July 19, 2020 – If you were lucky enough to have attended Star Wars Celebration VI in Orlando in 2012, you might have remembered a panel with Robot Chicken‘s Seth Green and Matthew Senreich.
Panelists Seth Green (far right) and Matthew Senreich (orange-red shirt), among others, announced the creation of “Star Wars Detours” at Star Wars Celebration VI in Orlando in 2012 – just several months before Disney’s surprise acquisition of Lucasfilm in October 2012.
The duo behind Robot Chicken were tasked with making animated clips which took an irreverent and comedic approach to Star Wars. At Celebration Orlando, the team showed the following preview:
While there were some groans from the audience (not everyone found the attempts at humor that funny), there were enough laughs and support which led to the creation of 39 full episodes and 62 finished scripts.
But Disney’s acquisition of Lucasfilm, announced on 30 October 2012, changed everything. Disney reportedly did not like the franchise poking fun at itself. So the crowd-favorite “Dance-Off with the Star Wars Stars” at Disney’s Star Wars Weekends was shut down (as was the annual event, Star Wars Weekends, but for other reasons).
Also put into mothballs, with no explanation given, was the proposed Star Wars Detours.
In June, 2018, trademark filings by Lucasfilm for Star Wars Detours hinted at a possible revival for the animated comedy series. But then again, it may have just been a pre-emptive move by Disney’s legal department saying, “Oops, we forgot to claim intellectual rights to this offshoot. Let’s file just in case.”
So two years after the trademark filing, and eight years since its announcement, Detours has taken an off-ramp detour of its own. But there is still hope. Disney’s streaming service, Disney+, is always looking for new content.
July 13, 2020 – Lucasfilm announced today that its next animated series, Star Wars: The Bad Batch, will be streaming on Disney+ sometime in 2021.
Set in the aftermath of “The Clone Wars”, an elite squad of clone troopers who have taken on the nickname, the Bad Batch, “take on daring mercenary missions as they struggle to stay afloat and find new purpose”, according to a Lucasfilm release.
The highly-skilled members of Clone Force 99, who call themselves the Bad Batch, are the very best of the clone troopers. Members Hunter, Wrecker, Tech, and Crosshair were introduced in an episode of The Clone Wars. After rescuing the clone trooper Echo from Separatist captivity, they have welcomed the cybernetic soldier into their elite team.
Clone Force 99 a.k.a. the Bad Batch (Image Credit: Lucasfilm)
Star Wars: The Bad Batch is executive produced by Dave Filoni (The Mandalorian, Star Wars: The Clone Wars); Athena Portillo (Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels); Brad Rau (Star Wars Rebels, Star Wars Resistance) and Jennifer Corbett (Star Wars Resistance, NCIS) with Carrie Beck (The Mandalorian, Star Wars Rebels) as co-executive producer and Josh Rimes as producer (Star Wars Resistance).
February 18, 2020 – A new clip from Star Wars: The Clone Wars introduces us to Clone Force 99 aka “the bad batch”.
The Star Wars YouTube channel offers this summary of the upcoming epidsode: It’s the end of the historic Clone Wars, as the forces of darkness have amassed great power in their bid to transform the Republic into the Galactic Empire. With the Republic on a losing streak, Captain Rex fears the Separatists are using stolen data to help predict the Grand Army’s every move. As the threat of defeat looms, Rex teams up with experimental Clone Force 99, also known as the Bad Batch. Together, they embark on a high-risk mission behind enemy lines to uncover the truth behind the Separatist victories.
You can watch the upcoming episode, called “The Bad Batch,” when Star Wars: The Clone Wars debuts this Friday, February 21, 2020, on Disney+.
January 22, 2020 – The two-season run of the animated Star Wars Resistance is about to come to an end. The series finale will air on Sunday, January 26, 2020, on the Disney XD channel.
The short trailer below gives you a sneak peek at what to expect.
Those who have been following the series will recall that Resistance spy Kazuda Xiono has uncovered several First Order plots on the flying station Colossus (a large landing platform where we see many people reside and go about their day-to-day struggles) and elsewhere. The series showcases a bunch of “little guys” (and gals) just trying to survive at the edge of the galaxy, but caught up in the bigger drama of the First Order versus the Resistance.
The events in Star Wars Resistance occur just before The Force Awakens and, as the above trailer suggests, conclude just before The Rise of Skywalker.
October 30, 2019 – If the final trailer for The Rise of Skywalker did not excite you, perhaps the launch trailer for the latest game, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order will move you.
EA (Electronic Arts) will release the video game on Nov. 15, 2019. MSRP is $59.99.
August 17, 2019 – Disney continues its attempts to interest children in its Star Wars franchise with mixed success. Latest campaign? The animated micro-series, Star Wars Rollout, which appears to be aimed at very young pre-school-aged children.
Viewable on StarWarsKids.com and its YouTube channel, the first episode premiered on August 9, 2019, with a run-time under 2 minutes:
The second episode, called “BB-8 and the Jungle Adventure – Chapter 2”, also runs for less than 2 minutes:
At best, the series might be called “cute”. It’s too early to tell whether audiences of any age will tune in regularly. At worst, it should be somewhat concerning to Disney that the teaser trailer, released just last week, has barely 21,000 views on YouTube.
Star Wars Resistance
Another Disney animated series, Star Wars Resistance, premiered in October, 2018, and has been targeting an older children’s audience. The series begins six months before the events of The Force Awakens and leads up to Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker.
Resistance Season One (21 episodes) is directed by Dave Filoni. He previously directed the movie Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) and the subsequent television series. He also created, developed, and executive produced the highly successful series Star Wars Rebels (2014-2018, four seasons). In 2017, he became the head of Lucasfilm Animation.
As for Resistance Season Two, Dave Filoni had announced that he was giving up day-to-day directing of the show. The reason given, ostensibly, was to allow him to focus his attention on the upcoming revival of The Clone Wars.
Star Wars Resistance has never developed a particularly passionate following. Its second season will premiere on October 6, 2019, and run for an unknown number of episodes. After that, Disney has said it is pulling the plug.
Star Wars Galaxy of Adventures
Just one month after the rollout of Resistance, Disney introduced yet another animated series, Star Wars Galaxy of Adventures, in November, 2018. You can watch the official trailer below:
The series of short animated clips, most of which barely clear the one-minute mark, appear to be an introduction or recap of highlights from Star Wars‘ original trilogy, the prequel series and the sequels. Galaxy of Adventures is a year-long series which is expected to conclude with the release of Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker in December, 2019.
In addition to the main series, three compilation videos have focused on Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader and Han Solo. Each runs roughly in the 5- to 6-minute range. You can watch them below:
“Luke Skywalker: The Journey of a Jedi” (released Dec. 14, 2018):
“Darth Vader: Path of the Dark Side (released Dec. 21, 2018):
“Han Solo – Captain of the Millennium Falcon” (released Feb. 27, 2019):
Star Wars Forces of Destiny
An earlier (2017) animated series, Star Wars Forces of Destiny, focuses on female characters. A Wikipedia summary:
“Star Wars Forces of Destiny is a 2D animated web series by Lucasfilm Animation released through Disney’s YouTube channel. Set across multiple eras of the Star Wars franchise, it is a collection of two- to three-minute shorts centering on female characters featured in previous Star Wars installments. The series premiered on July 3, 2017, beginning the daily release of a set of eight episodes; these episodes subsequently began broadcasting on Disney Channel on July 9. An additional eight episodes were released in Fall 2017, and a second season of eight episodes were released in 2018.”
Forces of Destiny has lasted for two seasons with 32 episodes. You can view the official trailer (June, 2017) below:
An Animation Mess?
Disney/Lucasfilm’s animated releases over the last two years are consistent in their inconsistency. For many critics, the campaign to win over the hearts of younglings (i.e., kids) has been an animation failure.
A large part of the problem is the muddying of the brand with so many short-lived series competing for viewer attention. Why Disney decided to premiere Star Wars Resistance in October, 2018 – followed a month later with a different show, Star Wars Galaxy of Adventures in November, 2018 – is part of the mystery.
The background noise of its newest creation, Star Wars Rollout, and the vague future of Forces of Destiny, further muddy the waters.
Another part of the problem is subject-matter. Do audiences of any age really want to watch references to the sequel trilogy in animated form? Have viewers already tuned out and moved on?
Still, there is hope. The arc comes full circle with the latest revival of Dave Filoni’s Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which has a loyal and passionate following.
August 14, 2019 – Well, that was a short run: The animated Star Wars Resistance, whose first season debuted in October, 2018, will end when Season Two wraps up.
Season Two will premiere on Sunday, October 6, 2019 at 10:00 PM (EDT/PDT) on the Disney Channel. The late-night showing before the start of a school day is somewhat mystifying for a show meant to appeal to underage children.
While Resistance has received one Emmy nomination for “Outstanding Children’s Program – 2019”, the show has largely been met with lukewarm interest from viewers. Even if Resistance does win an Emmy at the Sept. 22, 2019, awards event, its fate is sealed as a terminal series.
January 10, 2019 – Disney’s efforts to groom a new, younger generation of Star Wars fans continues with its latest trailer for Star Wars Resistance.
Synopsis from Disney/Lucasfilm: “The First Order has arrived, and it’s up to Kaz to rally his friends to defend the Colossus. Get your first look at what’s next for Star Wars Resistance this season in a harrowing mid-season trailer, and tune in when Star Wars Resistance returns on Sunday, January 13 on Disney Channel”
August 17, 2018 – The first trailer for Disney’s newest animated series, Star Wars Resistance, was released today.
On some social media platforms, there have been a good number of critical “thumbs down” comments so far. Perhaps it’s the overtly cheery tone of the animation, which doesn’t make it feel like a Star Wars story. Or the fact that the series appears targeted to a much young(er) audience.
For adult Star Wars fans, however, they should note that Star Wars Rebels received a similar less-than-enthusiastic response when it first rolled out. But as the story lines progressed and turned darker and more complex, Rebels soon found itself a growing audience.
The late 10:00 pm debut (Sunday, October 7th) on the Disney Channel is curious. Are young children really the primary target audience? Star Wars is, after all, supposed to be for all ages.
On a more positive note, the cartoon renderings look sharp, the cast appears diverse, and there appear to be numerous aliens (Rodians and more!) and vehicles to capture our imaginations.
We will find out more in less than two months, when Star Wars Resistance premieres October 7, 2018.
March 5, 2018 – The fourth and final season of Disney’s animated 3D CGI animation series, Star Wars Rebels, concludes tonight. The show launched on Dec. 1st, 2014, on Disney’s XD channel and will conclude its three-part finale on March 5th.
It took some viewers a while to warm up to the series, and hardcore fans of The Clone Wars (six seasons; Oct. 2008-March 2014) will forever debate which of the two series is “better” than the other. But both are canon, and both series explore and contribute in their own ways to the Star Wars universe.
Perhaps the biggest and most controversial contribution of Rebels is Season 4’s revelation of time-travel, an oft-used device in other sci-fi productions, but a novelty to Star Wars.
For an interesting discussion, watch the following video, “How Rebels Just Changed Star Wars Forever”:
As a prequel to Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977), Star Wars Rebels and our band of scrappy fighters (essentially “nobodies” without any claim of royal lineage or connection to the Skywalker family) are designed to disappear.
Kanan Jarrus (born Caleb Dume) has already perished, and viewers are left to say their “Goodbyes” to young Ezra Bridger, former bounty hunter Sabine Wren, pilot Hera Syndulla, and Zeb Orrelios. Whether they survive tonight’s finale, you will have to watch and see.
For all four seasons, they have fought the good fight against insurmountable odds, relying on their various skills, a bit of luck, and on each other. But their destiny is to fail. That is why our everyday Rebels heroes are never heard of again in the Original Trilogy.
FUTURE of STAR WARS 