I originally posted this just before the premiere of season 7, however I wanted to post it once more in light of the season’s end, but with some new info as well as several new pieces of concept art. With the end of the “final season” of
The Clone Wars, many may be unaware that there are still
several more story arcs that were planned before the initial cancellation—
approximately 40 episodes-worth—that still remain unfinished (these episodes are detailed further below). A number of these arcs would have wrapped up the stories of some fan-favorite characters that had been key players in the show for multiple seasons, who were also not featured at all in season 7. When the show was cancelled, these stories were in various stages of development, with some having much of their basic animation work and even voice acting done, while others were still in the concept art stages. They all, however, had at least a first draft of their scripts completed.
Though season 7 was marketed as “the final season,” I believe there may still be hope for these remaining arcs to one day be finished properly as well. Here are just some of the reasons why I think there’s a chance:
- When season 7 was announced it was made quite clear that the show was back due to the #SaveTheCloneWars movement and fan demand in general, which the reveal poster even directly referenced. A number of people on Twitter having been using #CompleteTheCloneWars to campaign for the rest of these remaining episodes to be finished as well. If it worked once before, perhaps it could work again. It is worth noting, however, that fan demand—while essential—may not be enough to revive the show a second time, though that’s where my next point comes in...
- The last 3 episodes all have a user rating of 9.9 on IMDB, and still currently sit within the top 10 overall rated TV episodes (2 of these TCW episodes are even in the top 5). Additionally—though I’m not sure exactly how precise this is—ever since season 7’s debut, TCW has pretty consistently been either near or even at the very top of Disney+’s Trending section. Regardless of the Trending section’s accuracy, it was reported back in November 2019 that TCW was the second most-watched TV show on Disney+ in the Netherlands when the service launched for them in September, and when Disney+ was launched in other regions (U.S. included) in November it was the third most-watched TV show on the service. Even months before the release of season 7, it’s clear TCW still had high viewership.
- Fans are not the only ones who want these remaining arcs properly completed. Sam Witwer, Maul’s voice actor, has asked about doing Son of Dathomir, and Daniel Logan, Boba Fett’s voice actor (not to mention his live-action actor from Episode II), has expressed interest in his bounty hunters arc being released (that’s just the most recent example—I’ve seen him discuss this previously as well). Gianni Aliotti, lighting and FX supervisor for TCW, tweeted about people loving the show again, and to “keep loving them and we'll keep making more.”. While this may refer to Lucasfilm Animation’s other project(s) in general, it’s worded in a way that makes it seemingly refer specifically to TCW. I’ve no doubt there are others involved that have expressed similar sentiments, these are just some of the most recent examples. Ultimately, however, it’s evident that members of the cast and crew would be more than willing to have the rest of the show finished properly as well.
It’s also important to note the very strong possibility that these remaining TCW arcs will be the final SW content we
ever get that was directly overseen and planned by the creator himself, George Lucas, which is all the more reason to see to it that these stories are told the way they were meant to be.
One of, if not
the main reason we got this new season at all was due to fan demand, so if more people are made aware of these remaining unfinished episodes, campaign for their completion, and it’s ultimately deemed that TCW has performed and is continuing to perform well on Disney+, then just maybe these other episodes will be completed at some point as well.
Below I’ve detailed what would have occurred in these arcs, and linked any concept art and even some clips that have been released. Before that, however, I’d first like to address just a few questions you may have:
Q: Why would you want TCW to continue? Every show needs to end sometime, otherwise it will run out of meaningful stories to tell. A: Correct, but TCW wasn’t going to just run forever. Even before the show’s cancellation, they had a finite number of arcs and a series finale planned and scripted.
Q: The final arc takes place during Revenge of the Sith, why would we get new episodes that are set before it? A: TCW is somewhat notorious for not airing in chronological order. Sure, the later seasons have been more or less completely chronological, but many fans are still aware of the official chronology, plus two of the three arcs in this “final season” did not even air in chronological order. I think they could easily release one or two “lost seasons” (could probably use a different but still similar name, as season six was known as
The Lost Missions), or they could even retool these remaining arcs as direct-to-Disney+ animated movies.
Q: Can’t you just be grateful that you got this new season? A: Believe me, I am anything but ungrateful for these new episodes—I honestly wasn’t sure if we’d
ever get to see the Siege of Mandalore onscreen—but the fact remains that there was a fair amount more content we were meant to be getting. I was there watching every one of these new episodes the moment they released on Disney+, but I also can’t ignore the fact that there are still several arcs that remain unfinished, a number of which would have given closure to characters not seen in season 7.
Q: TCW is ending. Isn’t it time to move on? A: I think it’d be great to finally be able to move on from TCW, but I refuse to do so when there is still the possibility, however slim it may be, that we could get the rest of this show fully completed.
Q: Why not just adapt these arcs as comics/novels and be done with it? A: As stated in the
recently-released interview with Dave Filoni and George Lucas, TCW was always made with much more of a theatrical mindset than typical animated shows. These remaining stories were designed with the screen in mind, so relegating them to print media would completely negate that aspect. There’s also the fact that the two adaptations they’ve already done have cut things out that would’ve appeared in the actual episodes, not to mention reducing these arcs to comics/novels would rob the cast and crew of the chance to properly finish these stories—I feel especially bad for Nika Futterman, Ventress’s voice actress, as she’s been part of the show since the very beginning and was essentially robbed of the chance to voice Ventress once more in her big 8 episode arc.
With that out of the way, read on to find out just what all these other arcs were about...
Crystal Crisis on Utapau (prod. # 6.01-6.04)
A four-episode arc, the story reels for Crystal Crisis on Utapau were actually released for free on starwars.com back on September 25, 2014. While the animation for these episodes is unfinished, they do have full voice acting. As this arc has been released in some state I won’t divulge the full story here, but it would have featured Anakin and Obi-Wan uncovering a mystery on the planet Utapau. The episodes are no longer available on starwars.com, and since the premiere of season 7 Disney has unfortunately been removing some reuploads of them on YouTube, however I’ve included four current links to YouTube uploads of them below. If these go down in the future I may see about updating the links, however it shouldn’t be too difficult to locate other uploads of them, either on YouTube or elsewhere.
Episode 1: “A Death on Utapau”
Episode 2: “In Search of the Crystal”
Episode 3: “Crystal Crisis”
Episode 4: “The Big Bang”
Dark Disciple (prod. # 6.13-6.16 and 7.05-7.08)
This arc would have been eight-episodes long in total, however it would have been split into two arcs of four-episodes each. The entire arc was adapted into a novel, titled Dark Disciple, released in early July of 2015. The scripts for these episodes were written by Katie Lucas, Matt Michnovetz, as well as Dave Filoni. Again, I won’t detail the whole story here since you can read the novel, but it would have featured Asajj Ventress and Quinlan Vos as they work to assassinate Count Dooku.
Episode 1: “Lethal Alliance”
Episode 2: “The Mission”
Episode 3: “Conspirators”
Episode 4: “Dark Disciple”
Episode 5: “Saving Vos Part I”
Episode 6: “Saving Vos Part II”
Episode 7: “Traitor”
Episode 8: “The Path”
Concept art
Clip 1
Scene snippets
Clip 2
Son of Dathomir (prod. # 6.21-6.24)
A four-episode arc written by Matt Michnovetz and Aïda Mashaka Croal, Son of Dathomir would have most likely aired as part of what was originally planned to be season seven, however due to the show’s cancellation it was instead adapted into a four-issue comic book miniseries (full comic title: Star Wars: Darth Maul - Son of Dathomir) which was released in the summer of 2014. Like before, I won’t go into the arc’s full story as you can just read its comic, but it would have followed up on Sidious capturing Maul at the end of season five’s “The Lawless,” and practically the entire arc would have been multiple battles between the Shadow Collective and the Separatists/Sith. This arc would have been set in the middle of Dark Disciple, between its two four-episode arcs.
Episode 1: “The Enemy of My Enemy”
Episode 2: “A Tale of Two Apprentices”
Episode 3: “Proxy War”
Episode 4: “Showdown on Dathomir”
Concept art
Bounty hunters (prod. # 5.22-5.25)
A four-episode arc written by Matt Michnovetz, this arc would have featured the bounty hunters Cad Bane and Boba Fett. Located (at least primarily) on Tatooine, Bane and Boba would have worked together to rescue a child kidnapped by the native Tusken Raiders. A number of other hunters would have been featured as well, including Aurra Sing, Bossk, Embo, C-21 Highsinger, Latts Razzi, and Seripas. Cad Bane would have been given a new outfit as well as a new ship, the Justifier. This arc would have also been the first appearance of the Tusken Shaman, which has since shown up in the Galaxy of Heroes mobile game.
Two clips of this arc (in unfinished animation) have been released, with the second showing how Boba received the dent in his helmet seen in the original trilogy and, quite possibly, the death of Cad Bane.
Concept art
Clip 1
Clip 2
Kashyyyk (prod. # 6.17-6.20)
A four-episode arc written by Matt Michnovetz, this arc would have seen Yoda, his clone battalion, and the Bad Batch (now with Echo as a member) travel to Kashyyyk. This would have explained why Yoda says he has “good relations with the Wookiees” in Revenge of the Sith. Both Chewbacca and Chieftain Tarfful would have appeared as well. We would have been introduced to these monkey-like “tree spirits” which the Wookiees could call upon, only when absolutely necessary, and ride into battle. In the clip below, we see the Wookiees, atop these spirits, taking on a group of kinrath (creature originally from Knights of the Old Republic) alongside the Bad Batch.
During this arc, Kashyyyk would have come under attack by the Separatists as well as a Trandoshan leader. In order to drive the invaders out from their tree cities, the Wookiees and Republic would have been forced to burn a portion of the forest, something the clones had no issue with but the Wookiees were hesitant to do. Tarfful would have “spoken” to the trees in order to seek permission to carry this out.
The arc would have even contained some references to the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special.
Concept art
Clip
Rex/R2
A four-episode arc written by Brent Friedman, these episodes would have featured Captain Rex and R2-D2 and been inspired by the film Top Gun. The ground force clones would have gotten into an argument with the clone pilots and their astromechs, leading to Rex being forced to fly a starfighter with R2 as his copilot. The pair would have ended up crashing on one of Ryloth’s moons, where the majority of the arc would have been set. During the arc, Rex and R2 would have grown attached to a super battle droid they reprogrammed. Friedman commented that the arc “starts out light and fun but definitively [sic] goes to some very unexpected and dark places. Easily the strangest arc I wrote.”
Concept art
Return to the Jedi
The exact number of episodes for this arc has not been stated, however they would have centered on Ahsoka, initially in the depths of Coruscant, returning to the Jedi Temple. Yoda would have been endangered by some “nefarious entities,” prompting Ahsoka and the Jedi to travel deep beneath the Jedi Temple, where they would have uncovered an ancient Sith temple, within which were enormous gears turning. Giant skeletal kaiju-like creatures would have appeared in the depths as well. At some point in this arc, Darth Sidious himself would have attempted to gain access to the Jedi Temple’s Holocron Vault. Ahsoka would have barred his entry by entering the vault herself and stabbing her lightsaber through the door to seal it, as Sidious sent Force lightning in her direction.
It's important to note that due to Ahsoka leaving for Mandalore immediately at the end of the season 7 Martez arc, Return to the Jedi can't really happen with her involved. Assuming they still wish to make this arc, however, I think they could rework it to feature only some Jedi Masters/Council members, which honestly might even make more sense story-wise.
Concept art
Return to Mon Cala
It’s not known how many episodes this arc would have been, though it appears, per the Clone Wars Declassified featurette on The Lost Missions Blu-ray, one of the episodes would have had the production number 7.19. In this arc, Anakin and Padmé would have returned to Mon Cala and met with King Lee-Char. Both Quarren Senators Tikkes (in truth, a member of the Separatist Council) and Tundra Dowmeia, from the prequels, would have appeared, as would a new Quarren city above the water. The Quarren Nossor Ri, from the first Mon Cala arc, had been murdered. Per the aforementioned featurette, it seems at least some of the Quarren wished to “throw out Palps,” while Lee-Char and Mon Calamari Senator Meena Tills did not wish to.
Concept art
Yuuzhan Vong
(On an entirely personal note, I highly doubt at this point we’ll ever see this arc completed or even adapted, but it was still planned for the show so I’ve included it here.)
Lastly, there would have been an X-Files-inspired arc concerning the Yuuzhan Vong from the Expanded Universe/Legends. Unlike their EU depiction, however, the Yuuzhan Vong would not have been immune to the Force. In this arc, a Vong scout ship would have attempted to assess the Republic’s strength and learn about the Jedi.
Concept art
There you have it. These are the final stories of TCW that have yet to be properly told. We may now have the show’s chronological finale, but there are still several other arcs left to be made, many of which would have provided closure to characters that have been a part of the show for many seasons now. I believe the voice actors, animators, writers, directors, and so on, all deserve the chance to tell these stories properly and truly give TCW closure.
In the videos below, you can hear Dave Filoni and Pablo Hidalgo discuss these arcs:
The Untold Clone Wars Panel
Ahsoka’s Untold Tales Panel (timestamped to Return to the Jedi)
If you’d like to see these remaining arcs finished as well, I urge you to let others know about their existence, continue to support the show by watching it on Disney+, and let those at Disney and Lucasfilm know we want the rest of this beloved series properly completed.
#CompleteTheCloneWars
