A New Direction for Lucasfilm Animation news

The Star Wars universe is moving forward into a brave new era, and that means it’s time for a good old-fashioned brand scrub. Following the news that newly-Disneyfied Lucasfilm is delaying the 3D re-release of Episodes II and III, the company announced today that they are ending production of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, the Cartoon Network series that spent five seasons earning raves — raves that were all variations of “Well, at least it’s better than the last few movies.”Supervising Director Dave Filoni promises that the team is still working on additional Clone Wars story arcs, but it’s not immediately clear where or when those will appear. (The press release describes the story arcs as “bonus content,” which doesn’t inspire much confidence.) The end of Clone Wars indicates that Lucasfilm is closing the book on the whole prequel era, which is sad news for people who prefer Clone Troopers to Stormtroopers.As part of the purge, Lucasfilm has also postponed the release of Star Wars: Detours, the long-in-the-works animated spoof series created by the Robot Chicken team. Detours always seemed like a dicey proposition. In the 20 years since Clerks‘ “Death Star Plumbers” theory, joking about Star Wars has become an industry unto itself; it was never clear how much more gag material was left in the franchise. (Although somebody did just explain how the Battle of Hoth is an Iraq-war prophecy…) Although a trailer was released last summer, Detours never had an official release date. Lucasfilm says it’s “reconsidered whether launching an animated comedy prior to the launch of Episode VII makes sense,” although they claim they’re only postponing Detours until a later date.Although these announcements only refer to Lucasfilm animation projects, the news doesn’t bode well for fans who were excited about the live-action crime-themed TV show Star Wars: Underworld or the bleak-looking videogame Star Wars 1313. It feels like Lucasfilm is closing the book on all those projects, and on the whole post-2005 era of long-rumored, intriguing-sounding spin-offs. Goodbye, Deadwood in Space.

The article below is from Star Wars.com

As we enter into an exciting new era focused on the next Star Wars trilogy, Lucasfilm has decided to pursue a new direction in animated programming. We are exploring a whole new Star Wars series set in a time period previously untouched in Star Wars films or television programming. You can expect more details in the months to come. As part of this shift, we have also made some key decisions affecting Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Detours.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. While the studio is no longer producing new episodes for Cartoon Network, we're continuing production on new Clone Wars story arcs that promise to be some of the most thrilling adventures ever seen. Stay tuned for more information on where fans can soon find this bonus content. In the video below, Supervising Director Dave Filoni offers a peek of what is to come in Star Wars: The Clone Wars.At Star Wars Celebration VI last year, George Lucas gave fans a glimpse at the animated comedy series Star Wars Detours from Seth Green, Matthew Senreich, and Todd Grimes. 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. As a result, we've decided to postpone the release of Detours until a later date.We are incredibly proud of the teams at Lucasfilm Animation for creating some of the most amazing animation ever produced for TV. Keep checking StarWars.com for new developments on these and future projects.