words: Bonnie Burton
Couldn’t make it to The Clone Wars Season 4 panel featuring The Clone Wars supervising director Dave Filoni and producer Cary Silver, moderated by Lucasfilm StarWars.com’s Pablo Hidalgo. Don’t worry! Below are some of the panel highlights
Dive right in!
Season 4 starts with an underwater story arc on the planet of Mon Calamari. Filoni said they wanted the cameras to have similar movements to underwater scuba camera. They had to create an entire civilization from the buildings to the population of the people — male and female fish, warriors, the Quarren army, etc.
It’s a….!”
Captain Ackbar is indeed in this underwater story arc. There was some debate whether or not they should have Ackbar refer to traps, but they didn’t do that.
Watch out for sharks!:
The shark-like race works with the Separatist. They have sharp teeth and bite the heads off of characters, but Filoni assures that it’s not too violent because “bubbles make it better.”
Kit Fisto is back!
“Everyone likes Kit Fisto because he smiles,” Filoni says.”He doesn’t have his shirt on, so that’s a bit of a Twilight reference.”
Scuba Clone Troopers!
Kit Fisto has scuba clone troopers in Season 4. Filoni challenges the 501st Legion to come up with scuba trooper costumes!
New Clone Trooper Story Arc with Captain Rex:
Umbara is a new planet shrouded in darkness & for the first time you get to see clone troopers killing non-droids, but infact humaniods that live on the planet. All the technoloy the Umbarans fight with weapons you’ve never seen before. Fans have actually seen Umbarans before; Palpatine’s creepy aid is an Umbaran. And a lot of the favorite troopers who have survived so far like Captain Rex and Fives will show up in this episode.
New Faces and Armor:
They changed the look of a lot of the main characters like Anakin, Ahsoka and Obi-Wan, so this season they upgraded the facial expressions on the clone faces and changed some of the armor as well. Captain Rex doesn’t like the new armor because he thinks it’s too disposable so he makes a hybrid of his old armor welded together with his new armor. He’s worried that the Republic looks at the clones as more of a disposable army.
New Jedi Character: General Krell
He’s the same species as Dexter Jettster! He’s an uncoventional, powerful Jedi who causes the clones to question things in different ways.
C-3PO & R2-D2 have new adventures!
“Star Wars is like a fairy tale from their point of view,” Filoni says. the classic animated series Droids was an inspiration.
Never Cry Wolffe
Clone trooper Wolffe returns but he’s different than Rex since he lost all his men so he’sa bit of a “curmudgeon” and doesn’t like C-3PO much.
Madame Mandalorian?
Filoni revealed that Battlestar Galactica actress Katee Sackoff will be voicing a female Mandalorian. He really wanted to have an actress voice her that really understood the fan culture. Filoni wanted to put a female Mandalorian on the show to give the woman fans another cool costume option to cosplay. Her helmet design is based on a barn owl because Filoni’s wife likes owls. Director Jon Favreau will be back as Mandalorian Pre Vizsla, as well.
Nightsisters return!
Savage Opress, Asajj Ventress, and Nightsisters will return this season as well. (As Filoni mentions the Nightsisters return for Season 4, the geek girl cosplay collective Team Unicorn — dressed as Dathomir’s Dark Side witches — walk up onstage! And he shows a clip that isn’t completed yet and even George Lucas hasn’t seen yet — of the Nightsisters fighting against battle droids!)
Bring on the Bounty Hunters!
Filoni says Cad Bane, Bossk, and Boba Fett will be back, along with an old favorite coming to the series — Dengar!
To Han or Not to Han?
A fan asks if we’ll see a young Han Solo in the series. Filoni says no, unless Lucas really insisted on it. “I don’t want to be the guy who defines that.”
By Your Commando!
Filoni confirmed clone commandos will be on the show, but not Delta Squad because he doesn’t want to mess with that continuity.
More Mortis on the way
“We’re going to do more about those kinds of mystical things in the future. It won’t be the last you hear of those types of stories. And you’ll learn more about those Force wielders and what they are and how they fit into the bigger spectrum of things,” Filoni says in answer to a fan’s question on whether the Mortis planet was the home of the Force.
New Challenges for Ahsoka:
Lux’s character might challenge Ahsoka’s own feelings about someone that she care for. When a fan asks about her pending fate, Filoni says he’s thought of about eight different possible outcomes for Ahsoka, but nothing has been decided yet.
Be sure to stay tuned here for more Star Wars news, photos and info at San Diego Comic-Con International 2011!
Posted by pvilmur
