Star Wars Producer On Shifting From The Clone Wars To Rebels
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Today Lucasfilm and Netflix released the sixth and final season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars in its entirety. It’s been a year
since Disney canceled the animated series after the Mouse House acquired Lucasfilm. Now it will get a proper ending, but not in the traditional story sense. Considering that The Clone Wars directly ties into Revenge of the Sith, the finale is more of a thematic ending rather than a narrative one.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, The Clone Wars producer Dave Filoni talked about the end of the 13-episode arc of The Lost Mission as a good enough place to take fans going into Episode III. The writers and producers felt it was important to vary a few things for future consideration of the production team’s new series Star Wars: Rebels. Filoni explained:
One of the reasons I was okay with us ending when we did and production shifting from Clone Wars to Rebels is I liked the idea of having this Yoda arc available to us because I felt like this was a great place to have an ending if it’s going to end. There’s been so many threads throughout the five seasons, if you were to try and wrap them all up each one would be its own big episode. Here we have two story acts within this the 13 that have a strong connection to the franchise, they’re very important to understanding the overall saga. They’re [creator George Lucas’] last statement about Yoda and The Force and how things fit together. If you’re a die-hard fan, they’re absolutely must-watch story content.
According to Filoni, the storylines on the animated series were just as important to creator George Lucas as those in the live-action movies. Lucasfilm considers The Clone Wars as canon for anyone who wants to dive deeper in the Star Wars saga. “As I think fans realized, this wasn’t just fun storytelling in the Star Wars universe. These were very much George Lucas’ stories and he felt they were as important as his other work,” Filoni told the entertainment outlet.
While The Clone Wars will be open-ended, there’s a good chance that Lucasfilm could return to this time period to tell more stories. There’s the new four-part comic book series from Marvel to consider, while Filoni and Lucasfilm shift from The Clone Wars to Rebels. Filoni also talk about how there’s always a future in telling Star Wars stories with animated series, namely Rebels. The producer continued:
I always think of Yoda in these moments — the future is always in motion. Projects you think are no-brainers stall, and other things see the light of day. You never count anything out. I know the stories that are untold. I think they’re great. I’d love to see them told in some medium, some how. I’ve become a protector of those stories. [Lucasfilm president] Kathleen Kennedy understands the value of the stories we were going to tell. I’m sure we’ll find a way to find root for them in some manner in the future. I hope to be around for a long time.
Season six focuses on Ahsoka’s exit from the Jedi Order, the looming showdown with the Sith, and Order 66, which leads into Revenge of the Sith. The season will also feature Liam Nesson reprising his role as Qui Gon Jinn from The Phantom Menace. The fallen Jedi Master returns from the dead to reveal to Master Yoda how one can appear as a Force ghost after death.
The entire run of Star Wars: The Clone Wars is now available on Netflix Instant.
