Star Wars fans, especially those who follow The Clone Wars serial, have been wondering what will happen to Lucasfilm’s CGI animation studio and related universe lore.
The entire studio is shifting gears, and new plans no longer include telling stories from the time period of the first two trilogies. Thus, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, the animated series which tells the story of Anakin’s decline, and takes place between Episodes II and III will be coming to an end. Thankfully, with over a hundred episodes under their belts, they’ve already come close to telling the full story, and had only planned one more season anyway, as the series begins to depict the stages of Anakin’s transformation leading into Episode III and show us what happens to his padawan, who does not appear in any of the franchise’s films.
However, this doesn’t mean the team is disbanding. They are ending Clone Wars so that they may move on to another project which will take place in the time of the upcoming Star Wars films, set after the original trilogy. The precise nature of that new series is still unrevealed, as is pretty much everything else about the next phase of Star Wars.
The studio released this video, in which Clone Wars showrunner Dave Filloni discusses, briefly, what’s in store for fans:
While Star Wars: The Clone wars will not be returning for a Sixth season, the remaining episodes that would have been the sixth season – including the one that contains the above preview footage – will still be completed and released later on home video.
There is also the Matter of Star Wars: Detours, a planned Star Wars animated comedy, which was to take place between the two trilogies, and was created by the creators of the hilarious Robot Chicken. The show has been in the works for quite some time, but now it seems to have been postponed indefinitely. According to an official statement:
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.
Here’s that trailer they showcased last year:
Though it hasn’t been stated, this probably means that Star Wars: Underworld, the planned live-action serial which was to take place in the same era will also be given a perpetual delay.
No production or release dates have been announced for the untitled upcoming Star Wars animated series.
