Star Wars: The Clone Wars sequel series in the works without Dave Filoni?

Big Star Wars rumour tonight, gang…

The guys from The Kessel Run Podcast are claiming on Twitter (below) that a Star Wars: The Clone Wars sequel series is in production at Lucasfilm/Disney and it looks like it will feature stars of Clone Wars’ final season, The Bad Batch along with clone trooper Echo.

While the guys admit they have little idea what the series will be about, they are hedging their bets that it’ll focus on The Bad Batch – a gang of defective clones who get the jobs done that most regular clones can’t handle – but they also speculate that it may actually focus on Ahsoka Tano and Captain Rex who we know will both also pop up in season 2 of The Mandalorian and, let’s not forget too that there’s big gap between the last time we saw that duo together in Clone Wars and when they meet up again in Rebels.

And, just because I love it so much, let’s also not forget that we now know that Rex was in Return of the Jedi (here).

Here’s the tweets we’ve been discussing:

To clarify our scoop from earlier:

There is a Clone Wars sequel series in early development.

We are not sure but it would make sense if it follows Rex and Ahsoka after the events of Season 7.

We need to see how these three got together… pic.twitter.com/cSxBgsXE56

— Kessel Run Transmissions (@KRTransmissions) June 14, 2020

And then:

If you love Echo, you’ll love The Clone Wars spin off series. pic.twitter.com/ojTVwJM6um

— Corey Van Dyke (@Corey_WolfPack) June 17, 2020

Building on this:

We can 100% say that the next Star Wars animated series features The Bad Batch as the main leads. It’ll take place after “The Siege of Mandalore” and Hunter, Crosshair, Tech, Wrecker, and Echo will all be back. pic.twitter.com/0GLRZA51HI

— Noah Outlaw (@OutlawNoah) June 18, 2020

Now, interestingly, Clone Wars and Rebels showrunner (he also works on The Mandalorian, so he knows his Star Wars) Dave Filoni has been quite clear that the Clone Wars story is over (here), saying: “I don’t know. Personally for me, probably not.

“I have a lot of things I’m excited that we’re doing looking forward. I think it’s hard because I so appreciate the fan support, and I appreciate just how excited everybody was that we were back. I understand them wanting more and more episodes.

“The people that worked on it – myself and the team, basically all the leads—they were on the original run and I think it shows. We’re really thankful we got to finish it. But I also think creatively, you always want to move forward. I think you could get stuck in a situation where suddenly we’re doing all these stories again, but where is the ending? I don’t want that feeling. I want you to feel like this had a purpose and it rounded out and let’s find something new that’s exciting. We’ve got to look forward a bit here, but boy that was really satisfying to get to do.

“I can’t even tell you how grateful we all are that people were there for it to watch and support it. Disney+ supported us greatly to get this done. It was a great effort by everybody that understood what Clone Wars meant to people. It feels good. I’m glad it’s done.”

Now, there’s a couple of things here that could still mean the new series is going ahead, despite Filoni seeming to shoot it down.

Firstly, he says ‘Personally for me, probably not,’ which could mean that he may not be involved, but there could be more to come… and of course, there’s that word ‘probably’.

But also, let’s not forget that, just because it features characters from Clone Wars, doesn’t mean it’s a Clone Wars sequel, right?

Personally, I’d not rule this all out as The Bad Batch were a big hit with fans and the final season of Clone Wars was a real – real! – crowd-pleaser and was a success on all fronts.

Whatever happens, there’s plenty of new Star Wars to come.

Thoughts?