Star Wars: The Clone Wars season 7 episodes end with a “created by George Lucas” credit, but despite the filmmaker’s name being the first one that audiences see, he, unfortunately, had little to nothing to do with the new batch of Clone Wars episodes on Disney+. But it shouldn’t be surprising that such a thing would be confusing for general audiences as Clone Wars‘ history on television itself is quite convoluted, having originally begun all the way back in 2003.
Lucasfilm partnered with Cartoon Network to release Star Wars: Clone Wars in 2003, an animated series that ran for three seasons before reaching its conclusion (it’s now considered part of Star Wars Legends). But its success convinced Lucasfilm to revisit the idea with the 2008 movie Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which introduced characters like Ahsoka Tano and setup the CGI series Star Wars: The Clone Wars; that ran on Cartoon Network for five seasons until Disney purchased Lucasfilm and decided to end the show. The final season released on Netflix in 2014. But now, it’s returned for season 7 on Disney+.
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At the end of Clone Wars season 7’s premiere episode, “The Bad Batch“, viewers see a “created by George Lucas” credit on-screen. Considering that Lucas has had nothing to do with Star Wars since Disney’s acquisition of Lucasfilm in 2012 – aside from the occasional visit to a movie or TV show’s set – it’s strange to see this credit on Disney+. However, it’s there because the fact of the matter is, George Lucas did create Clone Wars. And since the show is a continuation of a series that began several years before Lucasfilm’s sale, Lucas should still receive credit for it. Interestingly, Lucas used to receive “created and executive produced by” credit, but since he isn’t involved in the series, that latter half has been removed.
Lucas’ Clone Wars credit on Disney+ can be chalked up to a filmmaker receiving an executive producer credit on a film that either contains characters they adapted (or created) or is a continuation of a storyline that they first established. In Lucas’ case, it’s a bit of both. Of course, he created the Star Wars franchise and shepherded the development of Clone Wars when it was first airing on Cartoon Network. Regardless of the fact that Lucas no longer owns Star Wars and that Clone Wars is on Disney+, he still created the series and is owed credit for it.
However, none of this means that Lucas was actively involved in the development of Clone Wars season 7. Perhaps his ideas have been incorporated on some level in the new episodes, but the current team at Lucasfilm, including people like Dave Filoni, are responsible for bringing the new story onto the small screen. Sure, the first few episodes are ones that people have already seen before, albeit with completed CGI, there are still upcoming episodes that will be entirely new, even if fans already know how those stories will end.
