New Star Wars movie: The Clone Wars

12 May 2008

John Howell

Despite claiming that Revenge of the Sith would be the last big-screen production set in the Stars Wars universe, George Lucas will be releasing another big screen movie titled The Clone Wars in August this year. However, this one’s an animated movie. Does that count? The new movie will be followed immediately by a new animated TV series with the same name. According to the Star Wars website each episode will be a 30-minute "mini-movie", with Jedi Knights battling villains such as Count Dooku and General Grievous.

"I felt there were a lot more Star Wars stories left to tell," Lucas said in an official press release. "I was eager to start telling some of them through animation and, at the same time, push the art of animation forward."

Key characters such as Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker, Padme Amidala, Yoda, along with R2-D2 and C-3PO return in cartoon form to battle dark forces once more.

I’ve only just recovered from the disappointment of the last three Star Wars movies, especially the horrifyingly surreal Jar Jar Binks in The Phantom Menace (easily the worst title and character in movie history), so I’m not particularly keen to revisit the Star Wars universe. After watching the trailer for The Clone Wars though, I’ve got to say, for an animated movie, it does look impressive: Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi are drawn with style and flair. Jabba the Hutt never looked so good.

You can watch The Clone Wars trailer here on the Star Wars website.

There have been six movies in the Stars Wars franchise, starting with Star Wars in 1977 and ending with Episode III: Revenge of the Sith in 2005. The Clone Wars is set between Episode II: Attack of the Clones and Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.

George Lucas also continues to work on a live action TV series, which was supposed to be released in 2009. The recent Hollywood writers strike pushed the release back to 2010. It will tell the story of the Rebel Alliance being formed and its early battles with the the Empire.

I’m not sure whether we really need a new Star Wars movie or TV series, even in animated form, but it looks like there’ll be plenty of opportunities to spend time in the Star Wars universe for a long time to come - whether you like it or not.

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