Star Wars is back on the big screen, and the fandom is locked in debate over The Mandalorian and Grogu‘s box office. It’s easy to see the nervousness: it’s been seven years since Star Wars was last on the big screen, Disney+ shows are releasing to diminishing returns, and The Acolyte became the first Star Wars Disney+ series to be officially cancelled after the fanbase tore itself apart. But this isn’t the first time Star Wars’ future seemed bleak.
Speaking at MCM Expo (via Geek Tyrant), Ahsoka Tano voice actor Ashley Eckstein looked back at when The Clone Wars began in 2008. “For us, it’s easy to forget,” she recalled, “but when Clone Wars was on the air, there was no other Star Wars. We thought Star Wars was done. This was before Disney bought it and we were the only thing on the air… Without the success of Clone Wars, we might not be seeing Mandalorian, Boba Fett, etcetera.”
Ashley Eckstein Is Totally Right About Star Wars
The prequel generation has come of age, and it’s so easy for modern viewers to forget what state the franchise was in after Revenge of the Sith. The controversy had begun with The Phantom Menace, which simply wasn’t what audiences expected; criticism only grew with Attack of the Clones, and some parts of the fandom began to turn on George Lucas personally. I was part of the online community at this part, and I remember the growing division; entire sections of the Jedi Council forums where you didn’t dare mention the prequels. By 2008, filming began on a documentary with a title that says it all: The People Vs. George Lucas.
This was the context of George Lucas’ last Star Wars project, The Clone Wars, and things didn’t go well at first; the animated movie was heavily criticized, while Eckstein’s Ahsoka Tano was initially deeply controversial. Meanwhile, the prequel hate rumbled on. In 2009, a series of critical reviews went viral, soon followed by a review-bombing campaign on Rotten Tomatoes. The People Vs. George Lucas released in 2010, perfectly representing the mood of the day.
The Clone Wars “Fixed” the Prequels
Looking back, though, The Clone Wars has indeed had a massive effect on how the prequels are interpreted. Eckstein isn’t the only one to admit this; prequel star Hayden Christensen himself has honored The Clone Wars for the effect it had on Anakin Skywalker’s reputation. “Thank you for keeping Star Wars alive,” Christensen famously said to the character’s voice actor, Matt Lanter. He considers himself indebted to George Lucas’ Clone Wars era protege, Dave Filoni, because of the work he did on Anakin’s character; Christensen even binge-watched animated shows before returning to the role more recently.
In 2015, Lucasfilm – now owned by Disney – launched the sequel trilogy. In his autobiography The Ride of a Lifetime, former Disney CEO Bob Iger implicitly admits there’s a reason the sequels paid homage to the original trilogy and not the prequels; “We’d intentionally created a world that was visually and tonally connected to the earlier films, to not stray too far from what people loved and expected.” The prequels are now in vogue, but it’s no exaggeration to describe that as a legacy of The Clone Wars.
Even now, while the prequels have become beloved, this era is primarily explored through a Clone Wars lens. Ahsoka has become a major player in the Star Wars galaxy, appearing in her own TV show (now played in live-action by Rosario Dawson). The Clone Wars reinterpreted Mandalorians, meaning it’s impossible to imagine The Mandalorian and Grogu without this series. Even Maul – Shadow Lord is only possible because The Clone Wars brought Maul back to life. Lucas’ Clone Wars protege, Dave Filoni, is actually Lucasfilm co-president – a phenomenal legacy for the show.
In 2008, Ashley Eckstein and her Clone Wars team thought Star Wars was done. There’s a lesson there, perhaps, for the current fandom discussing Star Wars’ future direction; redemption is always possible, and you can’t keep the Jedi down. Star Wars came back once, and it can do it again.
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