Greetings Troops, and welcome to this week’s TCW Weekly Roundup!
If you have been living under a rock, you may not have heard about a little gathering of fanboys and fangirls of the popular arts that occurs every July in San Diego, California called Comic-Con. This little get together generated lots and lots of news regarding the best animated show on television, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (TCW).
To kick off the week we finally found out the character that Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Galactica’s Starbuck) will be playing. Though no name has yet been given, we learned that Ms. Sackhoff will be playing the role of a female Mandalorian commando who is part of the Death Watch terrorist group.
EW.com and subsequently Starwars.com both posted a Season Four teaser trailer entitled “Death Watch.” This not only marks the debut of Ms. Sackhoff’s character, but also marks the return of Lux Bonteri. Lux made his debut on the season 3 episode “Heroes on Both Sides” and took part in exchanging playful banter with Ahsoka Tano. Lux enabled Ahsoka to gain a different perspective on theSeparatists, but in Season Four could there be friendship or even teenage romance in their future? We will have to wait and see.
We also learned that the story arc will also feature the return of actor/director Jon Favreau as Deathwatch leader Pre Vizsla and that the episodes should air roughly mid-season.
If one new teaser trailer wasn’t enough, we got a second one entitled “Water War” which comes from the season opening Battle of Dac trilogy. Scuba Troopers, alien-shark dudes, and full scale underwater battle royal between the Quarren-Separatists and the Mon Cal-Republic.
We learned a lot about what characters, locations and storylines will be appearing in season four.
The Besalisk Jedi previously seen in the Season Four Teaser trailer is named General Krell and he will factor into a storyline involving the Clones and their view on the war and the Jedi.
We will also see the return of Savage Opress, Asajj Ventress, The Nightsisters, Cade Bane, Bossk, Boba Fett, Commander Wolfe, ARC Trooper Fives, and non-Delta Squad Clone Commandos. We will also see the debut of Dengar, one of the bounty hunters from The Empire Strikes Back.
For planets we will see the Mon Calamari home world of Dac as well as the planet of Umbara. Umbara is the home world of Palpatine’s aide Sly Moore, and is a planet of perpetual darkness. It sounds like we will see some really weird technology on Umbara.
Bonnie Burton on The Official Star Wars Blog has some interesting details on how Season 4 will portray the clones in general and Captain Rex in particular.
“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 technology 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.”
I can’t wait for the show to continue to explore the moral issues associated with the clone army, and I hope we see storylines similar to those in the Republic Commando novel series.
At TCW panel at Comic-Con they also showed some early animation for a scene involving Nightsisters using lightsabers and battling battle droids. This really has me intrigued. In January on Lightsaber Rattling I speculated about the destabilization of the balance of power in the galaxy with the introduction of the Nightsisters, Savage Opress and the potential return of Darth Maul. Could this third power base in the galaxy create yet another way for Palpatine to prolong the war for his own ends? The Nightsisters in conflict with the Separatists certainly has interesting story possibilities following up on what we saw in Season Three.
For our friends north of the border who watch TCW on Teletoon, we got a little write up blurb about season four in that networks promotion for the fall season.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars – Season Four
Premieres Friday, September 16 at 8:30 p.m. ET/PT
Airs Friday at 8 p.m. ET/PT
Heroes rise, enemies return and battles intensify in an all-new, action-packed season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. As the heroic Jedi Knights and their clone army fight to preserve order, their efforts continue to be met with strong resistance from the massive Separatist droid army. Escalating and expanding into uncharted corners of the galaxy, the scope and scale of Star Wars: The Clone Wars continues to grow with exotic adventures and enhanced animation strengthening ties to the Star Wars Saga. Within the galactic battle, fearsome foes from the past return to settle the score including lethal adversaries such as bounty hunter Cad Bane and the monstrous Savage Opress. As unexpected alliances are formed on both sides of the battle, the action explodes and the course of the war takes an unforeseen turn. Critically-acclaimed and unlike any other animated show on television, Star Wars: The Clone Wars season four: Battle Lines brings viewers right up to the front-lines of the massive galactic conflict, revealing the stories that forged the Star Wars galaxy.
Will we see a September 16th premier in the United States as well? We will let you know as soon as we find out. Until next time, keep your Buy’ce on and your blaster handy.
Author: admin
The Star Wars Report: A Star Wars Podcasting Network and Website.