The Real Reason Star Wars: The Clone Wars Was Revived
The animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars forms an important part of the property's canon, and Star Wars fans were devastated when Lucasfilm announced in March 2013 that it was "winding down" production on the show. That announcement came shortly after The Clone Wars season 5 wrapped up that same month. Nearly a year later, 13 more episodes were released as season 6, and it seemed for a time that the Clone Wars story was over for good. However, that wasn't the end.
With the release of Disney+, Lucasfilm and its parent company, Disney, have decided to revive Star Wars: The Clone Wars for the streaming service. The first six seasons of the show, which was set between the films Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, followed Obi-Wan Kenobi (James Arnold Taylor) and his apprentice Anakin Skywalker (Mat Lucas) as the young Jedi completed his training as a Padawan learner, became a fully fledged Jedi, and even took on a Padawan of his own. Unfortunately, the sudden end to The Clone Wars in 2014 left plenty of incomplete arcs that desperately need resolutions. That's exactly what Disney and Lucasfilm plan to accomplish with Star Wars: The Clone Wars season 7, but it's only one of the reasons why the studios brought the series back to life.
The reason for the Clone wars revival
Why did Disney and Lucasfilm decide to pick up something that was dropped over half a decade ago in the first place? As it turns out, the decision had a lot to do with the franchise's loyal fans. In December 2019, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy spoke to The Los Angeles Times and shared how instrumental the fans were in bringing about the revival of The Clone Wars. "It does matter what they say and what they care about," Kennedy said. "All of those things play a role in our decision making."
Dave Filoni — who wrote and developed The Clone Wars, on which he also works as the supervising director – pointed to fans' invention of an appropriate hashtag as helping push Disney and Lucasfilm to revive The Clone Wars. He explained to StarWars.com, "Their enthusiasm is relentless. Their love of these characters and stories hasn't diminished. I actually think their voice has gotten louder as the years have gone by. It's been very humbling to have their support and to have people continue to hashtag me, '#SaveTheCloneWars.'"
Filoni added that he felt The Clone Wars was still resonating with fans because of the "variety of stories" that were told throughout the show. While Anakin and Obi-Wan may have been the main focus, there were plenty of supporting characters who got plenty of air time. Ahsoka Tano (Ashley Eckstein) was among them, and Filoni feels she in particular resonated with young fans who were going through changes and struggling to find themselves.
"Ahsoka gave kids a character that was like them — someone their age that was experiencing life's challenges and learning along the way," he said. Plus, having a new episode each week really allowed us to explore what was going on with the new and legacy characters in a dynamic way, including Anakin and Obi-Wan. I think the stories left an indelible impression."
The #SaveTheCloneWars movement
The movement that aided in spurring on the revival of The Clone Wars went beyond the use of the #SaveTheCloneWars hashtag on Twitter. There was also an account on the social media with the same name, a Facebook page, and even a website dedicated to the cause. The site celebrates the news of the Clone Wars revival right on the header of the homepage, crediting the support of the fans for the announcement. It reads, "On July 19, 2018 LucasFilm has announced that Clone Wars will be back from [sic] another season! #CloneWarsSaved! Also, thank you to the Clone Wars fans, for constantly reminding LucasFilm that we wanted them to #SaveTheCloneWars!"
Fans also rejoiced over Twitter, changing the hashtag to #CloneWarsSaved when the announcement was made in 2018.
With just a few days to go until the February 21 launch of Star Wars: The Clone Wars season 7, the cavalry has returned to Twitter to celebrate the impending arrival of the final batch of episodes. Plenty of cries of "Happy Clone Wars Month!" can be seen, showing just how much the revival means to the franchises many fans.