SDCC panels announced: The Clone Wars and Firefly’s 10th anniversary

Cartoon Network released their schedule of panels at Comic-Con, coming up in a few weeks in San Diego. For Star Wars fans, they confirmed the Lucasfilm panel on Star Wars: The Clone Wars coming on Saturday, July 14.

From the press release:

Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Onto Season Five
The aftermath of Season Four has left the Star Wars galaxy a very dangerous place: Darth Maul is alive, Asajj Ventress is a bounty hunter, and the Mandalorian Death Watch is deadlier than ever. How will these threads continue in Season Five of Star Wars: The Clone Wars? Find out in this behind-the-scenes panel, which will feature new clips, new insights and more. Join the discussion with Supervising Director Dave Filoni and head writer Matt Michnovetz (who wrote Season Four’s powerful Umbara arc). Moderated by Star Wars author Pablo Hidalgo. Room 6DE

Also from Cartoon Network’s announcement: panels for Adventure Time, Regular Show, DC Nation,Ben 10, and Mad and two new shows based on existing properties: Annoying Orange, and Dragons: Riders of Berk (from How to Train Your Dragon). The Adult Swim programming block will have a single panel on Friday to highlight seven of its shows, including Robot Chicken (and their upcoming DC Comics Special) and The Venture Bros.

Meanwhile, there’s been some confirmation from Tim Minear that Comic Con will also have a 10th Anniversary panel for Joss Whedon’s Firefly. That’s gonna be a mighty fine shindig. Will Nathan Fillion be there? Probably so, even if there’s no Castle panel. Who needs Castle when there’s a (Dan Harmon-less) Community panel?

See you in San Diego!

Video: Super Best Friends Forever!

The first in a new series of shorts developed by Lauren Faust (My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic) featuring Wonder Girl, Supergirl and Batgirl premiered yesterday on Cartoon Network.

You might recognize the voices: Wonder Girl is played by Grey DeLisle (Azula in Avatar: The Last Airbender,) Batgirl is Tara Strong (IN EVERYTHING, including MLP:FIM, and Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends) and Supergirl is played by Nicole Sullivan (Shego in Kim Possible.) Oddly, none of these ladies have been in The Clone Wars, though DeLisle did do voice Padme and Asajj Ventress in the Tartakovsky Clone Wars series, as well as some video game work, and Strong did a voice for The Old Republic.

LEGO Star Wars special premieres July 22

File this one under the ‘so not for me.’

Lucasfilm/LEGO/The Cartoon Network have a press release today detailing The Padawan Menace, a standalone TV special that will premiere Friday, July 22.

Tour guide Master Yoda leads a group of rambunctious Jedi younglings through Senate chambers when he senses a disturbance in the Force. Summoned to help save the Republic, he discovers that one of the younglings secretly boarded his ship…and has a taste for adventure! Meanwhile, C-3PO and R2-D2 are put in charge of the boisterous group and find themselves in over their heads. As the evil Sith prepare to wreak havoc, it’s up to Yoda and the droids to ensure that their young charges aren’t torn to bricks!

No doubt the kids will love it.

Taking a peek at ‘Senate Spy’, Friday on Clone Wars

...Puppets.The episode guide teaser page for this week’s The Clone Wars episode: ‘Senate Spy’ is up. Is there a Separatist conspiracy in the Senate? Padmé, at the request of the Jedi Council, goes undercover to find out.

Also, the next act of the ongoing The Clone Wars webcomic “Act on Instinct” is up. Cad Bane and Aurra Sing capture a Jedi seer.

CartoonNetwork.com launches a new The Clone Wars game online, Star Wars: The Clone Wars Game Creator as part of their overall site re-design, allowing players to customize their own game levels and pick a character and ship to use in them, and have other players rate it. Read more about it at starwars.com or just go ahead and play it online.

Prepping for S2 of The Clone Wars

There was a press junket for The Clone Wars season 2 in California today. They posted a new trailer yesterday, but StarWars.com was tweeting fast and furiously from the event, giving us a peek at some of the themed foodstuffs (Gungan salad, roast bantha) a costumed Cad Bane, and a preview or two. (More photos – and not the cell phone kind – here.) Oh, and a brand new interview with George Lucas and Dave Filoni.

Season 2 will debut with two episodes – ‘Holocron Heist’ and ‘Cargo of Doom’ – Friday, October 2 on Cartoon Network. Expect a lot more press coverage in the next couple of weeks… We’ll do our best to keep up. Meanwhile, you can answer our latest poll:

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New The Clone Wars images, video, Cad Bane interview, Republic Heroes demo, and more!

The Clone Wars: Season 2

A baker’s dozen of new Star Wars: The Clone Wars images have popped up on IGN, including a few new characters coming in Season 2. They also have two new videos, including this one where Cad Bane gets hired to do a little smash-and-grab on the Jedi Temple and Anakin and the clones head up against Cad Bane’s battle droids in a zero-g firefight.

Wired managed to get an interview with the notorious bounty hunter, Cad Bane. Bane goes on the record to say the Clone Wars are good for business with “the war tends to shake out the power players, and bigger clients means bigger fees” and quashes rumors that he’s concerned about young Boba Fett taking over the Fett bounty hunter name and fame. Does he want a shot at the Jedi, like Anakin Skywalker? Read it and find out!

On the video game front, the demo version of Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Republic Heroes has been released on XBox Live for download. The game takes place between seasons 1 and 2, and will be released on September 15 for PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, PS2, Nintendo DS, and PSP.

Remember, Season 2 of The Clone Wars premieres on Cartoon Network on Friday, October 2. Meanwhile, SW.com is streaming four fan favorite episodes over the Labor Day weekend.

No more The Clone Wars on TNT?

TheForce.net reports that reruns of The Clone Wars haven’t aired on TNT in several weeks. Someone at the network told the Force-Cast’s Jimmy Mac that the show was only slated for a limited run, but Lucasfilm has so far not responded to TFN’s requests for clarification.

I’ve always thought that rerunning the show on another channel was a bit unnecessary – not when they still have a place on the Cartoon Network. Perhaps, as TFN’s Mike speculates, the TNT ratings simply weren’t as good as expected.