A number of rare non-canon Star Wars spin-off projects are coming to Disney+ this April. The titles include the two Ewok spin-off films and television series, Gene Tartakovsky's Clone Wars series, and an animated segment from the Star Wars Holiday Special. Many of the projects have been out of print for years with their last home video release in 2005, around the release of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.
Long before Disney spun the Star Wars series off into new stories outside the traditional episode films, George Lucas had dabbled the brand into a number of different avenues. The first was the often mocked Star Wars: Holiday Special in 1978, which has never seen a full release since airing. Lucas realized the popularity of the Ewoks and gave them an animated series and two spin-off television movies during the '80s. In the prequel era, Lucas recruited Samurai Jack creator, Genndy Tartakovsky, to produce a series of mini-shorts to air on Cartoon Network between 2003 and 2005 that would fill in the gaps between Star Wars: Episode II: Attack of the Clones and Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith titled Star Wars: Clone Wars.
According to The A.V Club, alongside a list of new programming coming in April to Disney+ include a number of Star Wars series. April 2 will see the release of Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure and its sequel, Ewoks: The Battle for Endor, alongside the two seasons of the animated Ewoks series and Genndy Tartakovsky Star Wars: Clone Wars shorts and the animated segment of Holiday Special titled, The Story of a Faithful Ewok, which was the first appearance of fan-favorite, Boba Fett. Not present in the line-up is the animated series, Droids, which followed R2D2 and C3PO.
When Disney purchased Lucasfilm in 2012, they began work on Star Wars: The Force Awakens and needed a new clean slate, given that Lucasfilm had released a number of Star Wars novels, comics, and even spin-off material set after the events of Return of the Jedi. They simplified the continuity of the Star Wars universe and only kept the six theatrically released films and the currently running CGI animated series, Star Wars: The Clone Wars with (at the time) upcoming Star Wars: Rebels, the first new piece of the story. This meant all other Star Wars stories before the Disney acquisition were now labeled under the Legends banner. With these non-canon stories being added to Disney+, it is likely they will add a Star Wars Legends section to the Star Wars hub similar to how Marvel has the 20th Century Fox adaptations like Fantastic Four, X-Men: Days of Future Past, and The Wolverine under the Marvel Legacy banner.
The release date of April 2 can ease fans into knowing it isn't a giant April Fools joke on them by Disney. It does raise the question of releasing all this Star Wars material in April when the next month is May the 4th, a Star Wars holiday that Disney+ took great advantage of last year with the release of the final episode of Star Wars: The Clone Wars and the first episode of The Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian. Disney and Lucasfilm already have Star Wars: The Bad Batch set to premiere on May 4 so it could be they would rather have all eyes on that new series, and after fans watch it, they can revisit some of these other Star Wars stories already on the streaming service.
Source: The A.V Club
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