^It's a major backwards step, after being spoiled by TCW for the last five years.





I remember seeing that as well. I thought it was odd, that he was in his ROTJ outfit.

Are you referring to the good love-between-two-people-of-the-same-sex kind of gay or the bad Eminem-back-in-the-early-aughts kind of gay? 'Cause I remember when the clip debuted online and as a fan of traditional hand drawn animation I thought that little demo reel was effing amazing and would pay good money to see a future Star Wars show a show or film done up in that style.

My two cents: Disney is trying to create a demand in the market for Star Wars in anticipation of Episode VII; it wouldn't surprise me to see them throttle back on the merchandise at this point as well. The new movie will effectively serve as a relaunch of the brand on all fronts. JJ Abrams will make his Plymouth Prowler-version of a Star Wars movie (slick and cool but lacking a soul), it'll make money, reaffirm the franchise's status in popular culture and Disney will then decided whether or not to pursue a new animated series and not a moment sooner.

At least I think that's how it'll play out. Don't hold me to it though.

Some thoughts to consider on your "hibernation" theory:


Hasbro owns the rights until 2018 for Star Wars. They can put out whatever they want. Given the cost to them to acquire that license, I highly doubt that they'll sit back with zero Star Wars activity to fund interest for the next 2 years. This would be a huge hit to their bottom line.

Additionally, Dark Horse owns the rights to Star Wars, for at least the next year, if not longer. There is still the unsubstantiated report that Marvel bought out the rest of the contract, but no one wants to confirm that.

For sheep, at least, it seems that a hibernation is impossible for Disney.

I remember when I saw that animated clip I thought it was phenomenal. Incredibly nostalgic.

Like Cryostar said, I don't think Disney will stand pat with the brand until Episode VII is launched; they'll definitely pick their spots.

I really like your JJ Abrams Prowler analogy. Super 8 is a great example of a film that has all of the elements of an emotional classic, but there's something off about the execution that leaves it a few pegs below its potential. I remain hopeful that he'll be able to put it all together for Star Wars, but I don't think we're going to get the second coming of Empire - I don't think he's that kind of filmmaker.

CoGro & Cryostar:

I definitely think we'll still see toys, books and comics over the next couple of years but I have a feeling these releases will be mostly low-key (low-key for Star Wars, that is). Basically it'll be like the early 90's, post-Zahn but before the THX re-releases with Lego and Hasbro's action figures taking the place of Micro Machines and Bend-Ems respectively.



There's a saying that's appropriate for Abrams's work as a director: he knows the words but not the music. That said I really hope I'm eating crow come 2015(ish?) and the guy manages to blows us all away.

Bang on.

I want nothing more than for him to an incredible film.

Rebel Forces Radio and Jedi News (the guys who broke the cancellation story) are saying their sources are telling them that the TCW creative team is being dismantled this week. Only a skeleton crew will remain to finish the episodes that are very close to completion, and that we won't be getting any closure.



Jedi News

This also means the the new show, if it happens, is years away will not be by the same crew.

EDIT: More info from Eric Geller over at



TFN

This deal's getting worse all the time.

Filoni will be present on the next podcast of RebelForce Radio, let's hope he clarifies all this.

*preventing myself from writing profanities about disney*
within 2 weeks they seem to show us they understand nothing of Star Wars and are decided to screw it all.....

TCW has been everything Star Wars should be, not only we're most likely not getting good wrap up while there were plans established for great conclusions, but they now just insult this beyond-fantastic team, and the fan community along with it

This may not be as fatalistically grim as it sounds. Yes, LucasFilm Animation is all but finito. However, Disney is going to be developing Star Wars content in house (remember the quote below). In turn, they are probably willing to interview the more important creative types for Disney positions. After all, they aren’t going to produce more shows with only the existing number of staff.


It makes sense that the season 6 leftovers won’t deal with the fate of the series more marquee characters. This gives Disney the option of using these popular characters in other projects.

I don't think so. As said in the press release, Lucasfilm Animation will be working on the future tv series (whenever it starts production) therefore the company will not end. It would be stupid to shut down a whole studio "just because"...

It wouldn't be "just because". Don't you think Disney might find owning yet another animation studio to be just a bit redundant? What made sense for Lucasfilm, LTD might not make sense for Lucasfilm, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Walt Disney Co.

Lucasfilm Animation might go on, but probably consisting of a couple of producers to oversee whatever Disney animation studios produce, just like they have a few folks at Lucasbooks overseeing the novels and comics.

Word is they're raping Lucasarts in a similar fashion. What Disney was interested in when they spent $4 billion was the IP, not the companies.

So this is what we can expect from a Hollywood Star Wars takeover?
Are they going to open the proverbial mouth of our beloved franchise and shit down it's neck for the next 100 years?

This series needs closure. We deserve that and so do the folks working on the show as well.
For those of us who have invested the last five years of our lives watching and enjoying this series, this news is nothing but a kick in the nut sack.
Looks like the only thing that was keeping this show going, was the incredibly deep pockets, of George Lucas.

Iger needs to man up and tell us all what the heck is going on!

Disney will do what makes financial sense for them. They would maintain a second animation studio if the clone wars audience and revenue were justifiably impressive. Things that are monetarily successful don't get shitcanned.

Right now the money is on Episode VII.

TCW just was.

As much as this sucks, I can't say I'm surprised by any of this. Disney's #1 objective is to start seeing a return on its $4 billion investment. Things like loyalty, storytelling, closure, etc. mean nothing on the accounting ledger which is the decision-making device behind anything and everything Disney has done since October.

This is precisely the scenario that made me sad upon hearing of the LFL acquisition by Disney last fall. The "bigger picture," "real world" Star Wars that we were all familiar with is long gone. The game has changed, and in my opinion, for the worse.

Perhaps, people should take a look at how disney operates before they start condemning whole portions of the company to damnation.


Disney is an umbrella corp. It wants everything underneath it to make cash. Why? So it can take it the cash. They skim off the top and reap the profit. They don't care if they're duplicating effort, or have multiple studios, as long as they can keep the cash. They do, however, like controlling intellectual property and how it's marketed. This is the Disney Machine.

Otherwise, why does Disney own Pixar and Disney Animation? Why does it own Marvel Animation and Disney XD Studios? Lucas Arts Animation will continue to exist, but they want something new. Something that is divorced from Cartoon Network (And WB Studios, which owns Cartoon Network). Something that Disney can reap 100% of the rewards for. Just give them time.

Disney sorta maybe having future plans for Lucasfilm Animation is cold comfort to the dozens of folks laid off yesterday. As of today, Lucasfilm Animation is about 12 people.

In good news,



Big Shiny Robot

Wasn't that already said in the press release?

There were a couple of reports yesterday that we might not get to see the "bonus content".

Source

Even though I hate anime style overall, the animation was really good. If it wasn't for the ridiculous speedups and weird design choices (cannons shooting lasers, then firing beams and finally having something that looks like a green gun blast), it would be very fun to watch. I prefer star wars to be gritty but clean on the movement at the same time. Shaky cam and useless glows/flares/lens don't belong here, unless they really should be there.

Season One's Downfall of a Droid was on TV last night and I sat down to watch it. I was blown away as to how far this series had progressed over the last five seasons.
Everything from the voice acting, to character movement/lighting etc seemed archaic, in comparison to the last few series.
Getting rid of this show prematurely is not a good idea, seeing it still has so much to give.

To back up a second, that last bit there is becoming kind of a mantra for the announcements we've seen over the past few months. It's perplexing, and a bit concerning because, having paid 4 billion for a Star Wars saga that spans 6 films, 5 seasons of critically well-received television, plus the entire EU, the strategy now seems to be 'we have no interest in it if it wasn't Disney approved". Unless the purchase had something in it about Lucas retaining a percentage of any profit derived from his films, there's really no good practical reason to suddenly, destructively change directions on all of the LFL companies at once, particularly now that it appears LFL was already gearing up for the new trilogy anyways. What it means is that those subsidiaries then produce NO profit until this massive reorientation is complete and product starts rolling out, so, years, whereas they were turning decent profits for the company year after year as it was. Hopefully there's something else at work we haven't seen yet, but if not it's potentially a disappointing glimpse of a cynical choice to simply slap brand recognition on product with no regard for the larger world that they bought.

Bob Iger specifically said that they did not want to overmarket Episode VII. The plan appears to be to have a limited amount of ancillary (i.e., everything that's not the movie) SW product out by the time 2015 rolls around, and what little product they do put out to be laser focused on supporting Episode VII.

They're not stupid, and I'm sure they've been crunching the numbers all along, so my guess is that they're expecting that whatever revenue they're losing short term in their scorched earth approach would be dwarfed by a properly marketed Episode VII and related product. In that light cancelling the 3D re-releases sorta makes sense. Detours was all expense and no revenue at this point. A next-gen title like 1313 would be monstrously expensive with relatively little profit margin, which is why Disney got out of the non-mobile/social/casual gamespace in the first place. And from what we know TCW was fairly expensive to produce, and while it might have been worth it to LFL in terms of merchandise sales and brand exposure, Disney might feel they can achieve the same goals more cheaply.

On that note, more rumblings about the impending demise of Lucasarts:



gamesindustry.biz

Folks, you guys need to calm down. A lot.

This is typical business. These folks were on a project. Project is over. Guess what? They get laid off. A few, the top 15% or so, will be offered positions elsewhere to keep them on hand. The rest, get to go find new jobs. EVERY MAJOR COMPANY IN THE WORLD DOES THIS. As soon as people with their talents are needed, they'll get a team together. End of story. LucasFilm has done this many times in the past, Disney is just doing the same thing because Clone Wars is over, and Episode VII is on the horizon.


As for LucasArts. Who the frack cares? Name me the last real game that LucasArts developed on its own, without third part involvement? They're more of an administer of game development than an actual game company. In that case, it makes zero since to keep them around in anything but that roll, or eliminate them all together and move the administration of Star Wars games to the folks in Lucasfilm who are already used to handling third party vendor licensing. Again, if LucasArts was actively producing something awesome, no 1313 doesn't count, someone else was making that, then they'd be left alone, but they simply haven't hit enough targets.

He cancelled on them at the last minute. The interview was rescheduled for the first week of April.



???

Who's upset? I don't see anyone here throwing hissy-fits.

Except that the project was not over, was it? The fact that there's a skeleton crew left after the layoffs to finish what was far enough along to finish cheaply is indication enough of this. The fact that we've already been told that none of the resolutions planned for any of the big arcs will see the light of day is indication enough of this. The project is only over because Disney announced that they were re-orienting to E7, and everyone should fuck off and go home.

Now, on LA? Yeah, totally with you on that one. The company has, in-house, produced absolute garbage for close to a decade now. Who gives a crap if it folds? It's been a long, long time since they were the developer that they used to be, and have been a publisher only ever since. Who cares.?

To echo Doublesith, I don't think people are hysterical, or wailing at the grave here. At least I know I'm not, and if it comes across that way, well then what can I say...internet I guess. I'm more puzzled (and a little dissapointed by the choices made so far) than anything. In any event, when you start to add together all of the stuff we've seen and heard since November it's getting very hard to escape the conclusion that this is a very cynical aquisition for Disney, and that LFL is now essentially Disney's bitch. I know there's been numerous citations of how Disney was so teh awsum with the Marvel aquisition, but that's NOT what we're seeing here so far. Disney has forcibly stepped in, and is forcing some very dramatic creative changes on the companies they just bought, it's not the touchy-feely hands-off approach they have taken with Marvel. Further, if you're Disney, how does it help you reassure a rabid fanbase, concerned about a gigantic corporation not exactly known for their seal of quality picking up a beloved franchise, down that the very first moves you make after aquisition are to shitcan EVERYTHING in progress to do with the universe? We aren't talking about just cancelling stupid over-exposure shit like Detours, or paring back on over exposure of the universe, we're talking about literally shutting down every single in-flight project to do with either the PT or the OT, and violently wrenching the company around in a new direction focussed entirely on one movie which won't even exist for another 2 years at least. It's just a weird way to go about capitalizing on the largest popular science fiction universe the world has ever seen.

I disagree with this, to a large extent. We were promised 100 episodes. We got 100 episodes. No one said we'd get to see how it ended, or where everyone was left. As a matter of practice, CG shows have to be several months to a year ahead of the schedule, just so they get episodes out on time, especially if you want quality. Take Green Lantern, for instance, there are CG promo shots of Razer as a Blue Lantern from season 2, before WB cancelled that show. It happens all the time. The fact that Disney is going to capitalize on the work that was put in place shouldn't account for anything, it's just them recouping money on capital spent. Any ROI for them is good.

I am still leaning that Clone Wars is over because WB and Disney couldn't hammer out a transition plan, and Disney didn't want to give WB any more $$, after all, WB is the antithesis to Disney (more or less). So what better way to do it, than to can the series and release everything else independently? Then go into a "new direction".

TFN

Good riddance. LucasArts has been a joke for a decade now.

I'm ok with that, really. Maybe those Bounty Hunter characters can live to see another series or something.

The Boba arc sounds like the Clone Wars' equivalent of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. Therefore, it would be a good premise for the stand alone Boba Fett movie.

is


Except that this analysis still leaves you with 'Disney stepped in and yanked the show before the project was at its natural conclusion'. Maybe it's not strictly because of the publicly cited 'new focus on E7', but it amounts to the same thing. Anyhoo, we'll probably not learn just what the hell went on for many years to come so it's all speculative anyways.

I'll say it again - no giant green rabbit, no sale.

Filoni speaks:



IGN

Star Wars: Reclamation - An Animated Series?

[spoil][/spoil]

If Leia is worried about her heritage, I wonder if Luke is barred from being a Jedi. From a political standpoint, the Republic can't be seen as publicly trusting another Force wielding Skywalker. (Also, maybe Luke's ouster from the Order was the creative inspiration for Filoni for Ahsoka's departure at the end of Season 5?) If Luke is not a Jedi, it would allow him to have one or two of those Skywalker grandchildren we keep hearing rumors about.

Also, it's possible that that Sky is Ahsoka's son.

Very early days but still sounds like it could be compelling. Could Leia also be hiding the fact that she's with Han (or has she left him?)

From the sounds of it, the "New Republic's" bureaucracy and politics sound a lot like the Old Republic's.

Sounds pretty exciting, but I dunno about another droid army.
I do like the rest of the ideas though.

I wonder if The Shade is Luke's alias?

Wish this was confirmed, not just a post on IMDB filtered through .

If this show is a fake, its narrative is well conceived. The premise sounds exactly like something Lucas and/or Filoni would devise.


That's the prevailing theory given the reference to a R2-like Astromech droid. It sounds like the character could be a combination of The Shadow and Sanjuro / The Man with No Name (which is very Lucas thing to do). I theorize that "he" could be a network of individuals acting as one identity under Luke's guidance. Maybe, Ventress and/or Starkiller sometimes stand in as The Shade.

UPDATE: Per wikipedia, The Man with No Name was called "Manco" in "A Few Dollars More." ("He is called 'Manco' (Spanish: 'one-armed') because he does everything left-handed, except for shooting.") Maybe The Shade is just The Shadow and Manco is the Sanjuro / The Man with No Name character.

I really like that theory.

The whole thing needs fleshing out, but seems to have a lot of potential.

I agree that the idea of another droid army is probably the weakest aspect of the outline. I really hope it isn't what we get in the sequel trilogy.

Pablo Hidalgo's missus (who works in events @Lucasfilm) tweeted this earlier:




Oh well, it was nice to get excited there for a minute.

Yes, because people involved in a production would never lie or mislead in case of leaks, right?

Other than the title, I think this looks fucking awesome.

This.
Have you considered going into carpentry, JWFan? Because you've done an excellent job of hitting the nail right on the head, there.

On other news, Tom Kane said, a couple of weeks ago, that there will be a Yoda arc where the concept of Force ghosts would be explored. According to him, they were finishing it up.