[Infowarrior] - OT: 'Clone Wars' cancelled

[Richard Forno]

...just as it was getting interesting again!  At least the final story arc was well-done and well-acted.  ----rick


Disney Cancels Clone Wars on Cartoon Network, Postpones Star Wars: Detours

	• By Graeme McMillan
	• 03.11.13
	• 6:34 PM

http://www.wired.com/underwire/2013/03/disney-clone-wars-cancelled/

After months of fan excitement and upbeat rumors following Disney’s acquisition of Lucasfilm, it appears that the other shoe has started to drop. In an announcement on the official Star Wars site Monday optimistically entitled “A New Direction for Lucasfilm Animation,” the company announced the cancellation of its successful Star Wars: The Clone Wars series on Cartoon Network and indefinite postponement of Star Wars: Detours, a second animated series created by the team behind Adult Swim’s Robot Chicken.

“After five highly successful and critically acclaimed seasons of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, we feel the time has come to wind down the series,” the announcement reveals, adding the somewhat confusing news that, “while the studio is no longer producing new episodes for Cartoon Network, we’re continuing production on new Clone Wars story arcs that promise to be some of the most thrilling adventures ever seen” and advising fans to “stay tuned for more information on where fans can soon find this bonus content.”

As early as last November, the series was rumored to be ending with its sixth season, and Cartoon Network — owned by Disney competitor, Time Warner — only licensed the show through its fifth year. Although nothing has been announced, the sixth and final season of the show could still air on Disney XD, following a similar path to that of Marvel Animation, which jumped from CN to DXD following its Disney purchase.

In a video accompanying the announcement, Clone Wars supervising director Dave Filoni promises “the best is yet to come,” with remaining episodes including “really crucial [stories] to the overall story arc of the Star Wars universe that we need to finish off and tell you.” Including, presumably, the final fate of Ahsoka Tano, a character central to Clone Wars mythology who has gone unmentioned in other incarnations of the franchise.

Although Clone Wars will get to wind up its run elsewhere, a less fortunate fate awaits Detours, the comedy series co-created by the Robot Chicken team of Seth Green, Matthew Senreich and Todd Grimes. Originally announced last year, Lucasfilm today said that the series was postponed until a later date. The show was, Lucasfilm explained, “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.”

That timeline doesn’t exactly hold with other statements from Lucasfilm officials in the past, both on the record and off. George Lucas himself recently let slip that plans for the new movie were in motion before the Disney deal, which began in June of last year, two months before the convention at which Detours was actually announced.

More likely, the new powers that be at Lucasfilm simply reconsidered whether or not a show that made fun of the franchise through in-jokes and Easter eggs and appealed more to the existing fanbase was the best product to launch at a time when everyone is waiting so eagerly for the new movies. And, really, who can blame them?

The news of the cancellations has caused upset online, with some Star Wars fans wondering whether there will be similar changes at LucasArts, the games division of Lucasfilm, which is currently working on an upcoming action-adventure game called Star Wars 1313 — a game the company has declined to discuss for months now.

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Just because i'm near the punchbowl doesn't mean I'm also drinking from it.