The Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series is the Star Wars adventure George Lucas sought to create from the very beginning. Though Star Wars is thought to be a primarily film-based franchise, it took an animated and televised turn in 2008 when Star Wars: The Clone Wars began on Cartoon Network.
The series helped to flesh out some minor and major characters from the prequels. In doing so, it began to fall in line with Lucas’ original vision for the series over four decades prior, even better than the films themselves could. Little did anyone realize, he was finally able to tell a space serial inspired by those he enjoyed during his youth, even if he couldn’t take it as far as he wanted to.
It is well documented that when conceiving the original Star Wars story, George Lucas took heavy inspiration from the science fiction properties that had previously graced screens big and small. Names like Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers come to mind, as they provided the basis for many of his ideas. The serialized, episodic adventures of the titular heroes are what Lucas hoped to emulate in some fashion. Though he wanted to take such ideas in a new direction for a new generation, their influence was clear throughout his early drafts of the film. He wanted to bring audiences on whimsical journeys that they could emotionally invest in, draped in captivating visuals with just a hint of political intrigue to give the narratives some scaffolding.
This initial vision was realized fully in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, where George could finally create bite-sized Star Wars stories that not only explored far more of the universe, but were also far less restricted in what could be shown visually. With the series being animated, there could be bigger space battles, more complex lightsaber duels, and worlds never before seen. The sky was the limit, and in that way, the show captured what Lucas was looking for during his preliminary work on Star Wars more accurately than the films ever could have. The serial format that inspired him from the beginning was finally on the table, able to be implemented effectively from a creative standpoint. He was able to expand upon tried and true genre tropes and concepts with technology that simply wasn’t there before.
With the return of the series coming next month, it is clear that this format worked and gained quite a following over its lengthy initial run. Though it varies in many ways from the original trilogy, as well as the prequels, both tonally and stylistically, Star Wars: The Clone Wars has become a very important piece of the Star Wars canon that was created for fans of all ages. Not to mention the series was the last thing produced with George Lucas’ fingerprints on it following Disney’s acquisition of the Star Wars franchise. In a bittersweet way, it is fitting that in the end, Lucas got to tell the stories he wanted to tell, in the format he wanted to tell them, before it was no longer his call to make.
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