The Clone Wars Season 3 Finale Lucasfilm Screening Report
Posted by Eric on March 26, 2011 at 04:21 PM CST
Faithful ForceCast fan Jeff Ellis was in the audience at
last night's Lucasfilm season finale screening, and he sends in this spoiler-free report!
It was a unique and special opportunity once again to be invited to the Letterman Digital Arts Center to view a screening of the Season 3 finale of Star Wars: The Clone Wars – the 2-parter “Padawan Lost” and “Wookiee Hunt”. Cory Silver & Dave Filoni introduced the episodes, the lights dimmed in the intimate Lucasfilm theater, and we were off –instantly immersed in our Galaxy Far Far Away...
These episodes tell a completely new Star Wars adventure –audiences have never seen this kind of tale on The Clone Wars. It sounds cliché at this point among us fans of this series, but, seriously, the bar HAS been raised again. Season 3 has already brought us some amazing animation and visuals that weren’t possible a year ago, but these episodes hit it out of the Geonosian Arena! There are beautiful and richly depicted new planets, vehicles, characters and creatures.
As far as the episodes go, audiences will want to go into these as spoiler-free as possible. I will say that fans loving the rich character development we’ve been observing in our favorite characters thus far won’t be disappointed. While thrilling us with new corners of the broader Star Wars universe, we continue to march toward the inevitable –the dramatic conclusion to the Clone Wars and the tragedy of Revenge of the Sith. And, everybody knows by now that Chewbacca shows up here. He’s awesome. This is not “stunt casting”. He works very well in the plot and is very fun and believable in these circumstances. And... the cool factor of actually seeing a showdown between two legendary rival species we’ve heard and read about for years is a fanboy dream!
Here are some highlights from the post screening Q&A with Dave Filoni, moderated by Pablo Hidalgo:
- Dave talked how much Peter Mayhew’s involvement was an honor and integral to the animation of Chewbacca.
- One new “creature” is an homage to Dave’s wife. This was a very sweet nod, and these scenes really enrich the overall environment on one particular planet.
- Are you wondering if there are any Easter eggs in these episodes? Oh, they’re there! There is a lot of background detail to explore. Look for them!
- Dave talked about how deaths in The Clone Wars are not taken lightly. It is discussed seriously in the writer’s room and sometimes it is necessary to the story. He referenced the recent onscreen deaths of Master Even Piell and, of course, Clone Trooper Echo (he admitted to liking Five’s helmet better! One of them had to go...) Relax, think about it; don’t expect Clone Commander Wolffe to go anywhere soon!
- When asked about bringing Expanded Universe elements into The Clone Wars, Dave and the team may bring some of the EU detail into the show once George sets the story direction. From George’s perspective, it all has to line up with his movies, but it’s Dave who knows what type of blaster a Republic Commando would have!
- Dave was asked if we will we ever see stories set outside the Clone Wars timeline, even if in flashbacks. He said it’s been discussed, probably not in the foreseeable future, but never say never.
- Dave has great confidence in The Clone Wars team’s ability to bring anything imagined to the screen. “We can now do anything!”, he said. Um, don’t tell George, because Dave also said that George’s imagination was limitless, and reiterated that the show would continue as long as George and the audience wanted it to.
Many members of the talented Clone Wars crew were in the audience (hoping for the right reaction at the right moments!). They stood for our applause, and it was wonderful to see them recognized.
A fun bonus to the evening: Sam Witwer (you know - the Son & Starkiller) was enjoying the show in the audience with us!
WonderCon is next weekend in San Francisco. There will be a Lucasfilm panel, including Peter Mayhew and Ashley Eckstein, discussing the season finale, as well as… a preview of Season 4???
Give-aways included a LEGO t-shirt, Clone Wars temporary tattoos, a LEGO Chewbacca pen and a LEGO mini-figure of concept Boba Fett!
It was a memorable evening –big thanks to the organizers of this screening, Lucasfilm, Dave Filoni and the entire Clone Wars team!-------
Thanks for the report Jeff! The two-part finale of
Star Wars: The Clone Wars Season 3 will air on Cartoon Network next Friday, April 1st at 8pm ET.
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