Clone Wars Weekly: Refreshed - Decoded and Streaming Spanish

As Clone Wars fans know all too well, the first season of this hit series ended nearly a month ago. As also reported, the second season won’t hit the small screen until sometime this fall. That leaves a nearly six month gap, and even the geniuses at Lucasfilm and Cartoon Network know that’s just way too much of a break. At the same time, the Star Wars universe has over 30 years of film, TV and comic book history to play off of.

That’s why the folks at Lucasfilm combined these two concepts to keep the show fresh, at least for a few months.

Starting with the May 1st episode, Cartoon Network is replaying every episode of Star Wars Clone Wars in the order the episodes were originally released, beginning with “Ambush.” What will be different is they now sport “pop-up” bits of trivia. They're calling it "Cone Wars: Decoded," and it's a pretty neat way to refresh what are, essentially, repeats.

For example, in “Ambush” you get a ton of biographical detail about Yoda, the Count, Asaaj and the importance of the planet the Republic and the Separatists are fighting over. You will also learn such trivia as the symbolism and significance of all the colors and markings on the Clones’ armor. In future episodes, inside sources state you’ll be surprised about what you will learn about subjects ranging from the planet Naboo to such Jedi Knights as Mace Windu to Kit Fisto.

As a special feature, Anthony Daniels was drafted to “host” this season debut as C3P0 himself. Whether Ashley Eckstein or Dee Bradley Baker will take similar star turns is up in the air, but sources say this might be a semi-regular occurrence.

No matter how you look at it, Star Wars fans do love their Jedi trivia, whether talking about it among themselves or just plain learning more. One can also say that the folks at LucasFilm did succeed in finding a novel solution to their problem.



In a related announcement, LucasFilm also announced they have come up with another way for fans to enjoy the show.

Starting this week, the show has been dubbed in Spanish and it will start streaming online at their parent website www.starwars.com. It is the first time the series will be aired in another language outside of English.

Also to commemorate the holiday of Cinco de Mayo – which celebrates the Mexican army’s 1862 defeat of invading French forces – StarWars.com will feature an assortment of related content highlighting the Mexican Star Wars fan experience, as well as kid-friendly cultural activities, crafts, Spanish-language multimedia and more.

“We thought it would be a fun experiment to bring the Spanish-language version of The Clone Wars to our online audience in celebration of Cinco de Mayo.” said Bill Gannon, Director of Online Operations for Lucasfilm. “To quote Obi-Wan Kenobi, we are taking our first step into a larger world.”

The first five episodes that will get this treatment are: “Ambush,” “Trespass,” “Dooku Captured,” “The Gungan General” and “Hostage Crisis.”