Unaired arc of The Clone Wars screening at Celebration. Four episodes featuring clonetroopers Echo and Captain Rex will be shown Friday in Anaheim, followed by a Q&A with Dave Filoni, Dee Bradley Baker and writers Brent Friedman and Matt Michnovetz
Unfinished The Clone Wars episodes debut; Ventress novel gets a title
Turns out Jedi News was onto something after all: Four rough episodes of The Clone Wars – an arc featuring Obi-wan, Anakin, and Utapau – have made their debut on StarWars.com this afternoon.
They also reveal the title for the Christie Golden Asajj Ventress novel announced at SDCC: Dark Disciple.
Still no S6 DVD news, though I wouldn’t be surprised if those Utapau roughs make it on there.
Clone Wars news being teased this week… But is it what we expect?
Anyone in the mood for some vague pronouncements? Jedi News is teasing some sort of announcement for The Clone Wars this week. “Something so cool it could melt the ice off a Hoth mountain top” seems a bit strong for the expected ‘Lost Missions’ Blu-ray and DVD release (of which we’ve seen some sign lately) or even a complete series set.
I’m sure we’re going to see lots of folks hoping for some sort of series revival or surprise extra episodes – oh look, here’s one – but I don’t see that as at all likely at this point. Another book or comic series, perhaps? But don’t hold your breath, Clone Wars fans.
Saving the Clone Wars: Lucasfilm’s Kathleen Kennedy responds
Yesterday in the mail, I got a form letter from Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy as a response to my letter expressing my support for releasing as much bonus content for The Clone Wars as they could. Basically, it restated their position to wind down the show, and hinted at the new animated series.
Nothing really new revealed, but it seems that their position to end the show is solid. The letter had no real mention of the ‘bonus content’ but does mention that it is more than just Dave Filoni working on the new series: “many members of his Clone Wars team” is also in the letter.
Still, nice to know that my letter was received and that they are willing to engage fans on a one-on-one basis. Here’s the full text of the body of the letter (or just click on the image to read the main text):
Continue reading “Saving the Clone Wars: Lucasfilm’s Kathleen Kennedy responds”
Saving The Clone Wars
As a fan and supporter of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, I’ve been watching the momentum of the Save the Clone Wars movement. I’ve written my letters to Bob Iger and Kathleen Kennedy. I sent a few tweets for the twitter bomb led by Star Wars Underworld. I’ve told pretty much everyone I know connected with Star Wars or Lucasfilm how much I’ve enjoyed the show, how great I think the show is, and how I want it to continue. One of my reasons for the Team Hondo shenanigans was to drum up support for the characters of the show in a forum that Lucasfilm and fans alike would be watching.
Right now Save The Clone Wars is still pushing for Disney to magically hit the undo button, and un-cancel the show, bring back all the staff that was laid off and give us another season, and they point to how Kim Possible was given another season due to fan activism. I’d love for that to happen, but I think we need to be a little more pragmatic. My friend Bryan Young over at Big Shiny Robot points out that the smarter option may be to push for as much of ‘bonus material’ as possible – whatever that was made or in the pipeline for season six as we can get, which will hopefully be more than the two story arcs that was the rumor reported from TheForce.Net. I agree with him – we can’t get the show back on the air, but we can strive for as much of that season six content that was done/nearly done as possible.
Having a weekly twitter bomb? Maybe good for getting the word out, but I think there are more effective methods to reach Disney and Lucasfilm. Youtube video tributes? Meh. Letter campaigns are a stronger way to give the message – so long as everyone is on the same point. But really what would work – time to take a page from the playbook of some successful save-my-tv-show campaigns: express our love for The Clone Wars with our money. Here’s a few things that another fandom that I’ve belonged in has done to help keep flyin’:
- Raise money to buy ad space that Disney will see. Let’s put a full page ad in Variety or some other industry periodical on a day that everyone will see it. Have a full press release and media contact ready to back up the ad. Yes, that means being organized, but it also will show “Hey, we’re organized”
- Organize charity screenings to show that people still want to see The Clone Wars. While the original film that kicked off the series was a little rough compared to the quality of the later seasons, it’s a film that can be requested for showings. Like the Browncoats’ “Cant Stop the Serenity” showings for Equality Now, if we put The Clone Wars on the big screen in theaters across the country on the same day, and get people to show up and pay to see it, the studios will notice.
- Video sales. The big kicker that perhaps helped Universal decide to turn a cancelled Fox show into a feature film was they noticed how well the DVD sales of that one-season show was doing. If you’re a fan of the show and can afford it, put your money where your mouth is. Own every season of the show on DVD or Blu-ray. Buy it for your friends. Buy it for every kid you’re stuck having to get a gift for. Buy copies to donate to your local library or send to the troops. Buy a second copy for yourself to loan to friends and family. And when season five comes out this fall on DVD and Blu-ray, let’s knock it out of the park, and keep it on the top ten bestseller list of Amazon and whatnot. It does get a little weird, since guess who is the distributor of the home video versions? Warner Brothers. So by buying the video releases, you’re showing Disney how much you’ll give money to one of their competitors for a product that Disney could sell to you, if only they continued making it. And if the ‘bonus content’ becomes available for separate purchase, buy it to show demand for more of it.
- Keep those letters going and find new fans and convince them to write.
Meanwhile, Season 5 of The Clone Wars has started airing in the United Kingdom. One of our readers pointed out that Cartoon Network UK just recently started broadcasting season five, and it seems to be playing nearly every day at 10:30 AM and 6:30 PM. While they’ve already started the season, they do seem to be re-playing episodes. Catch the start of season five ‘Revival’ on Sunday at 10:30 AM.
Report: Clone Wars ‘bonus content’ to be two arcs
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.
On Twitter? Let’s #SaveTheCloneWars on Saturday!
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.
If you haven’t sent a letter yet, get some key talking points and the addresses for Disney and Lucasfilm from Star Wars Underworld or from SaveTheCloneWars.com or look at the tips I posted last week at the end of my reaction roundup post.
See you on Twitter on Saturday, and pass the word around!
Roundup: Reacting to Lucasfilm Animation’s new direction and The Clone Wars ending
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.
Disturbance in the Force: Reacting to the end of The Clone Wars
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.
Stooge and I are both big fans and have a lot of thoughts and feelings about The Clone Wars and its winding down. So I asked Stooge to share his opinion and I’m tacking on my own reaction to this all, using Stooge’s points as a start. Continue reading “Disturbance in the Force: Reacting to the end of The Clone Wars“
Confirmed: Lucasfilm Animation to ‘wind down’ The Clone Wars, postpone Detours, planning new series
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.