Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Before Disney acquired Lucasfilm, there was no such thing as a strict Star Wars canon, much less an official Story Group, which made it difficult for audiences to follow the always-expanding Star Wars universe. That said, George Lucas made clear that the Expanded Universe and his universe were two different things, with Star Wars: The Clone Wars fitting into the latter.
While George Lucas would often try not to contradict any from the Expanded Universe, it did not take long before Clone Wars went against elements from the Star Wars EU. Topics like Mandalore and the story of characters like Jango Fett sparked a canon debate involving Clone Wars and the Star Wars Expanded Universe, but the former “won” those canon debates precisely because it had George Lucas as part of the project. When establishing the new canon, Disney considered everything outside of the first six movies as non-canon with the exception of Clone Wars, reaffirming the importance of the show for the Star Wars franchise.
Star Wars: Clone Wars, the 2003 2D-animated micro-series that was released before Revenge of the Sith was developed for Cartoon Network by Genndy Tartakovsky. George Lucas served as an executive producer for the Star Wars: Clone Wars micro-series and also briefed Tartakovsky on events he had envisioned for Clone Wars was revived for a seventh and final season on Disney+, George Lucas had already sold Lucasfilm to Disney and thus had no creative involvement in Star Wars. That is why George Lucas is only credited with a “Created by” in Clone Wars season 7.
How Clone Wars Fulfilled George Lucas’ Star Wars TV Dream
Star Wars: The Clone Wars’ first five seasons aired on Cartoon Network, but George Lucas also funded part of the project. Just like he had done during the prequel trilogy, George Lucas pushed for Clone Wars to be ahead of the curve in of animation, which is why each Clone Wars episode originally cost close to $1 million according to Lucas himself (via Star Wars had a future on TV and that digital technology would one day allow massive-scale movies like Star Wars to be made in a garage. Star Wars: The Clone Wars combined those two dreams – a serialized Star Wars story on TV made entirely through computer-generated animation.
Clone Wars was of extreme importance both for the Star Wars canon and for Star Wars as an always-innovative franchise. The Star Wars prequels were received with a lot of criticism, but that did not stop George Lucas from focusing on that time period with new stories. The Star Wars: The Clone Wars legacy is felt to this day, even in new releases like Disney+’s The Mandalorian, highlighting its significance to George Lucas' wider vision.