Star Wars Director Says He’ll Never Go Back To The Franchise
Genndy Tartakovsky says he has no interest in returning to the franchise after his Star Wars: Clone Wars animated series.
Genndy Tartakovsky is the genius animator behind such notable animated series‘ like Dexter’s Laboratory, The Powerpuff Girls, and Samurai Jack. Although both The Powerpuff Girls and Samurai Jack have seen recent revivals, there is one widely popular franchise that Tartakovsky refuses to work on. According to Yahoo.com, the animator has no interest in working on any more entries into the Star Wars franchise despite the popularity of his animated series Star Wars: Clone Wars.
In an interview, Tartakovsky noted that his animated Clone Wars series was originally created because they “needed more programming” after the release of the first two Star Wars prequel films, and he was called in part because George Lucas and his son were fans of his work on the Cartoon Network animated series Samurai Jack. Although initially envisioned by Lucas as one-minute episodes, Tartakovsky expanded them to at least three to five minutes, and some episodes that came out later in the series clocked in at over ten minutes.
Although the shorts were received positively, they were eventually wiped out of canon by the Dave Filoni Clone Wars series that it had inspired. On returning back to contributing to the Star Wars franchise, Tartakovsky noted “I did what I did, so I wouldn’t go back.” The animator certainly seems to have definitively shut the door on working on Star Wars, much to the dismay of fans of his work and the original Clone Wars series.
Tartakovsky uses bold colors, sharp lines, and sensational action sequences to draw the viewer into his highly stylized animations. His work on Samurai Jack and Star Wars: Clone Wars has garnered him multiple Emmy Awards and nominations, and he is widely considered one of the most well-respected animators in the industry.
Star Wars debuted in the animated series arena with two series that ran in conjunction: Droids and Ewoks. While Droids focused on the exploits of R2D2 and C3PO between the events of the prequel Revenge of the Sith and the original A New Hope, Ewoks focused on the Ewok characters introduced in Return of the Jedi. Both series were from showrunners Miki Herman & Peter Sauder and aired on ABC in September 1985.
Tartakovsky worked on the 2D animated series Star Wars: Clone Wars which debuted on Cartoon Network in 2003. Tartakovsky’s Clone Wars was a series of animated shorts that took place between 2002’s Attack of the Clones and 2005’s Revenge of the Sith. The series’ success would eventually become the inspiration for Dave Filoni’s Clone Wars CGI-animated series in 2008.
Much like praise for Tartakovsky’s Samurai Jack, many critics felt that 2003’s Clone Wars was a masterclass in animation that merged the vibrant Star Wars universe with Tartakovsky’s distinct art style to create something entirely unique. Although we may not see Tartakovsky’s name on anything in the Star Wars franchise anytime soon, his contributions to expanding the events of the Clone Wars helped build the world and character relationships from the prequel film more, especially for younger Star Wars fans who grew up watching the prequel series and were endeared to characters like Anakin, Obi-Wan, Mace Windu, and Yoda.
