I don’t want to be alarmist here. I’m not Chicken Little. Or Ziro the Hutt.
I’m just asking an honest question. What happens if The Clone Wars is done after Cartoon Network airs the Season 5 finale? I know, it makes no sense whatsoever for them to sit on the two or three seasons of episodes that are already done or in production. I get that. But what if?
What if Disney just isn’t a fan? What if they want to keep Disney XD for their Marvel properties? What if there’s no place for it on ABC Family? What if they don’t want to run it on a broadcast network like ABC at any point? What if they decide to treat it like Tron Uprising, a show that was, by all accounts, fantastic? What if they decide that the reason they gave for postponing the 3D releases, “focusing on Episode VII,” applies to The Clone Wars, too?
What would we do?
Is there a sizable enough audience to force Disney’s hand? Should we be begging for confirmation that the show is coming to a Disney owned station the same way we all clamored for confirmation that JJ Abrams was really directing Episode VII?
If no confirmation is forthcoming, if Disney XD doesn’t release their lineup, what would we do? What could we do?
I’m not sure about you guys, but for the last 5 seasons, I’ve been enjoying The Clone Wars as the best show on television. Dave Filoni, Joel Aron, the cast, the crew, everyone, has done a fantastic job on this show and they’ve made it absolutely the best drama on television. But what if the higher ups at Disney don’t see it that way? To a dark place this takes us. And, to be honest, the thought of unaired episodes of The Clone Wars just hanging out there in the aether, wishing for us to see the final fate of Ahsoka and Rex.
What if Season 5 is all we’ve got?
Remember back at the beginning? This show was only originally planned to run 100 episodes. After this season we’ll have gotten almost a dozen more than that. Filoni and Lucas have always said that they’ll keep making them as long as they’re having fun and doing well. But they never mentioned anything about airing them. And it’s not exactly in their hands, is it?
I don’t know. After the news of the postponement of the 3D releases, work that was, by all accounts either done or close to it, I’m skeptical. Maybe that’s just the skeptic in me. Maybe I’m just expecting the worst and hoping for the best. But I’ve seen too many sites reporting this as a confirmation that Disney XD is taking the show, but this is never something anyone official has said. This has just been our own fan speculation.
I want to be wrong. I really do.
But you have to admit, it’s certainly a possibility. And the decision makes about as much sense as the 3D decision, which is to say none at all.
What if this (and the 3D postponement) are just a bargaining chip for Disney to acquire the distribution rights for all the content back cheaper? Maybe that’s just me being very cynical.
Let’s hope for a confirmation that Disney will do right by The Clone Wars. But in the meantime, let’s come up with a plan in case it doesn’t happen. Are we strong enough to force their hand? Are there enough of us who want to see the show continue that we can speak in a loud enough voice to override some short sighted, anti-fan decision? I would like to think so.
While we wait for that confirmation, let’s all hope that I’m just worrying needlessly.