When Star Wars: The Clone Wars released its sixth and final season on Netflix in March 2014, the critically acclaimed TV show was far from over. Episodes had been written to broadcast full seventh and eighth seasons. While some of those stories have since found other forms through The Clone Wars Legacy, most of them remain unreleased.
Here’s what we know about the untold stories from Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
The Bounty Hunters Rise Again
Cad Bane and Boba Fett. Need I say more? The two briefly interacted during a prison break in the season four episode “Deception,” but this story arc would have brought the two big-name bounty hunters on a direct collision course. (Maybe we would have finally learned how Fett acquired his classic Mandalorian armor from the original trilogy?)
Head Writer Matt Michnovetz wrote the four-episode arc, which revolved around the fact that Bane had known Boba’s late father, Jango Fett. Other mercenaries also had roles in the story, including Embo, Bossk, C-21 Highsinger, and Aurra Sing. Bane and the younger Fett would have worked together to rescue a child who had been kidnapped by a tribe of Tusken Raiders on Tatooine. Cinematically, the story arc drew inspiration from the 1956 film The Searchers, a favorite of Executive Producer George Lucas.
The following clip of unfinished animation was screened at Celebration Anaheim, featuring Corey Burton as Cad Bane and Daniel Logan as Boba Fett.
Skip to 08:54 to see it:
Padawan No More
There were a total of 12 unfinished episodes from future seasons of The Clone Wars that would have focused on fan favorite ex-Padawan, Ahsoka Tano, as she struggled to find a new path in the galaxy. The production crew built another animation model for Ahsoka (including a knife to replace her lost lightsabers?). Based on input from Ahsoka’s voice actress Ashley Eckstein, Director Dave Filoni gave Ahsoka a monkey on her boot.
According to Filoni, one of the “Ahsoka” story arcs had amazingly complex action sequences. The following clip from Celebration Anaheim presumably originated from that arc. The clip features Eckstein as Ahsoka, as she (quite literally) dives into the Coruscant underworld aboard a malfunctioning speeder bike.
Skip to 47:50 to see it:
“Good relations with the Wookiees, I have.”
Some stories from The Clone Wars were inspired by a single line from the feature films—in this case, Master Yoda‘s quote from Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, in which he aided the Wookiees in the Battle of Kashyyyk. This story arc, written by Matt Michnovetz, would have shown the origin of Yoda’s close ties to the Wookiees, as he and a battalion of clone troopers helped them defend their homeworld, Kashyyyk, from a Separatist attack.
The story delved into the Wookiees’ spirituality, as well as their long-standing feud with the Trandoshans, who were allied with the Separatists. To battle the Trandoshans, the Wookiees would have burned a portion of the forest, an act that was very upsetting to them; Chieftain Tarfful would have asked the Wookiees’ tree gods for permission to do so. Yoda’s clone troopers, on the other hand, supported such tactics, leading to tensions between them and the Wookiees. The arc also featured the clone commandos of the Bad Batch, who were previously introduced in an unfinished story arc that was released as part of The Clone Wars Legacy. And of course, Chewbacca would have appeared in the episodes.
Watch a clip from the Wookiees arc, featuring the Bad Batch commandos and their Wookiee comrades riding monkey-type tree gods into battle against Kashyyyk’s native netcasters.
Skip to 18:25 to see it:
The Clone and the Astromech
If you aren’t already following Brent Friedman on Twitter (@BFree63), then follow him right now! Friedman wrote multiple episodes for The Clone Wars, and since then, he’s revealed a number of details from his story arcs that were never produced into full episodes.
Friedman wrote an arc that sent Captain Rex and R2-D2 on an important mission to an experimental Separatist base on a moon of Ryloth. Part of the story featured a brawl between rival clone servicemen from the Republic’s Army and Navy (the “Top Gun with Clones” sketch, above), which would have caused Rex to fly a starfighter with R2-D2 as his co-pilot. Talk about a wacky turn of events! Another plot point was inspired by Terminator 2, with Rex and R2-D2 hijacking a super battle droid and becoming attached to it over time.
Return to Mon Cala
Mon Cala, the homeworld of Rebel Admiral Ackbar and the Mon Calamari, would have been explored in another story arc, serving as a follow-up to the Battle of Mon Cala from season four. This story arc had some political elements, including an initiative to oust Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine from office. In addition, relations between the Mon Calamari and the Quarren would have become strained due to the murder of Nossor Ri.
Padmé Amidala and Anakin Skywalker would have returned to Mon Cala to speak with King Lee-Char and Senator Meena Tills, who explained that though they would not support Palpatine’s dismissal, the Quarren would. Skywalker and Amidala would have then met with Quarren leaders Tikkes and Tundra Dowmeia in an above-water Quarren city.
Some of these plot points might not have made it into the final episodes. However, based on what we do know, this arc would have provided some fascinating insight into the evolving state of affairs on Mon Cala, as well as Palpatine’s popularity in the Republic.
The Siege of Mandalore
Matt Michnovetz wrote the series finale of The Clone Wars, which Captain Rex alluded to in the Star Wars Rebels episode “The Lost Commanders“: a conflict called the siege of Mandalore. The story arc featured both Rex and Ahsoka Tano alongside Bo-Katan Kryze, the leader of the Mandalorian Resistance and sister of the late Duchess Satine Kryze; as well as the former Sith Lord Darth Maul. Filoni stated that the series’ final episodes also showed what characters like Rex and Ahsoka were doing during the events of Revenge of the Sith, so this story arc would have presumably answered that question.
Even beyond the six main arcs that I’ve covered here, there are many other untold stories from The Clone Wars. Those stories include one about an ancient Sith shrine beneath the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, and another about the Yuuzhan Vong, a species of extra-galactic invaders who had a huge role in the Expanded Universe.
Whether any of these stories will ever see the light of day is currently unknown. Fortunately for the show’s loyal fans, The Clone Wars Legacy has already released a good amount of those stories. In addition, Star Wars Rebels has explored many characters and concepts from The Clone Wars, and hopefully Rebels will continue to do so as it enters its third season. It simply goes to show that in Star Wars, no story stays untold forever.
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