Full Series Official "The Clone Wars" Series Discussion Thread (Spoilers Allowed)

According to JAT all of Season 6 is done. According to, I think, it was an article on IGN, Dave Filoni said to the reporter in November last year that Season 6 was practically done. So there should be at least 20-22 episodes already completed. It is possible some of Season 7 arcs could have been in the midst of production and those are the ones that will be, being finished off.

From what I've seen around the web, not all the team has been disbanded. Some are remaining on to finish off the work that still needs doing.

 

That's what I thought too -- the Clovis arc has definitely been done for a while, and by mid-winter it sounded like they were working on Season 7 and wrapping up the end of 6. Now it sounds like they have only one arc left to show... are they referring to the Clovis one? Do they think they can dupe us that easily?

 

I got the impression that Filoni - or the powers that be - were cherry picking the arcs that have the most relevance to ROTS to get an improvised pseudo-ending for the show.

Filoni was mentioning that the best that was yet to come would fill in remaining holes and the clip he aired seemed to imply that Order 66 was one of those "holes."

He also said that the Clovis arc had to be dropped from S5, otherwise they would have had too many episodes. And I believe it was IGN that he told to just wait and see and that it would "make sense" as to why they postponed it. I'm guessing that maybe Clovis helps Anakin and Padme expose the crimes of the commerce guilds and finally force them out of the Republic (which has to be done by ROTS... and had already been done back in AOTC before TCW...)

We might not get a whole season, because S6 wasn't meant to be the end, and if it's anything like S5 there will be a hole bunch of side-track episodes that don't have anything to do with the overarching story of AOTC-TCW-ROTS. So, I'm guessing they might just be picking 2-3 arcs that have relevance and will kind of feel like a lead-in to ROTS.

 

If Season 6 is all done now, why not release all of it? Disney would profit from it. The thing is if they are having to cherry-pick arcs that are relevant and its been claimed that not all arcs (character arcs) are wrapped up, how can they be cherrypicking what ones to release? It would seem a bit of a folly to waste millions of dollars on work that is completed but is never released. Disney would be able to make some money back if they released all what is available and all what is being finished off.

I want to feel optimistic that they may be generous to us and I think Filoni may fight to try to get a lot of it released.

 

From what I gather - Season 6 is 99% done, maybe some slight cosmetic issues, nothing too serious. I'm betting we'll see every single episode of Season 6.
Season 7 is a different issue, I'm going to guess after we get the bonus episodes, we're going to get a 2 hour wrap-up episode and that will be that.

 

Hello,

Keep in mind that in term of production a season is 26 episodes. So they should have in stock 18 episodes from season 4 and 5 (clovis arc and note that The Wrong Jedi is S05.11) plus 26 from season 6.
That's mean in term of airing they have 44 episodes in stock i.e. two seasons in fact.
My dream will be that is correct and disney decide to produce a season 7 (26 episodes) with 22 for television and the last 4 edited in a feature film to conclude the clone wars chapter.
I have the strange feeling about that will never happen, sadly...

 

Is that strange feeling that they've broken the team up and that it's literally impossible for that team to produce another 26 episodes from scratch?

Aiming a little high there, don't you think? Let's just hope we get this extra content!

 

Was there supposed to be a 7th series? I thought they only ever planned to do 5 and then settled for 6 when they realised they had more material to resolve.

This is only a 3 year event they are covering, exactly how long were they planning to do it for?

 

Originally, George aimed to do 100 episodes (5 seasons) regardless of ratings. However, it was only at the end of 2012, beginning of 2013 when we were told that they had set the ending in place, they were discussing writing the script. Given how far ahead of production they are, and how further they are ahead in script-writing, that likely meant the finale was to take place in Season 8.

 

Optimistic, for sure, but I am pretty sure that there are 44 episodes done and ready to broadcast, but unfortunatly we will see only a small part of them....

 

Well, I have a different shade of optimism then - I think we'll see everything that's done. But I think we've slightly overestimated how far ahead TCW team were in terms of having "complete" episodes, that being completely animated, voiced etc.

I think we'll get about a season's worth of episodes, so at the very least around about 18.

 

Only time will tell...

 

Hey, I'd much prefer we both be right. I'd really love some Anakin/Obi-Wan adventures to close this show out.

But yes... the dreaded waiting game.

 

Plus James Arnold Taylor basically confirmed they were aiming for 8 seasons.


It sounds like season 6 is done, season 7 was in production, and season 8 was planned.


Ideally Disney would have just said "hey all this work is already done and it'll wrap up before Episode VII, let's just let the show run its course". Even smarter would be to get Dave Filoni and his team to start laying a little groundwork for the sequel trilogy in TCW, even if it's a few cameo appearances by characters and maybe let the show go an extra season (9 seasons) to get some of this material into the show.


The smart thing to do if they're completely set on cancelling it early would be to release all of season 6 as is, finish production on the stuff already being worked on (season 7), and eventually return to the unfinished material even if it's in a post-Episode VII direct to DVD animated film.

What it sounds like we're going to get is a few handpicked arcs from season 6 that will be pieced together into 80 - 90 minute specials.

The main evidence here I think is that only a skeleton crew remains from Lucas Animation. This would likely be to piece together the material they have into one feature rather than standalone episodes. It's likely not to finish the completely unfinished episodes. The fact that they're labeling this "bonus content" does not indicate at all that there will be a full season or more worth of material. The reason they would leave the "irrelevant" episodes unreleased is simply cost. They're going to charge us full price for a DVD / bluray with a few arcs without putting the extra episodes on. They'd have to get Filoni & co to do commentaries etc. and spend the money to physically produce a 4 disc DVD / 3 disc Bluray set with all the episodes. Why go to that expense for something as trivial as making the fans happy? I'm sure Filoni will do the best with what they have, but it just seems they're hell bent on doing this half-assed.


As for satisfying conclusions as said, I feel Ahsoka and Ventress roles in the Clone Wars were finished. I'm all for keeping Maul and Rex alive for post Clone Wars stories as well. But we need to see them put onto a new path the same as Ahsoka and Ventress. Hondo, Bane, etc. will keep doing their thing.

The unfinished stories that really do need to be addressed at some point in the future are Mother Talzin's role in the galaxy, the meaning behind the Mortis trilogy, what the future holds for Darth Maul, and the reason Rex is not leading the 501st during Order 66.

I like to believe that Rex and Maul both survive The Clone Wars era, but I'd like to see a bit more of their journey to reaching that point.


We can piece together a few things about the planned future of the series from all the interivews by cast and crew.


First we can already tell right off the bat that there will be no satisfying conclusion to Darth Maul's story arc. It was either Sam Witwer or Dave Filoni who just said in an interview toward the tail end of season 5 that they were still discussing Darth Maul's future story lines with George Lucas in planning meetings for TCW at which point we know Season 6 was pretty much wrapped up and plans were being laid down for season 8 most likely. Sam even mentioned something to the effect that Darth Maul would be around for quite awhile based on the things George was saying (that Maul died too soon in Episode I and they wouldn't be making that mistake again). With production likely halted on anything that isn't completely or almost completely done, I don't expect we'll see those future story lines for Darth Maul on The Clone Wars.

A fan question to Dave Filoni addresses Darth Maul's birth name to which he says there is an answer but he's not at liberty to say yet, which to me, would seem to indicate we would eventually see Maul's backstory.

Filoni mentioned plans to address the backstory for Obi-Wan and Satine in some fashion. I think this could very well have come through Bo-Katan. Again, this was mentioned as something for the future post-Season 5, meaning something not yet produced in season 6 content. I think this is pretty good evidence we won't get any resolution to the war now going on with the Mandalorians.

Finally there's the Mortis trilogy...I think this is a really important arc. I know the EU takes this in it's own direction with Abeloth, but I'd imagine George has his own ideas about the purpose of that arc. I watched both the commentary on Star Wars.com and on the DVD. Filoni really doesn't divulge much in either. Online he mentions the initial plans to include Darth Revan and Darth Bane and getting Liam Neeson involved. He only really addresses some of the most superficial aspects of the arc and doesn't discuss the meaning at all. On the DVD he mentions the very many questions the arc will raise in the fans minds. He says there are very definitive answers to what happens in that arc and what it all means for both the mythology and future of the series, but he feels would be a disservice to fans to explain them through an interview. He says that they haven't finished addressing these themes and that we will see their meaning and purpose in the future. Now, I don't think we've seen that addressed at all since season 3. Seasons 4 and 5 haven't revisited those themes so I can't help but feel we would likely only have returned to those concepts in seasons 7 & 8 possibly. I really do feel this arc needs to have some answers. "What does it really mean that Obi-Wan talks to Qui-Gon? Was that really Qui-Gon? Who was the Father? What does it mean now that Anakin is the "chosen one" and he has a better understanding of that? What does it mean that Ahsoka talked to her older self? Does she ever reach that age? Ahsoka died and seemingly came back to life so what does that mean?" These are questions Dave mentions directly. We do seemingly have the answer to the questions about Ahsoka now, but we really don't know any more about the others. He mentions that they won't answer questions directly (ie through interviews) because it defeats the purpose of the arc which was to make us wonder, to make us ask questions, and ultimately add mystery to the story and the force. However, he elaborates that these things would be addressed in time and we would see their meaning. We really don't know the answer to these things. He says the word on the force comes directly from George and the ideas for Mortis came from some of his very earliest notes on Star Wars. He says "slowly over time things will become more clear about Mortis" and that they have only begun to ask the bigger mythical questions in Mortis with future episodes continuing the Mortis arc.

The last few tidbits we can piece together are the planned arc for Hondo / Bane / Boba Fett where Boba may or may not have donned the full Mandalorian armor and possibly acquired Slave 1 from Hondo. We do know that there was a planned Bane / Boba team up at some point. We also know from season 4 bluray commentaries that a desert arc was planned and that desert armor for the Wolfpack was designed and sitting on Dave's desk. Filoni mentions having a 3D model on his desk of Commander Wolffe's desert armor helmet which would appear in "well ...let's just say later seasons". Unfortunately the interviews about these arcs seem to indicate they would have taken place in season 7 or 8.

I don't know how seriously we can take this, but on the season 2 DVD commenatary Filoni half jokingly said maybe they'd get to address the clones of the Zillo Beast in season 8.

Not all of this needs to be addressed in the "bonus content"...I would be very little is actually going to be seen. A lot of this stuff (the "fate" / new direction for Rex and Maul, future of Mortis, etc) is really end game material. We know they were planning 8 seasons as recently as a month ago, so to think they've somehow got any finished material addressing Rex and Maul's fate is extremely optimistic if not entirely unrealistic. I think like it or not we're going to have to accept that this series is going to raise more questions than answers. At best we can hope that the final "bonus content" episodes will address certain aspects of Anakin's character in Revenge of the Sith. I think we can hope for Some Ani-Obi bonding time and some more time to develop his relationship with Padme. Hostage Crisis already did a way better job of establishing them as a believable couple than the PT (imo that was one of if not the biggest issue with the movies; again I like the PT as a whole). As for the rest, I just hope we either get Filoni and Team back together. It's happened before I suppose. Zach Levi is trying to get a Chuck movie made. Arrested Development and Futurama returned. Firefly was left unfinished and eventually Serenity was released. This is Star Wars so I can't help but hope that someday, somehow all these questions will be answered, but I don't think it will be through The Clone Wars which has ended all too quickly. Regardless of whether or not we do ever see the bonus content, I don't think we'll ever see a satisfying ending for TCW.


The silver lining here is that the show has established a tremendous cast of supporting characters - Ahsoka, Asajj Ventress, Rex, Maul, Hondo, Bane, etc. and the fact that their fates are left uncertain can be a good thing. I'm sure EU material may address their futures, but even better, perhaps movies / TV series in the future may use them. In some ways TCW may only serve to ask questions and reopen the pages of a book that once seemed finished. In a sense, the PT and OT originally served as a complete story with a definitive ending and beginning. The Clone Wars needed to fit inside that bigger story so all loose ends needed to be tied up. Now that we know a sequel trilogy and possibly more are being planned and produced, we no longer have a contained story. We have an open ended ongoing story. So perhaps in some way it's best that The Clone Wars is the same; open-ended. Always in motion the future is, and I see a future for the many characters introduced, story arcs left unifinished, and mysteries left unanswered. It's hard to see the good in this, but I think there's now a new hope that instead of an ending, this is just the beginning of even better things to come.......after the Sequel Trilogy is done since Disney is seemingly pretty adamant on nothing else taking place beforehand. The series wasn't planned as the beginning of something bigger, but sometimes the best things are completely unexpected. This could ultimately be a good thing if these characters, stories, etc. serve to make an even grander more epic narrative someday than what we already have with the 6 movies. Instead of simply bridging the gap between II and III, telling the untold tale of the war, The Clone Wars can be seen as the opening for bigger and better things in the future.

 

JAT said that S6 is finished and that what (I assume) from stuff they have been recording over the last few months would be Season 7 stuff.

It's more likely they were still in the midst of animating season 7 when the cancellation occurred. S6 is likely ready to broadcast with maybe a few tweaks being made along the way.

 

Apparently only two arcs will be shown, fates of Cad Bane and Aurra Sing was to be resolved in Season 6 but now won't be shown:

http://www.theforce.net/latestnews/story/Report_TCW_Bonus_Content_To_Be_Two_Story_Arcs_150831.asp

 

tepid fan reaction?

 

I'm a little surprised to hear the reaction has been tepid....my reaction to the cancellation is quite negative. I've seen a lot of negative responses to the cancellation around the web. I was even disappointed with Eric Goldman's article on IGN about why the cancellation was okay. The thing is, some fans were put at ease by Dave's video on StarWars.com. Taken at face value, his comments do kind of make it seem like it would be okay, so a tepid response maybe shouldn't be completely unexpected. I think there were just very mixed signals at first about what we would still be seeing. At first it sounded like we could possible get an extensive amount of unfinished material, but the very fact that they were calling it "bonus content" never gave me the feeling we'd be seeing a whole lot more of The Clone Wars.

As I mentioned in my previous post, there may be as silver lining, but that's really only true if this team is allowed to get back together in the future to do future work on the Star Wars saga and the characters created for this series aren't left completely by the wayside.


I take it Bane and Aurra might have died in season 6 given that their "fates" are addressed....I'm actually a little surprised that Bane might have been killed off. To be honest, I think The Dark Times would be the perfect era for Cad Bane to thrive, so I'm not so interested in seeing his fate / death in TCW.


So can we then take this to mean all that's left for us is the Clovis arc from season 5 and the arc we saw a clip from in the cancellation announcement? While both look very interesting and I'm excited to see them completed it's disheartening to think that's all that's left to be seen. If so, there's really not much there to wrap up the story or connect the series with Revenge of the Sith.

 

I call BS on this report. The Clovis arc was finished long ago, no way only one additional arc was finished after that. They were animating the Ashoka arc back in February last year, I find it hard to believe that they in the year after that only produced another four episodes.

 

Hmmm... I'm going to wait for official confirmation first before assuming this report is true.

 

It doesn't matter how many they've finished, if Disney only allows them to release two more arcs then they can only release two arcs.

 

Neither RebelForceRadio or JediNews have this report (yet). Aren't they usually the ones with the exclusives/rumours?

 

Agreed. I think the Clovis arc and the pre-Order 66 arc end up as :bonus episodes" on the DVD/Blu-Ray set. That way there's no haggling over rights between Disney and WB and Disney can simply divest themselves of the show.

 

A couple of days ago he claimed we weren’t getting anything, how believable are his sources?

 

Yeah, but if something is finished, in the can, ready to be seen, I don't get how Disney can "not allow" them to ever release it. That would be f-ing stupid on Disney's part.

This two arc business sounds like nonsense, and if true then it is a VERY stupid decision on Disney's part. Screw Disney, I'm going to Universal Studios and will watch Dreamworks movies from here on out.