Despite “Star Wars Rebels” having finished over two weeks ago, no new animated series has been announced to replace it as of yet. The possibilities of where the next series could go are nearly endless as the hundreds of Star Wars comics and books have shown. To help narrow down on the infinite, I’ve come up with three ideas I’d like to see the Star Wars animated team tackle next.
Finish ‘Star Wars: The Clone Wars’
Despite how many excited fans would be to see “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” finished properly, it's the least likely of any of my ideas to happen.
Disney was the one after all who decided to cancel the show after buying Star Wars from George Lucas but hear me out. In case you didn’t know, “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” was an anthology series that took place between “Attack of the Clones” and “Revenge of the Sith” during the titular Clone Wars.
“Star Wars Rebels” who was created by much of the same team as “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” even managed to wrap up a few storylines that were left hanging after the cancellation and was seen by many as a spiritual successor. Regardless of this, "The Clone Wars" team had already finished writing at least another two whole seasons and a half before "The Clone Wars" ceased production. While some of these episodes did eventually manage to see the light of day through partially animated story reels, comics, and a book, there are still so many stories left untold.
One of the stories that I’m most disappointed we didn’t get was an arc that featured Cad Bane mentoring Boba Fett which ended with the two dueling presumably to the death. We eventually did get to see the final duel in another partially animated clip, but I think most fans would want to see the whole thing fully animated. You can see the duel in the video below by jumping to timestamp 47:19.
Continue where ‘Rebels’ left off
This seems like the most obvious choice as “Rebels” did end with some major threads still hanging, such as the fates of Thrawn and Ezra. This could also be the perfect way of bridging the gap between the Original Trilogy and “The Force Awakens.” We wouldn’t even need to necessarily follow any of the characters from “Rebels” as the show could go back to its anthology roots of “The Clone Wars.”
We could see Luke training the first of a new generation of Jedi, the formation of the first order or even give some much-needed background on who Supreme Leader Snoke is.
Considering “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” managed to tell so many stories during only the span of the three years of The Clone Wars, imagine what they could do during the thirty years in-between “Return of the Jedi” and the “The Force Awakens.”
The Old Republic
People have been clamoring for a movie based on The Old Republic ever since Disney first bought Star Wars. I think The Old Republic, much like the Clone Wars, is too big of a story to be told in just one movie or even a trilogy. The Old Republic comes from a series of video games made by Bioware set thousands of years before the “The Phantom Menace.”
The games include two single-player roleplaying games “Knights of the Old Republic” or “KOTOR” as it’s usually abbreviated, “Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords,” and the massively multiplayer online role-playing game “Star Wars: The Old Republic” or it’s usually abbreviated “SWTOR.”
To be specific though, I would want the series to take place during either The Mandalorian Wars mentioned in “KOTOR” or during the Cold War that “SWTOR” takes place.
I would also want the series to specifically leave Revan out other than for a few references here and there. My reasoning behind this is that “KOTOR” allows you to make and play Revan however you want.
He could be male or female, good or evil and no matter what you chose it could still have been true by the time of the Star Wars’ movies. Even though Bioware eventually did confirm Revan to be male in the old pre-Disney canon, now that the slate has been cleared, it’s the perfect time to have Revan’s character be back in the hands of fans. Who would the new show follow then, if not Revan? Like “Rebels,” the show could come up with a brand new core cast or characters or even follow a variety of different recurring characters.
The Old Republic show could be one of the first Star Wars shows or movies to focus on entirely new characters. Just think of how refreshing it would be to have all new characters who aren’t bound by any previously established material.
Either way, it may be some time before we hear what Dave Filoni and the Lucasfilm Animation team have cooking, but until then there’s still plenty of Star Wars to be had.
“Solo: A Star Wars Story” is fast approaching and is expected to release on May 25. You can watch the teaser trailer for it here. Besides that, if you haven’t already, check out our article on the "Star Wars Rebels” series finale here. Until the next Star Wars related news, may the force be with you all!
