First, the good news for "Star Wars" fans: Lucasfilm is exploring a new "Star Wars" animated series that will be "set in a time period previously untouched in 'Star Wars' films or programming."
Now, that bad news: It's pulling the plug on the Cartoon Network series "Star Wars: The Clone Wars." And the perhaps-not-so-bad news: Lucasfilm is also ditching plans for "Star Wars Detours," a comedic animated series from Seth Green, Matthew Senreich and Todd Grimes, at least for the time being.
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"After five highly successful and critically acclaimed seasons of 'Star Wars: The Clone Wars,' we feel the time has come to wind down the series," Lucasfilm said in a statement online Monday. The company did say, however, that it will produce new "Clone Wars" story arcs that will surface as bonus content at some point, with details coming in the near future.
As for why they're abandoning "Star Wars Detours" — which was previewed by George Lucas at Star Wars Celebration VI last year — Lucasfilm cited the upcoming "Star Wars" trilogy, which Disney announced after buying Lucasfilm for just over $4 billion last year.
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"'Detours' was conceived and produced before we decided to move forward with the new 'Star Wars' trilogy, and in the wake of that decision, Lucasfilm has reconsidered whether launching an animated comedy prior to the launch of Episode VII makes sense," Lucasfilm said Monday. "As a result, we've decided to postpone the release of Detours until a later date."