin pretty quickly. I was also annoyed by it, but it’s more a credit to Lucasfilm’s PR than anything else. I don’t blame Dave Filoni for making that video where he promised the best was yet to come, but I also can’t blame the online community for believing him.

  5. Jason, I sort of have to disagree… I think they made it pretty clear that the bonus content wasn’t going to be that much. I mean, they called it bonus content — if we were going to get all of season six, they would have said so. If we were going to get closure on Ahsoka, and Maul, etc., Dave Filoni would have said so. They promised bonus content, and that’s what they’re delivering.

  6. Sadly I think this all comes down to pure business. Hardcore fans like us who do sites, podcasts, FB pages, tweeting, costuming orgs etc are 10% tops of the whole conema going and toy buying market that watches Star Wars. Disney would happily jettison that 10% if they could ensnare the other 90%. If they think turning Star Wars off for 2 years while making Ep7 is good for business, then they’ll kill it dead.
    We need to remember, Disney are in charge now, not Lucasfilm. All final decisons go through the mouse, not the mousedroid. They don’t (yet) know the finer details of who’s who and what’s what, and why would they? They can make the decisons, let LFL filter it down and take the flack from those who care enough to complain and concentrate on making the films and spin-offs . It’ll come good in the end, I’m sure of it, but right now it’s a tough time for the 10%.

  7. So it will probably be the Clovis arc that was supposed to be in Season 5, and the Order 66-ish arc that Filoni previewed.

  8. I kinda figured that 2 arcs (4 eps each) = 8 eps worth would have been the bare minimum to give us to call it bonus content. i had hoped for at least 12 worth. gotta keep the pressure on them to release more.

    while i had heard about the Boba Fett/Cad Bane arc, i figured it would get the axe over other more important story arcs if they had to cut back.

  9. Part of the deal is that reports of the demise of TCW were discounted as being totally inaccurate and flat out “in error” so… IMO this compounds the situation. Deliberate denial of what was coming around the bend. Since this move seems to have blind-sided everyone, I do feel the most pain for all artists involved with TCW and also SW Detours. What a crappy way to do business as usual, especially in light of how both entities were “annointed” with the benediction of George at Celebration VI….. that was just months ago, ya know?

  10. I’m expecting 7 episodes. The Clovis arc from season 5 will probably be in it, and it seemed to be 3 episodes.
    Fans have brought back cancelled Disney shows in the past, so we can do the same. For corporations, one letter, or one e-mail doesn’t just represent one person, but the opinion of a whole group of people. One letter represents for them the opinion of hundreds, if not thousands of fans. It is like an iceberg: when you see the tip, you know the rest is under there supporting it. If it wasn’t like that, fans wouldn’t have managed to bring back Kim Possible when it was cancelled by Disney.
    We must continue to fight for the clone wars.
    http://www.savetheclonewars.com/
    #SaveTheCloneWars

  11. A large issue is calling it “bonus content” at all. To me, it is semantically a nightmare.

    I honestly hoped that it was called “bonus content” because they were going to release the 5 films from season six, not in episode format, but in their film edits. So we weren’t really getting a season of a television show, but individual releases.

    When was the last time a direct to video movie was called “bonus content?” Never, I’m guessing.

    I don’t know if it was on purpose, but what they did was misleading. It was kind of destined to play out poorly. Because when you promise people more of something but aren’t clear as to how much, you’re bound to disappoint.

    My fear is that the few arcs that are released aren’t substantial enough to matter or connect with the audience as a stand-a-lone feature and interest just plummets.

    We can also pull dozens of quotes about Season Six being completed well before the “winding down” announcement. So “bonus content,” meant different things to different people.

    That said, we still don’t have confirmation we’re only getting two arcs. Lucasfilm might still be treating us right, I hope.

  12. Bombad Radio, a pod cast, says they’re working on a Yoda backstory episode in which we learn and see things about Yoda we have never known before. Tom Kane says he hears they’re planning on finishing that.

    Tom Kane also says we were going to get the secret to force ghosts.

    Sounded exciting.

  13. well, i don’t think that season six was finished, completed, ready to air, but I do think that the voice recording was done for a lot of it. However, voice recording is pretty early in the production cycle.

    Sent off letters to Kennedy and Iger about how bonus material needs to be more and not less.

  14. They actually had already written 8 seasons, voiced the sixth, and were advanced in the production of the Boba Fett arc.

  15. If they had just delivered the promised season, I would be able to sleep at night :/

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