Lucasfilm announced today that production on Star Wars: The Clone Wars will be discontinued, having run on Cartoon Network for five seasons. When Disney purchased Star Wars from George Lucas, it was widely assumed that the CGI show's days on Cartoon Network were numbered, and would eventually switch to air on Disney XD instead. The announced actual end, or 'winding down' of the show does come somewhat as a surprise, though as stated in the press and video release, there is still a future planned for the characters, story arcs and completed animation they already have in the can. Additionally, Lucasfilm Animation has plans for a new series set in a yet untouched time frame in the Star Wars universe.
Lucasfilm is evidently putting all its resources to production on the next wave of Star Wars films, the first being Episode VII targeted to hit theaters in 2015 under the direction of J.J. Abrams. Disney axed the scheduled conversions and re-releases of Episodes II-VI in 3D and now the Lucasfilm animation department will also adjust its workload accordingly. This could mean that characters introduced in The Clone Wars series could potentially pop up in the next trilogy or could be groomed for separate spin-offs.
The recent Clone Wars fifth season finale left an uncertain, yet unexpected open door future for Anakin Skywalker's Jedi Padawan Ohsoka Tano, who would be an ideal popular character to use in the future to target the female demographic. Since all of the Jedi Knights except Obi Wan Kenobi and Yoda have perished by the time Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope rolls around, Ohsoka's unaddressed final fate (as of now) leaves her free to possibly join in other adventures.
At the end of the video below, a teaser clip is included for what is still to come. Work on the series had obviously been well in place by the time Disney acquired Lucasfilm much less the decision to end the series. The action packed clip foreshadows Emperor Palpatine's Order 66 from Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, which put in motion the Clone Troopers planned annihilation of the Jedi.
Here is the full press release from StarWars.com
"As we enter into an exciting new era focused on the next Star Wars trilogy, Lucasfilm has decided to pursue a new direction in animated programming. 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 part of this shift, we have also made some key decisions affecting Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Detours.
After five highly successful and critically acclaimed seasons of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, we feel the time has come to wind down the series. While the studio is no longer producing new episodes for Cartoon Network, we're continuing production on new Clone Wars story arcs that promise to be some of the most thrilling adventures ever seen. Stay tuned for more information on where fans can soon find this bonus content. In the video below, Supervising Director Dave Filoni offers a peek of what is to come in Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
At Star Wars Celebration VI last year, George Lucas gave fans a glimpse at the animated comedy series Star Wars Detours from Seth Green, Matthew Senreich, and Todd Grimes. 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."
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