George Lucas Personally Protected The Star Wars: The Clone Wars Crew From The Licensing Department [Exclusive]
While it may feel like there's actually too much "Star Wars" out there these days in the Disney era of the franchise, back in 2008, when "The Clone Wars" premiered on Cartoon Network for its first three seasons, it was the only currently running animated series from Lucasfilm animation. The show chronicled the many adventures of Anakin Skywalker, Obi Wan-Kenobi, and young padawan, Ahsoka Tano, filled in gaps between "Episode II: Attack of the Clones" and "Episode III: Revenge of the Sith," and added context to all the events George Lucas didn't have the space to address in his films.
Though it was an animated series, "The Clone Wars" was different from most shows on the Cartoon Network at the time. Sure, there's nothing more commercial than "Star Wars," but it was covering the darker source material of the prequel era that was maligned by many fans. The show even embraced some inaccessible, signature Lucas eccentricities, such as being told almost completely out of canonical order.
Initially, Lucas wanted very little to do with the series, thinking it was going to be a cartoon first and "Star Wars" project second. Soon, however, the creator of "Star Wars" became invested in the show's vision and gave his personal protection and approval to the creative team behind "The Clone Wars."
/Film's Rafael Motamayor had the pleasure of interviewing Henry Gilroy, who was a writer on "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" and a co-executive producer on "Star Wars Rebels." In their exchange, Gilroy shared how Lucas fought to protect the creative integrity of "The Clone Wars" from studio executives.
'Nobody's going to say no to George Lucas'
For creative director Dave Filoni and the writers of "The Clone Wars," there was no better safety net than George Lucas. According to Henry Gilroy, Lucas had personally promised early on that they would be making the show to their fullest vision, and anything that would need to be cut out for air time would make its way onto DVD collections. It doesn't matter who you are in the industry, there really is no such thing as saying "no" to the creator of "Star Wars" himself. No matter how many notes and suggestions the show's different departments received from different executives, Lucas fought to protect the staff from meddling.
"Nobody's going to say no to George Lucas," Gilroy said. "It's awesome. He's like your plus-99 shield, any barbs just bounce off." Shockingly, this even extended to marketing and licensing, which is arguably one of the biggest aspects of "Star Wars."
Early on in Gilroy's experience writing for "The Clone Wars," there was a licensing executive who asked if it was possible to add a specific detail to a shot so that they could retain brand integrity for the show's toy line. "George basically called and said, 'Never contact them again,'" Gilroy shared. "He forbid the toy people from ever contacting Dave and I, and his explanation to us was, 'You guys make great stories, let them make the toys after.'"
"The Clone Wars" remains one of the strongest extended universe projects because it embraces the genuinely weird parts of the "Star Wars" franchise and strengthens the foundations of the prequels instead of rewriting them. While Lucas is fully hands-off with the franchise these days, we can be grateful that he left the animated shows in good hands.