Reports: Are The Clone Wars over for good?

UPDATE: Apparently so.

The Clone Wars Season Five logoJedi News is reporting that ‘several sources’ have told them that the Star Wars animated series is at an end. Big Shiny Robot has heard much the same, and believes an official announcement is imminent.

The Clone Wars’ fate under Disney has been uncertain for some time now: Cartoon Network only had the rights to air it through season 5, and many expected – or hoped – that it would move to the Disney XD channel.

Disney has its annual upfront presentation of its networks’ programming for the 2013-2014 season on March 12, so this will be the right time for some news – either The Clone Wars will be on its list, or it won’t. If it isn’t on the Disney lineup, then hopefully we’ll have some announcement of what the future does hold for the show. While being popular, the show is fairly expensive to produce, and without George Lucas championing the show like a billionaire who does whatever he wants with his own money, it could be that the show’s budget (despite raising the bar on animation for a weekly TV series) could be working against renewal in the post-George era.

It’s not yet known what will happen to the completed episodes of what would be the sixth season: Jedi News believes a direct-to-DVD/Blu-Ray release of some sort is possible. Other sources indicate that an online distribution method such as through iTunes might be a possibility. With each production season creating a few more episodes than get aired in the broadcast season, and pushing into the next season for airing, there’s at least one story arcs that should be ready to go: The Clovis story arc originally slated for season five. We know that a lot of voice work has been recorded for season six, but knowing that it takes about a year for an episode to be produced from story to ready to air, it is not known how many season six stories made it out of the pipeline.

If this rumor proves true, a Clone Wars cancellation would be the second piece of major fallout from the acquisition. The 3D rereleases of Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith were ‘postponed’ in January. Also in the “no news is bad news” department, Star Wars Detours hasn’t been on the radar at all, with its Facebook page last being updated in November.

Still, with 5 seasons and more than 100 episodes, you can’t argue that The Clone Wars hasn’t had a good run.

Clone Wars roundup: S5 finale ‘The Wrong Jedi’

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It’s been almost a week since the season five finale of The Clone Wars, and there’s still a lot to talk about! You’ve probably already gotten my take on what transpired in those last few episodes (or last few minutes of the last episode, ‘The Wrong Jedi’), but there’s a lot of other good news and discussion out there, and I’ve picked out some of the best here. Again, here be spoilers.

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The Clone Wars S5 finale: Whose fault is Ahsoka’s fate?

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After seeing the The Clone Wars finale at Lucasfilm, and then watching ‘The Wrong Jedi’ again at home, there’s certainly a lot to talk about regarding what happened in that final episode of the season, especially with Ahsoka. This article will move into spoiler realms after the next picture, so go watch the episode if you haven’t done so already.

Also, Ashley Eckstein and Dave Filoni go behind the scenes with ‘The Wrong Jedi’ in the behind the scenes commentary. For more insight on the episode (and the whole finale arc), check out the Question and Answers segment from the Lucasfilm screening with Dave Filoni, Ashley Eckstein and Matt Lanter, recorded by Bryan Young for the Full of Sith podcast, episode XII (If you just want to skip to the Q&A, it starts around 35:10).

Spoilers from here on out! (including the comments)

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The Clone Wars: Ahsoka is ‘The Wrong Jedi’ – but is there a right one?

Ahsoka Tano goes on trial as the perpetrator of the Jedi Temple bombing in the final episode of Season Five of Star Wars: The Clone Wars on Saturday morning. ‘The Wrong Jedi’ is an amazing episode, with some big things happening so catch it as soon as possible to avoid spoilers!

In the preview above, Ahsoka faces questioning from the Jedi Council, while in the second preview (below), Anakin Skywalker tracks down Asajj Ventress in the Coruscant underworld for some answers. And there’s another tooka! Find out more what is in store for The Clone Wars with a twitter chat today with Ashley Eckstein, hosted by Christan Blauvelt at Hollywood.com. Continue reading “The Clone Wars: Ahsoka is ‘The Wrong Jedi’ – but is there a right one?”

The Clone Wars: Tim Curry is the new voice of Palpatine

TCW-520-PalpatineChancellor Palpatine returns to The Clone Wars in the final episode of the season with Tim Curry taking the role over after the passing of Ian Abercrombie. Bryan at Big Shiny Robot has the scoop on how Dave Filoni selected Tim Curry and has an exclusive preview clip that has Palpatine presiding over the trial of Ahsoka Tano, with Admiral Tarkin as prosecutor, and Padme as defense counsel. Apparently, there aren’t any trial lawyers in The Clone Wars.

Tim Curry is probably known best for his role of Dr. Frank-N-Furter from The Rocky Horror Picture Show, but has been doing a lot of voice work in the past twenty years, including on The Wild Thornberrys and Young Justice.

The info was first revealed at the Lucasfilm screening of the season five finale last Friday, but was one of those secrets asked to be kept. We’ll have more tidbits from the screening Q&A after ‘The Wrong Jedi’ airs on Saturday, wrapping up the finale story arc.

The Clone Wars: Season Five finale screening at Lucasfilm

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On Friday night, Lucasfilm hosted a screening of the final season five arc of Star Wars: The Clone Wars for fans and the crew of the show and their families at their main campus in San Francisco. Combining the last four episodes (including the premiere of ‘To Catch a Jedi’ and ‘The Wrong Jedi’), the audience was treated to a special presentation of the story, and was followed up with a question and answer session with Dave Filoni, Ashley Eckstein and Matt Lanter, moderated by Pablo Hidalgo. Also in attendance were Sam Witwer, the voice of Darth Maul; and Charles Murray, who wrote the story arc.

R2-D2 at LFL screening with JawaAfter a quick intro from Dave Filoni and producer Cary Silver (with Filoni officially accepting Bonnie Burton into the 104th Wolf Pack), they got the show started. Similar to other screenings where they have shown an entire story arc, this version included some extra scenes that didn’t fit into the original episodes, and perhaps also helped to tie the whole story arc together. As a bonus treat, Dave announced that the opening had been made for the screening: which was having The Clone Wars logo enter with the Star Wars theme music as if it were a Star Wars movie. Also, classic Star Wars wipes were used between several scenes that I hadn’t noticed before.

My spoiler-free review of the episodes: Holy cow! This is some of the best this show has ever done – with story, with animation and sound, everything. There is really something to seeing this show on a big screen that makes it so much better than watching it on a TV. But even without the Lucasfilm theater experience, this story will blow you away. We’ve already seen a fantastic scene with Anakin Skywalker and Ahsoka Tano at the end of ‘The Jedi Who Knew Too Much’, where their relationship changes with Ahsoka asking her master to trust her as she leaps into the maw of Coruscant. That’s just the start of some great character bits, with Matt Lanter and Ashley Eckstein (and several others) bringing the characters to life in a powerful way. And there’s some awesome action. And some stuff I didn’t expect at all. I’m sure there’s only so many ways I can say that this is amazing, but it truly is.

Before the Q&A started, Pablo answered two important questions that might have been on people’s minds: No, they weren’t going to take any questions on Episode VII or other non-TCW topics, and there is no official announcement yet on if/when/how Season Six (and later seasons) will be broadcast or otherwise enjoyed by the public.

The Q&A obviously covered a lot of the key stuff from the story arc, so I won’t talk about it until after all the episodes have aired. If you’re looking for hints for what happens, go back to see my write-ups from the USO screening for some of the questions and answers from that – part I and part II. If you want something not spoilery, Dave Filoni talked about the influence of his pets on the show, and when asked if he got a motion picture budget to make a Clone Wars movie, he’d spend most of it on hockey pants or crew jackets with rocket packs. This screening was Matt Lanter’s first time seeing the completed episodes, and he was pretty amazed by the final results on screen.

Thanks to Lucasfilm for hosting such a fantastic event. After seeing this screening and the USO screening, I really believe that The Clone Wars is best seen on the big screen, and LFL should keep that in mind for the fans, and fans should seek out any opportunity to watch it cinematically – like at the next Celebration they attend?

The Clone Wars: Ahsoka on the wrong side of the law in ‘To Catch a Jedi’

The hunt for Padawan Ahsoka Tano continues on this week’s episode of Star Wars: The Clone Wars: ‘To Catch a Jedi’. With Tarkin convincing the Jedi Council that Ahsoka is behind the Temple bombing and the killing of several clonetroopers, the Jedi are conflicted – some like Anakin and Barriss Offee believe in her innocence and try to help her, while others, like Plo Koon, are dispatched to bring her in for justice. In the clip above, Tarkin makes his case to Yoda and the Jedi Council. And in the clip below, we get another fun staple of The Fugitive – the chase aboard public transit: Temple Guards (or transit cops?) try to catch Ahsoka aboard an elevated hovertrain.TCW-519-ToCatchAJedi
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Clone Wars review and roundup: First half of the Ahsoka arc: ‘Sabotage’ &’The Jedi Who Knew Too Much’

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We’re heading into the final stretch of the season for Star Wars: The Clone Wars, with the last two episodes of the Ahsoka arc coming this way in the next two Saturdays. ‘Sabotage’ put a terrorist attack on the Jedi Temple, with Ahsoka catching the culprit, but ‘The Jedi Who Knew Too Much’ now has Ahsoka on the run, framed for killing that suspect, and some clonetroopersTCW-518-TheJediWhoKnewTooMuch-jump I do a little reviewing and catch up on other reviews and news for The Clone Wars:

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The Clone Wars: Is Ahsoka ‘The Jedi Who Knew Too Much’?

The investigation behind the Jedi Temple bombing continues in this week’s Star Wars: The Clone Wars. With her main suspect in custody, Ahsoka Tano continues her search for justice… or is it revenge that she’s seeking? In the first preview above, Ahsoka goes to meet the perpetrator of the attack, Letta Turmond, in her detention block. The second clip started off as an IGN exclusive with Ahsoka showing a little more emotion than a Jedi should, while discussing the situation with Admiral Tarkin, Anakin Skywalker and Barriss Offee. Is Ahsoka going to get in over her head?

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The Clone Wars kicks off its final story arc of the season with ‘Sabotage’

The final story arc of season five for Star Wars: The Clone Wars begins this Saturday, with ‘Sabotage’. A blast within the Jedi Temple has Anakin Skywalker and Ahsoka Tano leading the investigation. Meanwhile, public opinion about the Jedi in the war has started to turn against the defenders of the Republic. In the top clip, the Jedi Council members let our crime-solving heroes know that it very well could be one of their fellow Jedi behind the attack. In the clip below, Anakin and Ahsoka are up to their usual tricks, dealing with buzz droids on Cato Neimoidia, in a scene that foreshadows the opening of Revenge of the Sith. And the final clip in this post is a trailer for the entire story arc, focusing on Ahsoka getting into trouble. Continue readingThe Clone Wars kicks off its final story arc of the season with ‘Sabotage’”