Is ‘Star Wars: The Clone Wars’ Really Over? Why Some Fans Are Still Begging for Unfinished Episodes

The Star Wars franchise is one that has always inspired some truly passionate fan reactions, ever since the first film was released in 1977.

Over the years, with the advent of online fan communities and with even more shows and related materials being released on a regular basis, the dialogue surrounding Star Wars has only increased. One show that has been a fan-favorite from the start was the animated series The Clone Wars.

While Star Wars fans might rarely agree on many things, the community was united in its love for the series — and recently, a petition demanding more episodes has been making the rounds. 

When was ‘The Clone Wars’ released?

The Star Wars prequel trilogy was fraught with controversy from the stars, with critics and fans alike slamming the quality of the acting, directing, and plot. Still, there was one positive thing that came from the prequel trilogy, and that was the animated series The Clone Wars.

The series debuted with a feature film in 2008 and was followed by a television series only two months later. The series was set during the period of time depicted between the second and third prequel films, and each episode was only around twenty minutes in length.

Not only did fans immediately take to the series, but critics did, as well. Even people who had slammed the prequel trilogy found plenty to love in The Clone Wars, and many viewers praised the high-level story execution.

As the series went on, it focused on various plot points, from the rise of Ahsoka Tano to the progression of Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi’s relationship. Ultimately, the show was able to tackle much more complex plot points than any of the live-action prequel films. 

‘The Clone Wars’ was canceled in 2013

After five years of successful shows, showrunners announced in 2013 that The Clone Wars would be coming to an end. The series has remained hugely popular with fans, especially with the debut of the episodes on Netflix. Fans have made sure that the characters and story points introduced in The Clone Wars have lived on, primarily through fan fiction, books, and lots of discussion in various online forums. 

In July 2020, it was announced that a brand-new series set around the time of The Clone Wars was in production. Although this new series could very well feature some characters and situations from The Clone Wars, it is not an extension of the series — and for many fans, that isn’t good enough. 

Fans are petitioning for more episodes of ‘The Clone Wars’

As many fans have pointed out, The Clone Wars ended well before it was originally intended to. Upon inception, The Clone Wars was supposed to run for eight seasons, according to CBR, and it was cut short after the final seventh season.

As a result, many story arcs established in the series weren’t seen through to completion. Fans are still upset by this and have reiterated time and time again that there would be an audience for new episodes of the fan-favorite series. Although Disney did release some new episodes with the advent of Disney+, it was not a full season. 

Recently, a fan took to Change.org to create a petition that asks Disney to continue production on the remaining 40 episodes of The Clone Wars, in order to properly do justice to the rest of the story that George Lucas created.

Currently, there are well over one thousand signatures, and it looks like the petition will actually meet its goal. Whether it is enough to convince Disney to finish telling the story of The Clone Wars remains to be seen.