The Star Wars franchise has seen a major boost since Lucasfilm was acquired by Disney. New movies are now coming out on a yearly basis, books and comics are released almost every week, and Star Wars Rebels is growing in popularity with fans. Some people are still disappointed that the old Expanded Universe is now denoted as “Legends” material and excluded from canon (although a lot is being re-introduced), but most fans would agree that Star Wars is as popular as it ever has been - if not more.
The Expanded Universe wasn’t the only casualty of the Disney acquisition, though. The Clone Wars animated series had just finished its 5th season on Cartoon Network, and the show was cancelled before a 6th season could be completed - even though a significant amount of work had already gone into developing season 6 and season 7. Some of the finished episodes were compiled into a partial season 6 and released on Netflix, but production work had already been conducted on around 30 additional episodes that have yet to be completed and released. Only a handful have been released either in their incomplete states or as comics or books.
Pablo Hidalgo of the Lucasfilm Story Group has clarified where they fall in Star Wars canon, saying "Even though those Clone Wars episodes did not get publicly revealed, we still look at their core stories as having happened." Obviously these stories have an important place in Star Wars lore if they're still affecting ongoing releases. It only makes sense for fans to get the opportunity to enjoy them.
Not all the details of these missing episodes are known, but Pablo Hidalgo and showrunner Dave Filoni have spoken about planned episodes and shown enough concept art to give us a good idea of what we missed. Looking at some of the story and art from these planned episodes, it’s clear that there are 15 Unproduced Clone Wars Stories We Still Need to See.
15. Crystal Crisis on Utapau
The Clone Wars brought a lot to official Star Wars canon when it addressed lightsaber construction, something previously mentioned only in Legends material. The Gathering was a sacred Jedi ritual in which younglings would go to the planet Ilum to retrieve kyber crystals, the main component of their first lightsaber. Kyber crystals didn’t play a big role in the rest of The Clone Wars, but creators George Lucas and Dave Filoni had more plans for stories about the crystals that never made it to The Clone Wars prior to cancellation.
Originally set as the opening arc of season 6 prior to the season getting condensed for its Netflix release, the Crystal Crisis on Utapau would see Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi attempting to disrupt General Grevous’s efforts to acquire a giant kyber crystal - a crystal that would later be key in constructing the Death Star’s superlaser.
The Crystal Crisis arc would be an excellent story to complete and release, because the kyber crystal plot is tied through to Star Wars Rebels, and Rogue One is obviously relevant with the construction of the Death Star. The voice work for this episode was already recorded, and animation was also partially completed, so it can be found in its incomplete form on StarWars.com, but it would be great to see the textures, lighting, and other animation work completed for a Netflix release.
14. Son of Dathomir
Son of Dathomir is a continuation of Maul’s arc that was left off at the end of season 5 of The Clone Wars with his capture by Darth Sidious. The arc was turned into a comic book and released by Dark Horse as the very first addition to Star Wars canon after Disney acquired Lucasfilm. The story may have already been told via the comic, but the action and drama presented would look great on screen, as Maul always does.
In Son of Dathomir, Maul is freed from Sidious’s prison by forces from his Shadow Collective - an alliance of Black Sun, Death Watch, the Pyke Syndicate, the Hutts, and the Zabrak Nightbrothers from Dathomir. Rallying his forces, Maul takes the fight to Darth Sidious by capturing his apprentice, Count Dooku - who had replaced Maul after his apparent death.
With Darth Maul back again in Rebels, there’s a good chunk of his backstory still missing, especially considering his cliffhanger ending in The Clone Wars. While Son of Dathomir doesn’t tie everything up in a nice little bow, it does propel his story forward, further cementing his hatred of the Sith expressed in Rebels.
13. Bad Batch
Toward the end of the Clone Wars, Jango Fett’s original DNA sample had begun to deteriorate, and the cloning facilities on Kamino were unable to get a fresh sample due to his death at the hands of Mace Windu. This deterioration was resulting in lower quality clones, and more frequent mutations. While some malformed clones, such as Clone 99, were kept around for non-combat operations, a few clones experienced positive mutations. A squad of these mutated clones went by the name Clone Force 99 (in honor of Clone 99), or “Bad Batch,” and served as one of the Republic’s most elite fighting forces.
Lead by Sergeant Hunter, the team was comprised of Wrecker, an oversized clone with increased strength; Crossair, a marksman with abnormally high weapons accuracy; and Tech, the teams engineer, technician, hacker, communications officer, and scientific genius.
When the humanoid arachnid Admiral Trench attacks the planet Anaxes, the heart of the Republic’s fleet construction, the Bad Batch is called in by Captain Rex to stop him. Rex identifies Trench’s tactics as an algorithm the clone captain had developed himself, an algorithm only known by 2 other clones - Echo and Fives - both of whom are thought to be dead.
The team follows a lead to the “neutral” planet of Skako Minor, where they find the clone Echo - heavily modified by prosthetics and implants - in a Techno Union base where his brain is being scoured and manipulated for the Separatist war machine. Rescuing Echo, Anakin, Rex, and the Bad Batch return to Anaxes, where they are able to destroy Admiral Trench’s ship, killing the Admiral and saving the republic shipyards.
Originally intended to kick off season 7 of The Clone Wars, Bad Batch is another arc that has been released on StarWars.com in its incomplete form.
12. Dark Disciple
In addition to Son of Dathomir, Dark Disciple is another Clone Wars arc that made the transfer to paper - in the form of a novel - after the series was cancelled. This series of episodes was actually written by George Lucas’s daughter, Katie Lucas, and provided a much needed resolution for Asajj Ventresss.
When the Jedi Council decides to go against their principles and assassinate Count Dooku in an effort to bring a swift end to the war, Quinlan Vos is tasked to track down Asajj Ventress to convince her to aid in the Jedi’s effort to kill the Sith Apprentice. Ventress convinces Vos that the only way to complete this mission is for him to learn to use the dark side of the Force in the tradition of the Nightsisters, avoiding giving into the dark side fully like the Sith. The two fall in love, and Vos ends up getting captured by Dooku. Thinking he has an opportunity to not only kill Dooku, but to also learn the identity of - and possibly kill - Darth Sidious, Quinlan succumbs to the pull of the dark side fully. In the end, it takes a redeeming sacrifice from Asajj Ventress to bring him back to the light.
In addition to providing a lot of dark storytelling and great action - including a subplot involving Boba Fett and other bounty hunters - Dark Disciple takes a deep dive into some of the more nuanced aspects of the Force only hinted at in previous Star Wars content. There’s a lot of people that learn the various ways of the Force in Star Wars canon, but it’s rare to see the actual journey play out, with most stories simply skipping ahead to the end of training.
11. Ahsoka's Walkabout
When she was originally introduced in The Clone Wars, Ahsoka Tano had a major uphill battle with many longtime fans. The series as a whole was unproven, George Lucas had lost credibility with some fans after the prequels, Dave Filoni was a fresh face in the franchise, and there were a lot of continuity concerns, considering none of the movies ever mentioned Anakin Skywalker having an apprentice. Nevertheless, it wasn’t long before the Togruta padawan became a fan favorite.
The writing was on the wall from her very first appearance: there’s no way the apprentice of the man that becomes Darth Vader lasts very long, especially considering the fact that we already know she’s (likely) not around at the time of the original trilogy. The question wasn’t over whether she would live, but merely when she would die. Her arc took a drastic twist at the end of season 5, when she’s expelled from the Jedi Order, only to turn down an offer to accept her back when the Jedi realize their mistake. She had lost her faith in the Jedi, and her treatment by the Jedi Council further eroded Skywalker’s own trust in the Order.
The show was cancelled, and the heavily abridged season 6 released to Netflix only barely featured her during a vision experienced by Yoda. Ahsoka’s fate was left ambiguous for years before her surprise inclusion in the finale of season 1 of Star Wars Rebels.
It turns out Ahsoka was supposed to be a major player in season 6 of The Clone Wars, with her story picking up immediately after her exile as she tres to find her place outside the Jedi Order. This arc would have her meeting a young scoundrel name Nyx Okami, who would introduce her to some of Coruscant’s seedier characters in city’s lower levels of 1313.
10. Return to the Jedi
Ahsoka may not be a member of the Jedi Order at this point, but it appears her dealings with the Jedi are far from over. After her walkabout and time spent in Coruscant’s level 1313, the Jedi recruit Ahsoka for her familiarity with the lower levels, asking her to work closely with Anakin and Obi-Wan to explore the origins of a new threat to the in the depths below the Jedi Temple. Taking the two Jedi down to the base level below the temple, they discover an ancient Sith shrine - the source of much of the dark side energy clouding the vision of the Jedi Order.
While in the Sith temple, Ahsoka has a brief encounter and duel with a hooded figure - revealed later to be Darth Sidious - who flees and uses Force lighting to electrocute her when she tries to cut through a sealed door to follow him. This would obviously be a major addition to Ahsoka’s story, as it shows that her relationship to the Jedi was far more nuanced than previously shown. It also makes her the only person other than Darth Maul or Yoda known to have faced off against the Sith Lord and lived to tell the tale - at least until he’s defeated by Luke and Anakin Skywalker.
9. Bounty Hunter Arc
Originally intended for inclusion in season 5, the bounty hunter arc was another series of episodes to bring together the bounty hunter alliance of Boba Fett, Cad Bane, Dengar, Aurra Sing, Bossk, Embo, and others in a continuation of their team up from season 4. It sounds like aspects of this arc may have been adapted for the Dark Disciple novel, but bounty hunters have always been one of the most popular parts of Star Wars lore, and there’s near endless opportunity for self contained bounty hunter stories.
Considering so many of the characters included in this story are seen aboard the bridge of the Executor in The Empire Strikes Back when Darth Vader tasks them to find the Millennium Falcon, it seems like there are a lot of stories to tell about the relationships these characters share, including whether or not the characters that don't make an appearance during the original trilogy - such as Aurra Sing and Cad Bane - even survive through the events of The Clone Wars.
8. Cad Bane and Boba Fett
As a continuation of a relationship that would have been developed in the bounty hunters arc, Cad Bane and Boba Fett also had a team up story where the gruff veteran bounty hunter takes the young Boba under his wing. This mentorship is likely instrumental in molding Boba into the bounty hunter that Darth Vader himself urges to use restraint - “no disintegrations" - during the bounty hunter scene in Empire Strikes Back.
Despite the inclusion of a young Boba Fett in Attack of the Clones and a few episodes focused on him in previous seasons, the majority of Boba Fett’s origins (specifically events that make him into the Fett fans are obsessed with) have been left untold. Presumably this story would go a long way in correcting that.
This arc included a story where Bane and Fett face off against the Sand People on Tattooine, where Boba Fett would allow himself to be captured so they can learn more about the tribe. This would illuminate not just more about Boba Fett and Cad Bane, but also show us more about the Tusken Raiders and their culture. The story would even feature a Tusken Shaman.
7. Top Gun With Clones
One of the biggest things The Clone Wars brought to Star Wars canon was the clones themselves. Obviously the clones were a significant part of Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, but those stories were focused on the Jedi and Anakin Skywalker’s descent, so the clones didn’t have much opportunity to appear any more human than the battle droids they fought.
As another of many great clone-centric stories, Dave Filoni described it as “Top Gun with clones,” but the episode description suggests there was more '80s movie homage going on than just Top Gun. The story would have shown Captain Rex teaming up with R2-D2 on a mission in which they capture and re-purpose a B2 super battle droid, apparently inducing an abundance of nods toward Terminator 2.
Anyone familiar with Filoni’s adept adaptation of classic '80s/'90s movies should be salivating at the idea of him tackling both Top Gun and T2. With Rex showing up in Star Wars Rebels, it’s become clear that there are a lot more Rex stories from the clone wars era that have yet to be told, so in addition to being thoroughly entertaining this sounds like a story that would flesh out even more necessary backstory to some events that take Captain Rex to where the Ghost crew finds him in Rebels.
6. Wookies vs Trandoshans
It is a truth universally acknowledged by Star Wars fans that the Wookiees and the Trandoshans are sworn enemies, but there wasn’t much outside of some Star Wars: Legends material to substantiate that. In fact, Bossk was the only trandoshan to appear in Star Wars canon prior to an arc in The Clone Wars depicting Ahsoka getting kidnapped and hunted (along with Chewbacca) by the giant humanoid lizards, and Chewbacca was the only Wookiee to make an appearance - aside from a quick glimpse of some Wookiee Senators in The Phantom Menace - until Revenge of the Sith when we see the Wookiees fighting off a Separatist assault.
It turns out, the Wookiees were defending Kashyyyk from the Separatists - who were working with Trandoshans - for a significant portion of the end of the Clone Wars, and the battle depicted in Revenge of the Sith was just the final assault.
A Clone Wars arc in the 6th or 7th season was intended to catalog additional conflict on Kashyyyk leading up to that battle - including lots of Wookiee vs Trandoshan action and the return of the Clone Force 99. This would have been a significant element in the resolution of The Clone Wars, as it would be a major component of finally setting up the last remaining pieces connecting the series to the events of Revenge of the Sith.
5. Yoda and the Wookiees
In Revenge of the Sith, Yoda is present at the battle of Kashyyyk, telling the Jedi Council he would go there because he was good friends with the Wookiees. Yoda is around 900 years old at the time, so it’s easy to imagine he had formed a bond with the much taller much hairier creatures during the centuries prior to the movie. While that could still be entirely true, we were supposed to learn in The Clone Wars that the little green Jedi Master had actually interacted with the Wookiees - including a very particular walking carpet - much more recently.
Very little about this particular Clone Wars arc is actually known, but concept art revealing Yoda and Chewbacca with clone troopers with Yoda painted on their helmet has been revealed at several Clone Wars panels since the show’s cancellation, suggesting we’d get to see Yoda develop this relationship with Chewie and the Wookies prior to joining them once again for the end of the war.
4. Depa Billaba
One of the most significant characters to be introduced to Star Wars canon since the Disney acquisition is Kanan Jarrus - one of the few non-movie characters to have his story told through 3 different forms of media: the novel, A New Dawn; comic Kanan; and television show, Star Wars Rebels. Initially, much of his story appeared to be brand new, with very few pre-existing connections to past material. But it turns out it wasn’t all new - some of his backstory was planned for The Clone Wars.
Before he went into hiding under his new name, Kanan Jarrus, he was Caleb Dume, padawan learner to Jedi Master Depa Billaba. Depa made a few blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearances in the prequel trilogy, but she was never really established as a character until the Kanan comic told a few stories about her and her padawan before her death during Order 66. That wasn’t always going to be her first major appearance, though. It turns out that Depa Billaba was set to show up in the later seasons of The Clone Wars before it got cancelled.
Whether or not plans for Depa went beyond simply having her involved in one of the stories already reference, or revolved around her crushing defeat on Haruun Kal at the hands of General Grevous as described in the Kanan comics, or if it would actually cover her brief time spent with Caleb Dume before Order 66 - or all of the above - isn’t clear, but it has been specified that she was set to appear in The Clone Wars. An arc featuring any of her backstory would be one more great way to continue to bridge the gap between the eras of the Star Wars saga.
3. Barriss Offee
A lot has been made of where The Clone Wars ended in regards to Ahsoka Tano’s story, but much less focus has been turned toward the person that actually committed the crime for which Ahsoka was framed - Barriss Offee. The last we saw of Luminara Unduli’s former padawan, she was being hauled off to prison after denouncing the Jedi Order for losing their way, accusing them of being manipulated by the dark side to perpetuate the violence of the clone wars - a claim that just so happened to be true.
There hasn’t yet been any continuation of Barriss’s story. Many assumed she was killed as a part of Order 66, and some people suspected she ended up becoming an Inquisitor - even though that would be inconsistent with her final manifesto. Whatever her fate was, Dave Filoni had plans for her, and it would be great to see her story wrapped up.
Whether she is redeemed and accepted back into the order like Quinlan Vos, ends up joining the Empire like the Grand Inquisitor (who was a former temple guard and was actually present at her trial), or possibly even survived to play a part in future events, there’s still a lot of story to tell. Barriss’s foresight of the Jedi Order’s failings provides a perspective that hasn’t received much explicit examination in other media, and is definitely a story that should be completed.
2. The Siege of Mandalore
The plan for The Clone Wars was always to fill in the blanks between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. The culmination of that effort appears to be the The Siege of Mandalore in season 7.
The Siege of Mandalore would have seen Ahsoka teaming up with Obi-Wan and Anakin to respond to a call from Bo-Katann Kryze alerting the Jedi of Maul’s return to Mandalore with the remains of his Shadow Collective. As the Jedi and Ahsoka prepare to commence an invasion, General Grievous mounts a surprise attack on Coruscant, capturing Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, and forcing Anakin and Obi-Wan to race back to mount the rescue operation we see in the opening scene of Revenge of the Sith. What we don’t see in Revenge of the Sith is that Anakin leaves Captain Rex and the 501st Clone Battalion in the command of Ahsoka to complete the mission. The Clones even paint their armor to represent Ahsoka's facial markings.
This battle would have been as close to the pinnacle of Star Wars stories as it can get, including clones with jet packs going up against the Mandalorian Death Watch, and a duel between Ahsoka and Darth Maul.
The Siege of Mandalore is referenced by Rex in Star Wars Rebels, and it sounds like it would resolve much of the arcs for Ahsoka, Maul, and Rex, explaining where they all are during the events of Revenge of the Sith, and leaving Mandalore in what Dave Filoni called “a certain state,” implying Mandalore’s neutral status might not have continued past the end of the clone wars.
Of all the unfinished stories, The Siege of Mandalore is the most enticing opportunity for a Netflix miniseries, or even an animated film. It serves as the capstone of much of the loose threads of The Clone Wars, provides additional connective tissue back into the rest of the saga, and fills in some significant blanks for several characters.
1. Aftermath of Order 66
The Siege of Mandalore might serve as the final missing puzzle piece in the timeline, but Dave Filoni has said that some of the stories at the end of The Clone Wars would explain what happened to characters like Ahsoka, Rex, Wolffe, and Gregor (and maybe others) during the events of Order 66, meaning some of the unfinished episodes could happen concurrently to Revenge of the Sith, and possibly even push on beyond that.
The Siege of Mandalore may be the crescendo much of the series was working toward, but with all the development of Ahsoka and the various clones throughout the 5 seasons of the show (or 7 seasons if it had made it this far), this would have been the emotional exclamation point at the end of the series, pitting the former padawan against her close friends, and possibly even having Rex and other clones face off against their "brothers."
There’s a possibility that some of this will be covered in the upcoming Ahsoka novel, but any fan would jump at the opportunity to see this story told the way it began: animation with the voices of Ashley Eckstein and Dee Bradley Baker.
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While none of these arcs were brought to 100 percent completion, a significant amount of work has already been put into them, so it would only make sense for these stories to be brought to life eventually. Are there any you’d like to see animated and released? Let us hear about it in the comments!
Star Wars Rebels season 3 premieres on Disney XD on September 24th, 2016, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story opens in U.S. theaters on December 16, 2016, followed by Star Wars: Episode VIII on December 15, 2017, the Han Solo Star Wars Anthology film on May 25, 2018, Star Wars: Episode IX in 2019, and the third Star Wars Anthology film in 2020.
