Star Wars license discussion

[LEGOman273]

I've heard that the fifth season of the Clone Wars tv series is going to be its last.

Where did you hear this? The last that I heard is that they are working on season 7.

[thecolossus]

Where did you hear this? The last that I heard is that they are working on season 7.

Ah, I just looked into it, and apparently someone got confused because George Lucas said he'd make 100 episodes, i.e. this only goes halfway through Season 5. Well, my panic is over. Makes sense, seeing as TLG have the licence into 2023.

[purpleparadox]

Even if The Clone Wars ends soon, I doubt TLG will stop making Star Wars sets. After all, their license goes til 2023, and they could still make sets from the movies and the EU.

[Brickdoctor]

Discussion of the Star Wars license belongs here. Thanks.

[Faefrost]

I've heard that the fifth season of the Clone Wars tv series is going to be its last. Is this going to mean that Star Wars as a Lego theme will end up being discontinued?

Lucasfilms planned for a minimum of 100 episodes of Clone Wars. So they expected 5 seasons from the word go, so long as ratings would allow. (That may have been part of the deal with Cartoon Network). The show has had strong ratings, so so long as those don't drop off, or production costs don't radically escalate it probably is not going away. Or if it does it will be replaced by another SW Universe series.

Some of the reports and interviews I have seen seem to indicate that George Lucas and Lucasfilms have both been extremely pleased with the Clone Wars, largely because it's CGI nature allows for much more fixed and predictable production costs. Once they design a model or a planet or a setting or a set they can reuse it infinitely at very little costs. And voice acting costs are a fraction of live (no makeup costs, no wardrobe costs, set design is a bunch of nerds hunched over computers, and you only need the actors for a few hours per week instead of days on end). They can bring us to a good looking version of any world they want for a bare fraction of what live action traditionally runs them.

Which happily means we will hopefully be seeing new SW Lego subjects for at least a decade more.

Now, some of the expanded universe stuff, especially the SWTOR stuff? I am not so hopeful on. The new Sith Fury looks fantastic. It will probably be a great seller for Lego. Unfortunately it may outlive the game that it is based upon, the way things are going. SWTOR after seeing a strong initial release is starting to bleed subscribers, plus while by all normal measures it would be a very good success... it stands as the most expensive video game ever producted (somewhere between 1/4 and 1/2 a billion dollars US$), so it just isn't making back its costs.

Edited June 18, 2012 by Faefrost