Last fall, when it was announced that Disney had acquired LucasFilm, speculation had it that Star Wars: The Clone Wars might be moving from Cartoon Network over to Disney XD, which seemed like the logical move for the property. However, from today's announcement, it looks like the acquisition will bring an even more drastic change for the animated series. The series has been canceled, though all hope is not lost for some closure to the story.
The announcement was posted today on StarWars.com, stating that Lucasfilm is looking to pursue a new direction in animated programming, which will explore "a whole new Star Wars series set in a time period previously untouched in Star Wars films or television programming. They don't go into details on that, however the announcement goes on to say that part of the "shift" for Star Wars includes winding down Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which has had five seasons at Cartoon Network.
The studio is no longer producing new episodes of the series for Cartoon Network, however they are continuing production on "new Clone Wars story arcs," which will continue and conclude the adventure. More information on where you'll be able to find that is forthcoming. In the meantime, the site also posted this video, which features Supervising Director Dave Filoni talking about what's ahead for Clone Wars and then offering a glimpse if that with a couple minutes of video.
"Even though we're winding things down on Star Wars: The Clone Wars, it's not over yet. In fact, the best has yet to come. We have some of the most exciting, most important story arcs still coming your way."
While fans are likely disappointed to learn that the series is wrapping up, at the very least, it sounds like the studio is going to make sure to tie up as many major loose ends as possible before closing out the series completely. And Star Wars fans will have other projects to look forward to in the future, including the anticipated Star Wars Episode VII, and the vaguely referenced animated project in the works.
The announcement also mentions that Seth Green's animated comedy series Star Wars Detours is being postponed until a later date as a result of the planned launch of Episode VII.
