After 18 years, the critically panned Star Wars: The Clone Wars movie is getting a follow-up in a new Star Wars movie. Though it spawned one of the best Star Wars shows of all time, the 2008 The Clone Wars movie was a big flop. It’s the lowest-grossing Star Wars movie of all time, and the lowest rated by a wide margin. Despite its icy reception, The Clone Wars movie is still influencing Star Wars to this day.
Most of the upcoming Star Wars movies and shows in the immediate future have avoided the era of the prequel trilogy. Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord is the closest to the prequels in the Star Wars timeline, but it’s still firmly in the reign of the Empire. Despite this fact, one movie is set to bring back a massive part of The Clone Wars movie at a very different point in time.
The Clone Wars Movie Will Be Revisited In The Mandalorian & Grogu
The next Star Wars movie, The Mandalorian and Grogu, is set to include Rotta the Hutt, a major character from The Clone Wars film. Rotta is the son of Jabba the Hutt, and he was first introduced in the 2008 Clone Wars film. The entire movie centers around Rotta, as Anakin and Ahsoka are tasked with rescuing him from Count Dooku to let Republic forces travel through Hutt space.
Despite being a major part of the movie, Rotta the Hutt hasn’t appeared in anything besides The Clone Wars film, including the seven seasons of the show that followed. Most story arcs in The Clone Wars show were standalone, and since Rotta was delivered safely at the end of the movie, the show never revisited him. His upcoming appearance in The Mandalorian and Grogu will be his first in 18 years.
The first trailer for The Mandalorian and Grogu also revealed that Rotta will play a seemingly important role. He’s set to be voiced by Jeremy Allen White, and he’s evidently become a gladiator in the wake of his father’s death. The Mandalorian and Grogu takes place a few years after Return of the Jedi, so Rotta will be about 30 years old. It’s not entirely clear how he plays into the movie, but he will seemingly interact with Din Djarin.
Why Star Wars: The Clone Wars Was Critically Panned In 2008
The decision to include Rotta the Hutt in The Mandalorian and Grogu came as a big surprise because, as previously mentioned, The Clone Wars movie was critically panned back in 2008. It has just 18% on Rotten Tomatoes among critics, and just 41% with viewers. Screen Rant‘s review of The Clone Wars noted that, at the time, the entire movie came across as a pointless money-grab by George Lucas and unnecessary in the wake of Genndy Tartakovsky’s Clone Wars series.
The Mandalorian and Grogu is set to premiere on May 22, 2026.
A lot of the criticism The Clone Wars movie drew was well-deserved. The animation was rough and unpolished, even though it was visually unique. Ahsoka, at the time, came across as an annoying and unnecessary sidekick to Anakin and a desperate attempt to appeal to kids. The story itself was also incredibly lackluster and entirely forgettable. All that The Clone Wars had going for it was some slick action and the promise that the following television series would get better.
The Clone Wars Show Was So Much Better Than The Movie
Luckily for The Clone Wars movie, the series that followed it was infinitely better. The first two or three seasons of The Clone Wars show weren’t great, but even they were a marked improvement over the film. The story of the Clone Wars was simply better suited for a shorter, serialized anthology to properly show the scale of the conflict and the many different sides of the story and corners of the galaxy.
New Star Wars Theory Explains Why The New Hutt Gladiator Is Key To The Mandalorian & Grogu
An exciting new Star Wars theory helps explain just how important the Hutt Gladiator in the new Mandalorian & Grogu trailer is going to be.
The Clone Wars also got exponentially better as it progressed. By season 4, the animation was stellar, which made everything from fight scenes to dialogue more entertaining to watch. Ahsoka also benefited greatly from having more time to develop her character, and she eventually became one of the most beloved characters in Star Wars despite starting out as an annoying sidekick.
By the time The Clone Wars season 7 was ready, the show had already cemented itself as a masterclass in Star Wars storytelling. That final season got the show across the finish line, and The Clone Wars is now regarded as a genuinely epic, sweeping story of rebellion, politics, action, and conflict on a galactic level. Every character, every fight, every planet, is a beautiful display of Star Wars‘ highest highs.
The Mandalorian Movie Feels Strangely Similar To The Clone Wars Film
It’s also worth mentioning that what little we know about The Mandalorian and Grogu at this point makes it seem eerily similar to The Clone Wars movie. It’s not just that Rotta the Hutt is making his return to Star Wars after nearly two decades, either. The Clone Wars was a movie and a television show that came out years after the prequel trilogy ended, while The Mandalorian is a show and now a movie that is coming out years after the sequel trilogy finished.
The similarities between The Mandalorian and Grogu‘s release and The Clone Wars isn’t all that’s at play, though. At their cores, these projects have very similar stories. The Clone Wars is largely about Anakin teaching Ahsoka as his apprentice and learning from that teaching himself. The Mandalorian is largely about Din Djarin raising Grogu and becoming a better man. They’re both stories about father figures with adopted children going on adventures across the galaxy.
The Clone Wars movie in particular is also about Anakin and Ahsoka’s quest to save a baby who is wanted by most of the galaxy. The Mandalorian‘s first two seasons were about Din trying to save Grogu, a baby, from the Imperial Remnants. It’s honestly remarkable how structurally similar Star Wars: The Clone Wars and The Mandalorian and Grogu are. With any luck, the latter will be better received than the former.
- Release Date
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August 5, 2008
- Runtime
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98 Minutes
