Towards his destiny...Anakin Skywalker in Season Four of THE CLONE WARS.
A new extended trailer for Season Four of THE CLONE WARS debuted today and it was fabulous - The Clone Wars Season 4 "Battle Lines" Trailer - YouTube - full of incredible imagery and action/adventure. Plus more of the baddies we want to see (alongside lots more new ones), and not necessarily fighting against the Republic, more Obi-Wan, more Mon Calamari, more new worlds and creatures, and, most importantly, a lot to come on the Dark Side of the Force and its relationship to Anakin Skywalker, as we finally get to see his anger come out of its bottle regarding slavers-perhaps one more scheme pre-EPISODE III designed by Darth Sidious to get Anakin closer to the Sith.
We'll find out more from September 16th in the US, and probably October in the UK.
Here's some more great images from the trailer...
Sidious launches a new scheme of terror alongside Count Dooku.
New look Clone Troopers in action.
New laser whip wielding baddies for the Jedi to deal with...
Ahsoka and Artoo-always ready to help!
More great space vistas.
Ventress and the Nightsisters fight back.
More explosive action for the Clone Troopers.
Ahsoka mans the speeder bike turret! Dig those glasses once more!
Always the best man to have on your side: Obi-Wan Kenobi
Jedi mission: liberate the Togrutan slaves.
Fight! Grievous versus Ventress!
Time for another Anakin/Ahsoka explosion!
Those Death Watch warriors rear their heads once again.
With the phoney recall signal sent by Anakin Skywalker, now Darth Vader, designed to lure Jedi Knights back to Coruscant- and certain death- a Clone Trooper, disguised as a Jedi, gets ready for more killing. In a blue screen scene filmed at the FOX studios, Obi-Wan and Yoda had to navigate their way around some false Jedi so as to get into the Temple and change the signal, but in the end this sequence was deleted and then revised/re-filmed to become the rather cool action sequence where the pair swiftly take on Clone Troopers outside the Temple and Yoda delivers that awesome lightsaber throw, which, though now iconic, Lucas considered such a violent move for a distinguished Jedi like Yoda that he almost cut it!
Flanked by Mon Calamari, Padme, in underwater costume, takes deadly aim in Season Four of THE CLONE WARS. All images: LUCASFILM ANIMATION.
Here's a few more shots from the eagerly awaited opening episodes of the epic-looking Season Four of THE CLONE WARS, airing on CARTOON NETWORK presumably around late September /early October in the US (and hopefully on SKY MOVIES PREMIERE HD in the UK not long afterwards).
Artoo and Threepio get their own stories amongst the Clone Troops.
A Republic vessel makes its way planet-side...
More aliens large and small for fans of all ages.
Its lightsaber combat time for Adi Gallia against General Grievous.
More fishy Jedi action with Kit Fisto and his soldiers.
Will Artoo save the day once again?
Mon Calamari charge!
Our favourite droids encounter new life forms whilst on a special assignment.
As Yoda and his arriving Clone Trooper forces make their much welcome appearance and provide cover fire, the core Jedi survivors of the Geonosian arena battle, plus the brave Padme Amidala, make their way to the escape transports in this fantastic and exhilarating action sequence, backed up with fine re-use of John Williams stirring EPISODE I music, for ATTACK OF THE CLONES.
Click the pic to fully enjoy this great ultra high res image from ILM for EPISODE II, featuring Obi-Wan and the Kaminoans inspecting the early battalions of Clone Soldiers, which clearly shows the kind of picture quality improvements/difference we should get when the film makes it's debut on Blu-ray in September. Made on digital video from the outset, the Prequel should look even more incredible to look at than ever before and be the closest we'll ever get to seeing how it was meant to be watched from the outset...
On the strange but beautiful world of Felucia, a squad of Clone Troopers, prior to ORDER 66, traverse its wilderness en route to a new battle with Separatist forces.
Within Tipoca city, on the secret storm laden world of Kamino, Prime Minister Lama Su proudly takes Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi on a tour of its highly successful cloning facilities. The Republics pre-order of Clone Trooper armies is well underway and on target for delivery in this all-important scene from EPISODE II: ATTACK OF THE CLONES, which celebrates it's ninth birthday this week.
Investigating the raging fires and laser volleys emanating from the chaos of the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, Alderaanian Senator Bail Organa (Jimmy Smits) is prevented from finding out the truth behind whats happening by a force of 501st Clone Troopers, in this dramatic scene from EPISODE III: REVENGE OF THE SITH...
Jedi Knight Aayla Secura looks on in shock as her Clone Troopers turn their weapons against her in the final stages of The Clone Wars on the strange jungle world of Felucia. Though we all knew it was coming by the third film, ORDER 66 was nonetheless a shocking sequence and certainly one of the stand out scenes of REVENGE OF THE SITH, accompanied by a superb and moving theme by John Williams.
In one of the best cheer out loud moments of EPISODE II: ATTACK OF THE CLONES, Yoda and the fresh for battle Clone Armies arrive on Geonosis to assist their Jedi colleagues and stop Count Dooku and his new forces.
On an unknown alien swamp world, a squad of Clone Troopers begin their morning patrol in this intriguing pre-production conceptual art for what was planned as a major sequence of EPISODE III showing what was going on with the epic Clone Wars across a dozen or so worlds-both familiar and new.
A great image seen only briefly in several early episodes of Season One of THE CLONE WARS, showing the legions of battle ready troops in their special staging area on Coruscant- a brilliant recreation of one of the closing iconic scenes of EPISODE II: ATTACK OF THE CLONES
Clash of the Titans! Anakin Skywalker and Asajj Ventress lock sabers once again!
The clock is expectantly ticking for UK STAR WARS fans with the new season of THE CLONE WARS, and SKY MOVIES have very kindly sent us this great publicity info below in red, and some great photos linked to early episodes of the season:
The war wears on, and the Republic is pushed to its breaking point. Support for the Jedi Knights and their noble cause comes in the form of valiant clone troopers – steadfast defenders of peace and justice, even as the Jedi falter and the mighty Republic begins to crumble. Joined by familiar faces and confronted with deadly new threats, these everyman heroes lead the charge into a transformative new season of Clone Wars adventures – where alliances will be tested, truths will be questioned and galaxy-changing secrets will be uncovered to shake the very foundations of the Star Wars universe. The next chapter of Star Wars: The Clone Wars begins with a must-see two-part premiere at Saturday 23rd October on Sky Movies Premiere/HD.
Shaak Ti addresses the Clones, and makes her first appearance in the series
Can the Clone Domino Squad succeed in their training?
In “Clone Cadets,” five headstrong cadets – Hevy, Cutup, Droidbait, Fives and Echo – struggle to complete their training on the ocean planet of Kamino. Unable to work together as a team, they must learn to embrace their future as soldiers before they are drummed out of the academy.
“It’s a band-of-brothers story that takes you back before most of the episodes we’ve seen so far; it’s one of the earliest episodes – chronologically – in the series,” says Dee Bradley Baker, voice of the clones. “We’re going to see how the ‘shinies’ [new recruits featured in the first season episode, ‘Rookies’] learn to work together. Starting off, they’re not a team at all. They’re just everymen; they’re human. And now they’ve got to pull it together. There’s something really cool about how the show brings out the heroism from characters like that – not just the superpowered ones.”
A revealing look at clone development and training, the episode also introduces a unique new character. Clone Number 99 is a unique clone – and imperfect model relegated to menial, custodial duties at the Kamino production facility. Still, despite his physical flaws, he nonetheless identifies with his genetic brethren – and he aspires to make his own small contributions to their noble war efforts.
“He’s a great example of the show’s creative risks,” says Baker. “I was nervous going into this episode. Does he sound real? Is he believable? I agonized over it; he’s a very special character, and a very unique challenge. Kinda high stakes for me, because I wanted so badly to get it right. He’s a little bit slower…quieter…softer than your basic clone voice. I skewed his dialect toward cockney to give him a blue collar, salt-of-the-earth flavor. I’ve got a lot of favorites, but 99’s definitely one of them. His story is very affecting – really beautiful on a lot of different levels.”
The Clone Trooper valiantly defend their home world of Kamino in ARC TROOPERS
On the heels of “Clone Cadets” comes “ARC Troopers,” which revisits the clones after the notable events of “Rookies” – with the surviving squad members tasked with defending Kamino from a large-scale Separatist attack. After the Republic repulses the Separatists’ first assault, the real threat begins. Asajj Ventress, General Grievous and an army of droids rise out of the planet’s oceans, determined to destroy the clone production facilities – and the clones themselves are the last line of desperate defense.
“This episode raises the stakes in a really spectacular way. This is big space opera; this is why you want to own an HD TV. It’s basically the scale of a Star Wars movie – on TV,” says Baker. “It’s awesome. I’m so very proud of this show; it’s exciting to make this kind of episode work. And it’s such a team effort. There’s an army of artists working to make this compelling and moving. This is extraordinary storytelling.”
New character Jedi Master Di (left) makes his first appearance in SUPPLY LINES
And it’s just the beginning. In a galaxy far, far away…much to learn there still is.
With the eve of the new third season of THE CLONE WARS airing in the US on CARTOON NETWORK this week, we thought we'd take a look back to the original 2008 pilot film and this intriguing image of the Clone Soldiers fighting Battle Droids and Super Battle Droids on what I'm assuming is the desert wilderness of Tatooine? This exciting image, used for the films publicity at the time, never made it into the film, though, if I recall correctly, a portion of a clip of this scene appears in one of the opening monologues of one of the first seasons episodes...
I'm wondering if Captain Rex and his team did a final clean-up of the Separatist forces once Anakin and Ahsoka had delivered Rotta to father Jabba the Hutt, and it was just cut from the final film for time reasons. But why not include it on the film's Blu-ray/DVD deleted scenes?
If anyone out there has any more information on this scene please get in touch...
