With ‘The Lawless’ airing last Saturday, the story arc of Darth Maul’s ambitions to become a major player in the galaxy have come to an end. Naturally, with many of the big developments that came out of this story, most notably the deaths of Pre Vizsla, Duchess Satine, and Savage Opress, and Maul being spared by Sidious, there’s a lot to talk about with Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Here’s a rundown of some of the buzz on Darth Maul / Death Watch storyline: Continue reading “Roundup: Wrapping up the Maul/Death Watch story on The Clone Wars“
With some big happenings in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, supervising director Dave Filoni took to the Internet with three cast members to discuss today’s episode, ‘The Lawless’, which concluded the Maul storyline and also preview the final story arc of the season, featuring Anakin and Ahsoka. Hosted by Pablo Hidalgo and Christian Blauvelt, the entire video session from Google hangout (more than 50 minutes) is now available online at Youtube, but here’s some of the key points (trying to keep it free of major spoilers for this episode and ones to come):
Sam Witwer talked quite a bit about Maul’s motivations for his entire story arc – getting from Spider-Maul to how he toys with the bounty hunters in ‘Eminence’ to his role in ‘The Lawless’.
One early scene that was voice recorded but cut out of ‘The Lawless’ before it was animated would have brought Anakin and Ahsoka into the episode.
Ashley Eckstein and Dave Filoni broached the final story arc a bit, with a big appearance of a returning movie character, who is viewed very differently by Ahsoka and Anakin.
We got to see a bunch of concept art, from ‘The Lawless’ and from next week’s ‘Sabotage’ as well as a preview clip of ‘Sabotage’, which introduces a David Caruso-inspired investigator, complete with sunglasses-on-and-off-ness.
Pablo Hidalgo took a couple questions from Twitter for Dave Filoni and the cast to answer, including some about the fate of Echo and Gregor, and the return appearance of Twilight, and the return of the Wolfpack.
Ashley Eckstein shared a great story about her first encounter with Matt Lanter on the set.
Dave Filoni started talking about the machinations against the Jedi – not just in reducing their numbers, but in how Palpatine works to reduce their reputation and influence.
Noticeably not answered: anything specific about season six.
Overall, a lot of fun and I hope that we get more of these types of events with the cast and crew, especially with some of the voice talent of recurring but not main show characters, like Sam Witwer (who gave a great interview with Christian Blauvelt on Hollywood.com).
Don’t forget that Dave Filoni and three cast members of Star Wars: The Clone Wars will be taking questions in a Google+ hangout today – at 10:30 am Pacific / 1:30 pm Eastern, after today’s airing of ‘The Lawless’. Sam Witwer (“Darth Maul”), Matt Lanter (“Anakin Skywalker”), and Ashley Eckstein (“Ahsoka Tano”) will be chatting alongside supervising director Filoni and the event will be hosted by Pablo Hidalgo and Hollywood.com’s Christian Blauvelt. Join the event on Google+, or watch the livestream on youtube.
To get you ready for the hangout, Christian Blauvelt has a great spoiler-free interview with Sam Witwer that examines Maul’s journey on the show and ties together Maul, Sidious and Anakin Skywalker.
The Darth Maul storyline reaches its epic conclusion this Saturday with ‘The Lawless’, this week’s episode of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. With Satine deposed on Mandalore, and the Jedi ordered to not follow up on the menace of Darth Maul, it’s up to Obi-Wan to go rogue and save his duchess. Both of the previews for this week refer back to some classic scenes from A New Hope, but also we see the return of Twilight, with Obi-Wan as Rako Hardeen in the first clip. In the second clip, below, Obi-Wan does some elevator improvisation after he realizes he is a little short for a Mandalorian. And in the third clip, Darth Sidious shows up for his first in-person appearance on the show (in all previous episodes, Sidious has only appeared as a hologram). Continue reading “Obi-Wan goes undercover in ‘The Lawless’ on The Clone Wars“
The USO has posted their highlight clips from last week’s visit by the cast and crew of Star Wars: The Clone Wars to MCAS Miramar in San Diego. Ashley Eckstein has posted her experience from the USO tour to the official Star Wars blog. I’ve already posted the transcript of the part I: the first question and answer session with Dave Filoni and the voice actors at Big Shiny Robot! earlier this week, along with my report on the event, and interview with James Arnold Taylor. Now it’s time to present the second Q&A session, the one that happened after the US premiere screening of ‘Eminence’.
Darth Maul has assembled his army from the underworld, and his next step is to help Pre Vizsla take over Mandalore from Duchess Satine, in this week’s episode of Star Wars: The Clone Wars – ‘Shades of Reason’. Interesting title for a storyline about the action-heavy Sith Lord. Once viewed as an instrument of rage, he’s now taken on the mantle of mastermind. In the clip above, he spells out his plan to his allies. Satine gets upstaged by Pre Vizsla when publicly addressing the crisis manufactured by Maul, in the clip below.
As reported last week, some of the cast and crew of Star Wars: The Clone Wars were at MCAS Miramar in San Diego on Friday for special USO screenings of the show, including the US premiere of last week’s episode with Darth Maul, ‘Eminence’. Before the screening of ‘The Gathering’, voice actor James Arnold Taylor (Obi-Wan Kenobi, Plo Koon, etc.) took time to sit with me and chat about season five of the show, his work with the USO to give back to the troops, looking at the growth of Obi-Wan Kenobi and his connections to other characters on the show, and some of Taylor’s other characters on The Clone Wars.
Pre Vizsla and the Mandalorians of Death Watch encounter some new potential allies when they come across Darth Maul and Savage Opress in ‘Eminence’, this week’s episode of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. While they have a common enemy in Obi-Wan Kenobi, the Sith and Death Watch first team up to take on some crime lords on Nal Hutta, in order to start building up Maul’s criminal empire so he can challenge the Jedi for his vengeance. In the clip above, Vizsla and Bo-Katan encounter the injured Sith brothers, and decide to keep them alive. In the second clip, below, Maul wakes up and has to answer some questions. On Saturday, watch for the appearance of a Falleen and listen for the Huttese!
Saturday morning’s Star Wars: The Clone Wars is the final episode in the story arc of R2-D2 and D-Squad. The droids and their tiny leader, Colonel Gascon, have gotten off of the Void planet but something is seriously wrong with their Republic cruiser. Check out Gascon and the droids discover that the ship’s crew is not what it seems in the clip above. Yup, IT’S A TRAP! Below, in the second video preview, Artoo pulls a little Well of the Souls action (and a power droid’s worst nightmare happens).
And following up on last week’s episode of ‘Missing in Action’, Dee Bradley Baker and Dave Filoni talk about the character of Gregor, the clone who forgot who he was, in an online featurette ‘Gregor’s Metamorphosis’. Filoni goes on to reflect about reaching the 100 episode milestone
So now that we’ve talked about the big 100 episode milestone, let’s a take a peek at episode 100 of Star Wars: The Clone Wars: ‘Missing in Action’. Continuing the adventures of Artoo-Detoo and his companions of D-Squad from ‘Secret Weapons’ and ‘A Sunny Day in the Void’, the crash-landed droids and their leader, the pint-sized Colonel Gascon, have reached a town on the desolate world of Abafar, and encounter Gregor, a Republic Commando with no memory of how he became missing in action. Their ultimate mission? Steal a shuttle and get back to the Republic, and if they can get this grizzled dishwasher to remember his military training, they might just have a chance. In the first trailer above, Artoo and Gascon reveal the truth to Gregor, and his full identification is revealed in the second trailer below. Or just skip to the last video for some Republic commando action Continue reading “The Clone Wars goes ‘Missing in Action’ to continue D-Squad arc”
