George Lucas paid for The Clone Wars himself before any network wanted it
Lucas financed an animated Clone Wars series out of his own pocket and made 22 episodes before pitching it. Fox passed and Cartoon Network hesitated. Only a hastily assembled cinema release changed minds. The show ran across three platforms for 133 episodes and became a cornerstone of Star Wars storytelling.
Lucas first imagined an animated series about the Clone Wars in 2002, even though he meant Revenge of the Sith to be the end of the saga. In 2004, during that film's production, he set up Lucasfilm Animation in-house, recruited young artists obsessed with the franchise and hired supervising director Dave Filoni after admiring his work on Avatar: The Last Airbender. One anonymous source estimated the earliest episodes cost between $750,000 and $1.5 million apiece. Lucas charged Time Warner licensing fees to distribute them.
Filoni's first pitch was quite different: a small crew travelling on a Falcon-like ship, including a Jedi apprentice called Ashla. The finished show instead follows Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin's new Padawan, Ahsoka Tano, leading clone troopers against Count Dooku's droid armies between the second and third prequel films. Warner Bros. took an interest when Lucas stitched four episodes into a film released in August 2008, and Cartoon Network's president flew to San Francisco, watched episodes and called them a game-changer for Friday nights. The series premiered on October 3, 2008.
It tackled subjects rare in youth programming, among them genocide, slavery, political corruption and indoctrination, and it blurred lines between heroes and villains. Dee Bradley Baker voiced Captain Rex and every other clone. Guest stars included Liam Neeson returning as Qui-Gon Jinn and David Tennant, whose ancient droid Huyang earned him an Emmy; Katee Sackhoff's Bo-Katan appeared in only nine episodes but became a fan favourite. Production often ran ahead of broadcast, so arcs were held back and aired out of order, prompting Lucasfilm to post a chronological guide in 2014.
Cartoon Network cancelled the show in 2013 after five seasons. A sixth season arrived on Netflix in 2014, and a seventh on Disney+ in 2020 closed with the acclaimed Siege of Mandalore, running alongside the events of Revenge of the Sith. Demand surged on streaming around the debut of The Mandalorian, briefly making it the most sought-after sci-fi series in the United States, and it led to Star Wars Rebels, The Bad Batch and Ahsoka.
Source: Star Wars: The Clone Wars
