Star Wars: The Clone Wars Almost Had A Bit Of A Different Ending

Star Wars: The Clone Wars served up a pretty perfect series finale when it at long last wrapped up its story with its seventh season earlier this year. The final scene, in particular, was terrific. As we left Ahsoka and Rex behind in the aftermath of Order 66, there was a time jump to Darth Vader discovering his former Padawan’s discarded lightsaber in the snow, with the series ending as the Sith Lord looks up to see the Morai bird flying overhead.

The Morai, as created for Star Wars Rebels, is a mystical owl-like creature that tends to watch over Ahsoka in times of crisis. This cameo marked its only appearance in The Clone Wars, with its appearance serving as a connection between the two shows. EP Dave Filoni wasn’t initially sure how best to use the Morai in this final sequence, though. While speaking to Nerdist, the showrunner revealed that he played around with that important moment a few times.

“I used to have different versions of that and the way it [Morai] landed. There were always common things about it. At one point I had that bird perched on the Y-wing fighter and it wasn’t playing right. You have to play with it and it’s always a race to get it right before you run out of time and money.”

Something Filoni also put a lot of thought into was ensuring that the ending didn’t suddenly become all about Anakin, seeing as The Clone Wars is not his story but Ahsoka and Rex’s.

“I changed the ending as it went because I think a really important thing for me about the ending of the series was this is not about Anakin,” Filoni said. “It has something tangential to do with him, but it’s not about him. It really has to be about Ahsoka and Rex and their point of view.”

As for why he elected to go with the scene as it is and what that symbolizes, Filoni was reluctant to elaborate, as he prefers fans to think about it and mull it over themselves.

“Answering things is not really that fun. I know what the answers are, but the audience is savvy. They all know what’s going on. It just tonally plays out the right way. I’ll say that.”

Though this has yet to be officially confirmed, we don’t have very long to wait until we get more Ahsoka content as she’ll be making her live-action debut in this fall’s The Mandalorian season 2. Star Wars: The Clone Wars season 7 wasn’t really an ending, then, but a new beginning.