Even though the 2008 feature film Star Wars: The Clone Wars was a critical and financial disaster for the Star Wars franchise, Dave Filoni’s animated television series had become increasingly critical to the success of the galaxy far, far away, and continues to play an important role in its future. The events of The Clone Wars have shaped the story of Filoni’s live-action “Mando-Verse” thanks to Rosario Dawson’s debut as the Togrutan Jedi apprentice Ahsoka Tano in the second season of The Mandalorian. Dawson’s version of Ahsoka is now the star of her own spinoff series, but it’s not the first time that a spinoff of The Clone Wars was considered. In fact, both Ashley Eckstein’s version of Ahsoka and David Tennant’s quirky droid instructor Huyang almost starred in an entirely different animated spinoff that was considered prior to The Clone Wars’ cancelation in 2013.
What Was the ‘Young Jedi’ Spin-off About?
Although The Clone Wars had a somewhat rocky start due to the film’s failure and the more kid-centric nature of the first few seasons, the series eventually found its footing as it continued. Ahsoka had matured as a character, and the series began to focus more heavily on her development as a philosophical midpoint between the conflicting viewpoints of her mentors Anakin Skywalker (Matt Lanter) and Obi-Wan Kenobi (James Arnold Taylor). Ahsoka’s maturation was great for the show’s quality, but it did cause the series to neglect its original premise; originally, George Lucas had envisioned the series as an anthology show about various heroes and villains during the events between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith.
As Ahsoka and her fate became the central focus of the series, it made sense that Lucasfilm Animation would become interested in developing a spinoff series that could focus on side characters that hadn’t received as much attention. The fifth season of The Clone Wars featured a five-part storyline that involved Ahsoka and Huyang mentoring a group of young Jedi trainees that had yet to become official apprentices to seasoned Jedi Knights and Masters. Ahsoka took the Jedi younglings Petro, Katooni, Byph, Ganodi, Zatt, and Gungi on a trip to the ice planet Ilum in order to find the kyber crystals that would power their lightsabers in the episode “The Gathering.”
Although the younglings’ adventures initially start off as a routine training assignment, the stakes get more critical when Ahsoka is kidnapped by the Weequay pirate Hondo Ohnaka, a regular villain (and occasional hero) within the series. The younglings prove their merit as Jedi as they rescue Ahsoka and help defend Hondo from an attack by General Grievous and Count Dooku. It was an inordinate amount of attention for the series to focus on a group of characters that hadn’t been previously introduced, but that’s because the four-part storyline was essentially a backdoor pilot for a spinoff series.
Prior to airing on Cartoon Network in the fall of 2012, the four episodes in the “Young Jedi” story arc were screened at the Star Wars Celebration VI event over the summer. George Lucas made a rare convention appearance in order to tease the future of Star Wars animation, which included future seasons of The Clone Wars, Seth Green and Matthew Senreichs’ animated parody series Star Wars Detours, and another show referred to as “younger-skewing.” Lucasfilm’s Pablo Hidalgo later confirmed that this “younger skewing” show was a proposed spinoff that would have starred the young Jedi characters.
Why Was ‘Young Jedi’ Cancelled?
Although the four-part storyline successfully established the younger characters, it felt like an odd tonal shift compared to the rest of the episodes in The Clone Wars’ fifth season. In a season that focused on darker storylines like Darth Maul’s invasion of Mandalore and the Jedi Order’s persecution of Ahsoka, a storyline centered on prepubescent Jedi heroes felt particularly light-hearted. The Clone Wars was also struggling to reach its original audience; the series had been moved from its original late night airtime to a Sunday morning broadcast. These factors, as well as Disney’s purchase of Lucasfilm in 2012, led to the end of the company’s agreement to air programming on Cartoon Network in 2013. A loose collection of story arcs that were intended for future seasons aired as “The Lost Missions” on Netflix the following year.
This meant the cancellation of The Clone Wars, and effectively scrapped all plans for potential spinoffs. Filoni and the rest of the Lucasfilm Animation crew were tasked with working on the new spinoff series Rebels for Disney XD, which introduced a new cast of characters. It made sense that Lucasfilm would want to start fresh, rather than using the Disney XD channel to continue the events of The Clone Wars. Although eventually Ahsoka and Captain Rex (Dee Bradley Baker) made appearances on Rebels, they only played supporting roles.
After Disney+ finally revived The Clone Wars for its seventh and final season in 2020, Lucasfilm announced the show’s first spinoff show, The Bad Batch. Rather than focusing on a family-friendly storyline about young Jedi, The Bad Batch took a more serious direction with its focus on elite Clone Troopers in the aftermath of Order 66. It was evident that Lucasfilm understood that The Clone Wars appealed to a slightly older audience who may not have appreciated a “young Jedi” spinoff. However, the Wookiee trainee Gungi did make a brief appearance in The Bad Batch’s second season.
Whether the “young Jedi” spinoff would have succeeded is unclear. Although it doesn’t appear that any scripts were officially produced, the “young Jedi” series could have been the first of several spinoff shows that focused on different side characters in The Clone Wars. While none of the younger characters had really established themselves, the four episodes did a good job of giving them each room to grow. The presence of Huyang and Ahsoka certainly would have engaged fans of The Clone Wars, but sadly the “young Jedi” show was never meant to be. It remains a fascinating part of a very different version of the Star Wars franchise’s future had Disney not purchased Lucasfilm.
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Khushi Patel is a science fiction author who lives in Austin, Texas. She has published three novels, and her work has been praised for its originality and imagination. Khushi is a graduate of Rice University, and she has worked as a software engineer. She is a member of the Science Fiction Writers of America, and her books have been nominated for several awards.
