Today's review said that when The Clone Wars ended after Season 5, work had already begun on stories up through a planned finale in Season 8, which would have continued the show through the 2013/14, 2014/15, and 2015/16 television seasons. So what was planned for all that, and what was it turned into?
The first thirteen episodes of Season 6 were close enough to completion to be worth finishing, and so released as The Lost Missions, premiering on Netflix (because Disney+ didn't exist yet).
Episodes 1-4: when a Clone Trooper seemingly snaps and kills a Jedi for no reason, he begins uncovering what will happen during Order 66.
Episodes 5-7: an attempt to root out corruption among the Separatists' Banking Clan.
Episodes 8-9: Jar-Jar Binks, Sex Machine
Episode 10-13: After the discovery of Master Sifo-Dias' lightsaber, Yoda begins a journey to deepen his connection with the Force.
So that's where the story ended until Season 7 was released in 2020. Here's what the rest would have been:
S6, Episodes 14-17: Bounty Hunter Arc
Based loosely on the John Ford Western The Searchers, the story would have seen a team-up between Cad Bane and the teenage Boba Fett, and would have culminated in a duel between the two that would have ended with both of them simultaneously shooting each other in the head, giving Fett's helmet its distinctive dent. Daniel Logan, who played Boba in Episode II, also recorded the voice for this appearance. Clips of the episode, in rough animatic form, have been seen, and the final shootout was shown at the Star Wars Celebration 2017 "Animated Origins and Unexpected Fates" panel. This arc is also why Bane has a metal plate on his head when he comes back in live action.S6, Episodes 18-21: Crystal Crisis on Utapau
Reached the animatic "story reel" stage, and was released by Disney in 2014:The episode titles would have been:
- "A Death on Utapau"
- "In Search of the Crystal"
- "Crystal Crisis"
- "The Big Bang"
S6, Episodes 22-25: Ahsoka's Walkabout
After leaving the Jedi Order, Ahsoka has adventures in Coruscant's underworld. This arc was later adapted for the released Disney+ Season 7.
For this next section, remember that the planned "Season 7" that would have aired in fall of 2014 and spring of 2015 is not the same as the actual Season 7 that aired in 2020.
S7, Episodes 1-4: The Bad Batch
Originally released as an animatic like "Crystal Crisis on Utapau," eventually finished to be released in D+ Season 7, as a pilot for the Bad Batch series.S7, Episodes 5-8: Dark Disciple I
Quinlan Vos joins with Asajj Ventress to assassinate Count Dooku. Released as the novel Dark Disciple. Animatics were created for this arc, with temp-track dialogue.S7, Episodes 9-12: The Battle of Kashyyyk
Yoda leads the Bad Batch to help the Wookiees fight the Trandoshans, who are being backed by the Separatists. This episodes existed to explain Yoda's line about "good relations" with the Wookiees in Revenge of the Sith. Animatics from the episode were shown at the Celebration 2015 "The Untold Clone Wars" panel, and the events of the episode were referenced in Bad Batch Season 2.S7, Episode 13-16: Son of Dathomir
Maul escapes from Darth Sidious' custody and returns to his home planet. Published as a miniseries by Dark Horse Comics, with each issue representing one episode. Titles would have been:
- "The Enemy of My Enemy"
- A Tale of Two Apprentices"
- "Proxy War"
- "Showdown on Dathomir"
S7, Episodes 17-20: Rex and R2-D2
An argument among the Clones leads Rex to try to prove the Clone Army pilots are no more special than the ground forces by piloting a starfighter with R2-D2 as his copilot. After crashing on one of the moons of Ryloth, he would have been injured, and he and R2 would have had to reprogram a Super Battle Droid to help them survive until rescue arrives, and they would have grown attached to it.
And with that, we move into what would have been the final season, airing between the fall of 2015 and the spring of 2016:
S8, Episodes 1-4: Alien Abduction
Described by Dave Filoni as "almost like an X-Files episode," this arc would have seen the Jedi investigating sightings of an unknown ship. The big surprise of the arc would have been that the ship was a scouting force of the Yuuzhan Vong, trying to assess the strength of the Republic, bringing the old Expanded Universe threat back into continuity for the first time!S8, Episodes 5-8: Dark Disciple II
After the events of the first arc, Quinlan Vos is now embedded with Count Dooku's organization because he thinks that's the best way to find Darth Sidious. These events are covered in the second half of the novel Dark Disciple. Animatics were created for this arc, and the events were seen/referenced in the animated Tales of the Underworld series.S8, Episodes 9-12: Return to the Jedi Temple
While operating in Coruscant's underworld, Ahsoka would have learned of an ancient Sith Temple hidden below the Jedi Temple, and would have reached out to Anakin and Obi-Wan for help. With Palpatine trying to break into the Holocron Vault, it would have fallen to Ahsoka to hold him off from behind the door, leaving his identity a mystery. This particular story beat was salvaged and reused for Star Wars Rebels, with the World Between Worlds standing in for the Holocron Vault.S8, Episodes 13-16: Return to Mon Cala
This would have been about Padme trying to unseat Chancellor Palpatine, who had overstayed his term limit, a subplot she was meant to have in Revenge of the Sith, but that got removed. It would have been one of Clone Wars' periodic political arcs, but characters who were set to die in this story were later shown to have lived past the end of the Empire.S8, Episodes 17-20: The Siege of Mandalore
Released as the final four episodes of actual Season 7 on Disney+.
So most of the cancelled episodes have been seen in one form or another, whether that's direct adaptations, like the novel or comic, as unfinished rough-cuts, or as references in other series. Really, the only things that haven't had any kind of presence are the "Top Gun" clone story and Padme's undersea adventure. And although some movements in continuity would require a few changes, it would be great to see these arcs get finished for real.
