Star Wars Underworld is promoting a #SaveTheCloneWars Twitter protest on Saturday to help show Disney and Lucasfilm how big and passionate the fan base for Star Wars: The Clone Wars is. Basically, they want the hashtag #SaveTheCloneWars to trend with people sharing their support for the future of the show, on Saturday at the normal broadcast time (well, West Coast broadcast time: 9:30 am PT / 12:30 pm ET). This is on top of the mailed letter campaigns directly to Disney and Lucasfilm.
There have been multiplereports that layoffs are on the way for Lucasfilm Animation in the wake of the cancellation of The Clone Wars.
If this does pan out, it’s not particularly surprising: Our own Stooge predicted the end of Lucasfilm Animation last week. Alas, as sad as it is, it only makes sense that Disney would eliminate a department that’s redundant to their own extensive resources. Our pal Bryan at Big Shiny Robot has a level-headed examination of the yet-unconfirmed moves:
But renewed calls to panic in this case aren’t justified. This seems wholly consistent with the plan we were upset about a week ago. What’s being done to The Clone Wars is unfair, both to the fans and the artists who create the show, and it will never hurt to voice your support, but being upset at a cat for eating a mouse (or in this case a giant mouse eating a television show) is to deny the nature of the thing.
That said, the letter-writing campaign that’s being pushed is far from useless: If you enjoyed The Clone Wars then, yes, make your voice heard. It may be too late to turn back the clock for Clone Wars, but it might make a difference for the remaining episodes, or show that there’s enough interest to sustain another show.
But it’s also time to sit down, take a deep breath, and make sure you’re presenting your case in a calm and rational manner. Panic only breeds more panic, and that’s not the kind of statement that’s going to make a good impression on the higher-ups at Disney – or anyone else.
Monday’s announcement that Lucasfilm was taking its animation division in a new direction, focusing on exploring a new series while bringing a graceful end for Star Wars: The Clone Wars and a hard stop for Detours, brought out a lot of mixed feelings from fans. Many, like Stooge and me, were sad and angry to see The Clone Wars get shut down at its peak. I’ve rounded up reactions from the voice cast of the show, as well as from bloggers and entertainment reporters.
It’s brief, but TVLine has a report from the Disney Channel upfront yesterday:
Disney Channels Worldwide boss Gary Marsh also said the company is “working closely with LucasFilm, Kathleen Kennedy and director Dave Filoni (Star Wars: The Clone Wars) to explore new Star Wars content for our platforms,” to be detailed later this year.
It does echo the announcement from the other day, but any port in a storm. (via)
What would you like to see Filoni and company explore? Head beneath the cut for a poll!
Yesterday’s announcement that Lucasfilm Animation will be wrapping up The Clone Wars with some bonus content but not a full sixth season, while preparing for a new series was not a big surprise, but it was still a sad piece of news for me and other fans of the show.
The Clone Wars is joining its maker in retirement, we learned, even as he himself spilled the beans on the most important Episode VII casting news so far. (I do promise that I’ve spared you all the imminently predictable remarks about old actors, because they’re beyond tired.) All that, plus the usual suspects, beneath the cut.
StarWars.com has confirmed yesterday’s report, more or less. Lucasfilm Animation is going to “pursue a new direction in animated programming.” This is intriguing:
We are exploring a whole new Star Wars series set in a time period previously untouched in Star Wars films or television programming. You can expect more details in the months to come.
As for The Clone Wars, they’re going to “wind down the series,” and continue production on “new Clone Wars story arcs.” So sounds like we haven’t seen the last of the series, even as it’s ending.
Looking at the announcement closely, they don’t call the “wind down” season six, but instead call it “bonus content” which means that probably we may not see the entire season’s worth of episodes, but simply several story arcs that are either the best material or the ones already furthest in the pipeline.
In the announcement, there’s a video with Dave Filoni discussing the future of the show, saying “the best is yet to come”, and brings out a long video clip of an upcoming story arc that focuses on clone programming, Order 66, and the return of the spidery Admiral Trench.
As for Detours:
Detours was conceived and produced before we decided to move forward with the new Star Wars trilogy, and in the wake of that decision, Lucasfilm has reconsidered whether launching an animated comedy prior to the launch of Episode VII makes sense. As a result, we’ve decided to postpone the release of Detours until a later date.
Well, not going to cry over that one, though I wouldn’t be surprised to see whatever’s been completed pop up as specials somewhere.
Jedi 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.
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.
Star Wars Underworld is promoting a 
It’s brief, but 
Looking at the announcement closely, they don’t call the “wind down” season six, but instead call it “bonus content” which means that probably we may not see the entire season’s worth of episodes, but simply several story arcs that are either the best material or the ones already furthest in the pipeline.
