Lucasfilm Animation is charting a new direction for its
television programming, one that doesn't include the Cartoon Network series Star Wars: The Clone Wars -- at least not
on the Turner-owned network.
On Monday, the studio said it was no longer producing new
episodes for Cartoon as it looks to explore a new Star Wars series set in a
time period not previously covered in the franchise's film and TV titles.
"After five highly successful and
critically acclaimed seasons of Star Wars:
The Clone Wars, we feel the time has come to wind down the series,"
the company said in a statement. It added it is continuing production on new Clone Wars story arcs, but provided no
details as to where that "bonus content" might air.
One likely destination is the
male-skewing cable network Disney XD. Last October, Disney bought Lucasfilm for
$4 billion and announced plans to release a new feature film Star Wars Episode VII in 2015. At the
time, Disney CEO Robert Iger said, "We really like Star Wars' potential
on TV as well and we think Disney XD will be a great home for that."
Lucasfilm has also decided to postpone the release of
animated comedy series Star Wars Detours
until a later date.
"Detours was conceived and produced
before we decided to move forward with the new Star
Wars trilogy, and in the wake of that decision, Lucasfilm has
reconsidered whether launching an animated comedy prior to the launch of Episode VII makes sense."
