Up until The Clone Wars and later Rebels came along to garner enthusiastic responses from fans and critics alike to turn the notion on its head, animation had never been Star Wars‘ strongest suit. Children’s shows Star Wars: Droids and Ewoks aired in the mid-1980s, but neither was exactly anything to write home about, while the first feature-length animated entry in the franchise was a disaster.
2008’s Star Wars: The Clone Wars may have been directed by Dave Filoni and introduced Ahsoka Tano into the mix, but it was panned by critics, and still only holds a Rotten Tomatoes score of 17%, even with a decade of nostalgia and goodwill for the follow-ups. Picturing a fanbase who hated Ahsoka and wondered who the hell this Filoni guy was is impossible to imagine now given the filmmaker’s contributions to the lore, but it would be an understatement to say the movie was divisive.
Obviously, Filoni has since found his groove and was integral to the success of both The Clone Wars sequel series and Rebels, while he’s working closely with Jon Favreau in mapping out the live-action future of the property on Disney Plus. Not only that, but insider Daniel Richtman is now claiming that a new animated Star Wars movie is in the works, but the tipster doesn’t divulge any additional information on what form if could take.
It can’t be ruled out given that Lucasfilm will continue to monetize Star Wars for as long as humanly possible, though, and the vagueness of Richtman’s statement leaves it entirely open to interpretation. However, he did recently report that multiple R-rated projects and a comedy were both in the early stages of development, too, so why not combine all three into something like Seth Rogen’s Sausage Party set in the Star Wars universe, which sounds so fascinatingly bizarre and insane that you can bet some people would want to see it.
Published: Jan 30, 2021 10:49 am