Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008 TV series)

After viewing some of the completed footage of the early episodes on a big screen, the production team decided to weave the first few planned episodes together to form a theatrical release.[12][13] This decision helped convince Time Warner to distribute the movie, and to encourage its subsidiary Cartoon Network to air the series.[14] Christopher Lee, Anthony Daniels, Samuel L. Jackson, and Matthew Wood reprised their roles as Count Dooku, C-3PO, Mace Windu, and the B1 Battle Droids, respectively, from the live-action films (although Lee and Jackson did not reprise their roles in the series). The series aired out of chronological order, with the story order being released retroactively on the official Star Wars website.[15]

Season 1 shows a wide variety of battles and adventures with Grievous and Dooku as the lead antagonists. Many of the episodes are stand-alone, but a common thread throughout the season is that the Republic and the Separatists attempt to convince various planets and races to side with them. In Season 2, the Sith resort to hiring bounty hunters and mercenaries to steal objects and intel or to assassinate targets for them. Meanwhile, the Jedi lead the Republic forces in an assault on the primary battle droid manufacturing facility.

The first half of both Season 3 and Season 4 are diplomatic in nature; Season 3, in particular, has many stories that take place away from the battlefield. How different races and planets are affected by the galaxy-wide war are shown, as well as how the Republic Senate can make a bigger difference than even the Jedi Council at times. The first half of Season 3 is used mainly to make the Clone Wars series more cohesive as these first episodes created better chronology, setting themselves in and among the previous two seasons' episodes. The second half of both seasons, Anakin steps a little closer to the dark side. Meanwhile, the Sith experience turmoil among themselves.

Season 5 is unique in that it consists of 5 four-part story arcs, 3 of which center on Ahsoka's character development. Meanwhile, the Separatists gain more ground, and the story of an old villain who has returned is further explored. Season 6 explores topics that are crucial in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, namely the creation of the clones and the details behind Order 66. Chancellor Palpatine gains even more power, and Yoda delves deeper into the nature of the Force.

On December 5, 2011, a full-length feature cut of one of the Season 3 trilogies of episodes (the one composed by "Nightsisters," "Monster," and "Witches of the Mist") was released for download on iTunes as an uninterrupted movie[16] that was previously shown at selected screenings in 2010. The three episodes were written by Katie Lucas, who had previously written the Season 1 episode "Jedi Crash" as well as the Season 3 episodes "Sphere of Influence" and "Assassin." A repeat of season one aired in "decoded" episode format. Each installment contained unobtrusive text windows giving supplemental information about the characters and events playing out on screen.[17]

On July 19, 2018, Lucasfilm announced at San Diego Comic-Con that Star Wars: The Clone Wars would return with 12 new episodes in a Season 7 to be released on Disney+.[9] A trailer for the season was released on April 14, 2019 at Star Wars Celebration Chicago. On August 23, 2019, Filoni announced at the D23 Expo that it will be the final season.[8][10] It was released on February 21, 2020. The season focuses on the final battles of the Clone Wars, and crosses over with Revenge of the Sith in its last story arc, centered around the Siege of Mandalore,[18] a battle that had been referenced in previous Star Wars media. The arc follows Ahsoka, who had left the Jedi Order at the end of the fifth season, reluctantly returning to help capture Darth Maul, who is hiding out with his forces on Mandalore. Maul, having foreseen the events that are about to unfold, attempts to prevent them by killing Anakin before Darth Sidious could turn him to the dark side. However, neither he, Ahsoka, or Rex could have anticipated the galaxy-wide consequences of Anakin's transformation into Darth Vader and Order 66.

At April 2005's Star Wars Celebration III, George Lucas stated that "we are working on a 3-D continuation of the pilot series that was on the Cartoon Network; we probably won't start that project for another year."[21] Lucas hired Dave Filoni after having seen episodes of Avatar: The Last Airbender he had worked on.[22][lower-alpha 3] By July 2005, pre-production had begun on the series, according to Steve Sansweet, head of Lucasfilm fan relations.[23] Sansweet referred to the series as "the next generation of the Star Wars saga, a cutting edge 30-minute, 3-D computer-animation series based on the Clone Wars that take place between Episode II ... and Episode III." Sansweet described the look of the new series as "a melding of Asian anime with unique 3-D animation styling." Primary production took place at the Lucasfilm Animation facility in Singapore.[24]

According to another statement by Sansweet, "Lucasfilm Animation will be hiring a total of about 300 digital artists and others in both California and Singapore locations to produce not only the series but animated feature films in the years ahead." He said about the series, "to get the series underway, Lucasfilm Animation has hired key production and creative talent to lead the development of its first animation project." Sansweet has said that "a large component of the future of Star Wars and Lucasfilm is CGI animation." Lucasfilm Animation used Autodesk software to animate both the film and the series. The Maya 3D-modeling program was used to create the highly detailed worlds, characters and creatures.[25]

Character designer Kilian Plunkett referred to the character designs from Genndy Tartakovsky's original 2003 Clone Wars series,[26] and animators reviewed designs from the 2D series when creating the animation style.[27] Tartakovsky was not involved with the production,[21] and criticized Lucas's decision to revisit the era.[28]

In 2007, Rob Coleman divulged that one episode was complete, with 15 more in production, and that he was going to direct five of the first 22 episodes. He revealed that the reaction from licensees was very positive, and that the final assembly of shows was done at Skywalker Ranch.[29] Speaking at PaleyFest on March 3, 2007, Lucas revealed that the series would be episodic, and as such would not focus on Anakin Skywalker's story; with episodes dedicated to clone troopers and other characters.[30] Lucas revealed further information in a fan interview,[31] including a new character named Ahsoka Tano, over 100 episodes and a possible appearance by Boba Fett. The first trailer for the series was released on the official Star Wars website on May 8, 2007.[32] In an interview in the September 24, 2007 issue of TV Guide, Lucas confirmed that 39 episodes of the series had been completed.[33]

On April 8, 2007, Ain't It Cool News reported that musician Eric Rigler had recorded music for the series.[34] Rigler disclosed that each planet in the Star Wars galaxy would have its own theme music. The episode Mr. Rigler performed on was based on Bulgarian music and played on Uilleann pipes. Kevin Kiner composed the original score for each episode.

Stuart Snyder, who oversaw Cartoon Network and other Turner Broadcasting System cable networks from 2007 to 2014, said he became interested in the new Clone Wars series immediately upon starting the job in May 2007. Snyder flew out to San Francisco, California to screen several episodes, and told Lucas the only place he wanted to see the show was on Cartoon Network. Snyder wished to create an action/adventure block of shows on Friday night in an attempt to rejuvenate Cartoon Network. Snyder expressed confidence that the shows would help boost ratings: "You catch me at a time where I have a smile on my face because of our internal results. I can say there's a little bit of bragging on the third quarter for us."[35]

The "Young Padawans" arc from Season 5 was intended to be aired separately from The Clone Wars as a feature-length pilot for a spin-off series that never materialized.[36] Seasons 6, 7, and 8, were in some form of production at the time of the show's cancellation in March 2013, shortly after Lucasfilm was purchased by Disney.[7][37]

An online comic released alongside the series depicts story snippets between episodes.[38]

At the time of cancellation in March 2013, 65 more episodes were in development.[71] Thirteen of these episodes were finished to become part of Season 6: The Lost Missions,[72] but there were still additional arcs that were never released. In September 2014, StarWars.com released details of three story arcs from the unfinished episodes.[7]

Seven video games have been released, which are based on the style and character designs of the series.

• Star Wars: The Clone Wars – Lightsaber Duels, a fighting game released on November 11, 2008 for Wii.
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars – Jedi Alliance, an action-adventure game released on November 11, 2008 for Nintendo DS.
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars – Republic Heroes, another action-adventure game taking place between Season 1 and Season 2, released on October 9, 2009 for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 2 and Nintendo DS.
• Clone Wars Adventures, an online PC game launched on September 15, 2010 online by Sony Online Entertainment and shut down on March 31, 2014.
• Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars, released in March 2011 by TT Games for PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Xbox 360, Wii, Nintendo DS, PC, Mac, and Nintendo 3DS, which further stylizes the characters as part of the Lego Star Wars theme and is mostly based on the first two seasons.
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars Pinball, a virtual pinball adaptation of the series' original run, released in 2013 as a purchaseable add-on for Zen Studios' Star Wars Pinball collection for most seventh- and eighth-generation home video game systems, computers and mobile devices.
• Disney Infinity 3.0, released in September 2015 by Disney Interactive for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, Wii U, Microsoft Windows, iOS and Android, which stylizes select major characters from the show as action figures that become playable only via a toys-to-life NFC system. Each copy of the game comes with the playset, "Twilight of the Republic", which is an alternate storyline set during the Clone Wars era, along with two starting characters, Anakin and Ahsoka. Other characters from the show also appear, although most of them are not playable or are fought as bosses.

Characters and/or locations from the show have also appeared in the following Star Wars games listed below:

• Star Wars: Galactic Defense, a now-defunct tower defense game released on iOS and Android by DeNA, in which a number of playable champions include characters from the show. Several levels in the main campaign also take place on the planet Felucia, a major Clone Wars hotspot featured in some episodes.
• Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes, a turn-based RPG also released on iOS and Android by Electronic Arts, where some levels take place on planets depicted in the show (such as Dathomir) and a number of collectible, playable characters are from the show.
• Star Wars: Force Arena, an online MOBA game released on iOS and Android by Netmarble, where an August 2017 update allowed players to recruit characters, vehicles and battle units from the series, as well as battle on planets like Felucia.
• Star Wars Battlefront II, a video game available on Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, in which players can battle on or directly above planets like Ryloth and Kamino, where some battles in the series were fought.[78] Wood, Taylor, Lanter and Burton also reprise their voice roles for four new playable heroes (General Grievous, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker and Count Dooku, respectively) being added to the game's third season in late 2018, themed after the Clone Wars.[79]

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• Star Wars: The Clone Wars at StarWars.com
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• Star Wars: The Clone Wars at Lucasfilm.com
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars at The Big Cartoon DataBase
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• Star Wars: The Clone Wars at TV.com