UPDATE 2! Star Wars The Clone Wars: The Lost Missions Headed for German Blu-Rays. Cover Art Revealed.
While Star Wars fans that had Netflix accounts got bragging rights on how they got to see the episodes of The Clone Wars that were finished but never aired, many fans felt left out by the fact that the episodes never made it to to their television sets – with the exception of those lived in Germany, where these “Lost Missions” were actually shown (many times, ahead of Netflix’s update schedule). If Blu-Ray.com is to be believed, Germany is apparently getting another sweet deal – an opportunity to own physical copies of these episodes before anyone else, and it’s possible that an international release could follow.
Plenty of people know the sad story behind the abrupt ending to The Clone Wars, but it’s worth repeating – Disney buys Lucasfilm, Lucasfilm decides to go forward with new properties, and as a result, the show was cancelled in favor of producing new content to tie in with Episode VII. This was all done in spite of the fact that the show’s ratings were still good and a lot of work was already finished on three subsequent seasons, something that didn’t sit well with a number of fans (of course, that’s not to say that these stories will never be released in different formats, as the recently-finished Darth Maul: Son Of Dathomir and the forthcoming Asajj Ventress novel will attest to). Thankfully, Disney was at least kind enough to let Lucasfilm Animation place the finishing touches on the last few episodes that they completed to release them for Netflix users, even if these episodes would not be shown on either Cartoon Network or Disney XD.
But again, many people did not like the idea of joining a subscription service just to watch a few episodes of the series, and as such have demanded that there be an official release of the episodes that didn’t make it to the airwaves. Fret no more, cartoon fans – The Clone Wars is apparently getting a release in the near future for those with Blu-Rays. Granted, while it’s only been announced for Germany so far, an international release would only be logical, especially considering that the episodes on all five (yes, five) discs all feature English-language audio, along with audio in French, German, and Spanish. All of the aforementioned languages are also subtitled, and Japanese subtitles are included, too. More tech specifics can be found on the Blu-Ray site or Making Star Wars.
As someone who watched the entirety of the series on Netflix, I can say that the price for admission to seeing the last few episodes is more than worth it for any fan of the series. Two of the arcs in particular stand out – the opening arc, which deals with the conspiracy behind Order 66 well before the Great Jedi Purge begins, which adds a good deal of depth to the Clone Troopers like many of the episodes in the series; and the closing arc, which features Yoda’s quest to get a better understanding of the Force, leading to some excellent connective tissue not only to Revenge Of The Sith, but to the Original Trilogy as well (plus the added bonus of having awesome cameos from Liam Neeson as Qui-Gon Jinn’s spirit and from Mark Hamill as the specter of Darth Bane). Sandwiched in between these two 4-episode arcs are a trilogy of episodes about Anakin and Padmé running into an old friend of hers, with political themes and a romantic subplot that ultimately ends up being more entertaining than one would think it would be, and a duology of episodes that involve the extremely unlikely pair of Mace Windu and Jar Jar Binks saving the day from a cult (yes, I did seriously just type down those words and that’s actually the synopsis of those episodes).
So, a big question that comes out of all of this is “Does that mean there’s going to be a complete box set of all six seasons of The Clone Wars?” Of that, I’m not certain, but it is within the realm of possibility. Right now, it’s most likely that Disney would focus on media relating to Star Wars Rebels, but I could see it happening after a while – not necessarily immediately after it hits the Blu-Ray aisles, but maybe in time for the Holidays or closer to the release of Episode VII. Whether a comprehensive six-season box set is made or not, it’s good to know that physical copies of these segments will finally exist.
UPDATE!
Only not quite.
Echo-07 requested that I add a little bit of information that related to the show, but not the Blu-Ray release. After Disney purchased LFL from George Lucas StarWars.com, the official site, offered a questionnaire to randomly selected visitors to the site. Echo-07 happened to be one of those chosen. He said the questionnaire was about the Disney purchase and included all kinds of questions related to fandom, however it especially focused on The Clone Wars animated series, specifically, “Do you watch The Clone Wars?” “Do you want to see more The Clone Wars?” and “Do you collect The Clone Wars merchandise?” I can vouch for this, given that I took said survey – but Echo-07 began to wonder if the survey had anything to do with the recent plan to release an Asajj Ventress novel next year, along with an possible near-future Blu-Ray release for the last leg of the show. Do you guys agree that this questionnaire might have had a hand in Disney’s possible interest in reviving The Clone Wars in some way? Let us know below.
UPDATE 2!
Our friends at starwars-union.de found out that the cover art for the Season 6 DVD/Blu-ray has just been uploaded on Amazon.de. (see the title picture)
Germany is the first country in which the sixth season of the series was announced on DVD and Blu–ray. The release date is November 20, 2014.
Grant has been a fan of Star Wars for as long as he can remember, having seen every movie on the big screen. When he’s not hard at work with his college studies, he keeps himself busy by reporting on all kinds of Star Wars news for SWNN and general movie news on the sister site, Movie News Net. He served as a frequent commentator on SWNN’s The Resistance Broadcast.
I just want more seasons ;-;. After reading the Darth Maul comics, I was thinking how amazing it would be if was an animated arc in TCW. And the Ventress and Quinlan Vos story too, f*** you Disney!
I think they’re throwing quite a bit of money away by not developing those and other unfinished story lines into direct to DVD movies.
I was really impressed with season 5 and 6 of TCW. I am going to keep my expectations low for Rebels. I have a feeling Rebels will take a couple of seasons before it gets interesting.
It’s a damn shame. You’d think Rebels would be much better off given the fact that Filoni and others at Lucasfilm had done six seasons of TCW.
Where did all that experience go?
How much of Rebels have you seen to come to that conclusion?
Oh, that’s right….
I’ve seen more than enough to get a first impression. Otherwise, why bother with these clips?
We’ve seen trailers, clips, character profiles, shorts, and entire sequences.
Rebels is already interesting to me.
Same. Granted, not quite as interesting as I’d hoped, but there’s stuff I’m looking forward to.
Positive comment.
2meta4me.
I’m just waiting for the eventual boxset of every episode. I’m all done dicking around with seasons. Same with Rebels. When that’s done and finished, I’ll buy the boxset.
Yeah. I hope in a box set with all the episodes in chronological order
FIVE discs?
Probably Filoni did the best he could to finish the series, and being Yoda’s arc its ending makes it awesome. Anyway, one feels sad when reading the Darth Maul comics with great plot but not very good drawing. Long life to The Clone Wars!
What the article failed to say though was that subscribing to Netflix if you live in England won’t do you any favours, as it ain’t on there either. As far as us Brits are concerned, Lucasfilm should of called em’ The Phantom Missions… The Scarlet Pimpernel was less elusive.
Hey guys some episode VII “”””news””” here: https://www.facebook.com/OfficialOscarIsaacPage?fref=nf
Lol! Oscar Isaac did a great Ice Bucket Challenge. Love Harrison Ford’s leg going out the blanket. Is him for real? I don’t know, but the dog is Carrie Fisher’s 😀 GREAT.
No, it is not her dog. Use Google to compare.
Oh ok, maybe not! in any case I found the video great.
Honestly its hard for me to read anything based off of the clone wars season 7 8 and 9 scripts because its such a hollow comparison to how awesome it could have been. i was cringing when i started darth maul son of dathomir because it was so good and would have been one of the best episodes ever
this is a non issue- they will be on blu-ray- Disney wants the money-
No DVD?
I’m sure there will be a DVD release for this. We just don’t know about it.
The Clone Wars was a fabricated war by Palpatine who ran both sides. I could never figure out why we give a rats ass about the characters in this era.
Hmm…let me try to count the reasons…
No Palpatine machinations would’ve meant no Trade Fed. invasion of Naboo. No invasion of Naboo would’ve meant no Anakin mission to protect Padmé. No Anakin mission to protect Padmé would’ve meant no Luke and Leia.
As if that weren’t enough, no Clone Wars would’ve meant no Jedi Purge. No Jedi Purge would’ve meant no rise of the Empire. No rise of the Empire would’ve meant no Original Trilogy. No OT would’ve meant NO Star Wars.
’nuff zed.
Disney is sure good at keeping OT fans happy and disappointing us Clone Wars fans. They can’t even give us a complete DVD of that show.
Now you know how OT fans have felt for the last 20 years.
I’m sure a DVD release is coinciding with this, but they just haven’t announced it yet. Technically speaking, there hasn’t even been an announcement from Disney regarding this Blu-Ray release.
I wait to get an copy.
the yoda arc is so cool
Disney would never revive TCW. They clearly want to distance themselves from anything related to the prequel era.
It would be cool if they did though. I think TCW got really interesting towards the end of it’s run.
I don’t know why everyone thinks this.
What? Because they’re talking about practical effects and real locations? Meh. Whatever.
Because Rebels is set closer to ANH? What did you want them to do? Create a new show that shows Anakin as a young Padawan before AOTC? Yeah, that would go over well.
Because the ST is going to be more related to the OT than the PT? I hope you see how that would make sense (though there are rumors about a descendent of Dooku and the possibility of Plaguies showing up),
This also assumes that Disney feels like some of the people here that the PT is awful and useless and nobody likes it. Um…okay…sure…if that’s what you think.
Disney isn’t avoiding the PT, it’s promoting the ST and things that go along with it.
I wish they will bring out season 6 in dutch, the Netherlands has quitted immediately after 5, its only very unlikely D:. I only wish they have created 1 last episode for the clone wars (more of course but this one really gives a end to the serie). The episode were Palpatine gets kidnapped, the one right before episode 3.
That was already covered by the book “Labyrinth of Evil” and the last episodes of the first “Clone Wars” cartoon. Yes, I know these stories are now Legends, but what’s the use of decanonizing them and then re-telling the same story once again?
If you look hard enough you will find it free on the internet. Its a good way to loose money and alienate fans. go disney
That’s called digital piracy.