Development and writing . All four episodes that make up the
story arc were written by
Star Wars: The Clone Wars supervising director
Dave Filoni. Following the purchase of
Lucasfilm by
The Walt Disney Company, the series was cancelled in March 2013 following the release of the fifth season on
Cartoon Network, and midway through the production of the sixth of eight planned seasons. This left unreleased episodes in various stages of production, from completely finished episodes to episodes that were still in early development. The completed episodes were released onto
Netflix on March 7, 2014, as a truncated thirteen-episode sixth season, subtitled
The Lost Missions. Included in the unreleased episodes were plans of a
series finale involving
Ahsoka Tano and
Rex fighting
Darth Maul during the events of
Revenge of the Sith, which had been written, originally by Matt Michnovetz, at the time of the series' cancellation. Despite the arc not having actually been released, Lucasfilm considered the events of the arc to have occurred within the
Star Wars universe, affecting subsequent
Star Wars media that was created during the following years. It was announced on July 19, 2018, at the
San Diego Comic-Con that
The Clone Wars would return for a seventh, final season. The seventh season was made up of twelve episodes organized into three four-episode story arcs, all of which had been in development prior to the series' cancellation. The third arc, comprising the ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth episodes of the seventh season, and the final four episodes of
The Clone Wars, was the originally written series finale.
George Lucas, the creator of
The Clone Wars, was involved with the initial plans for the arc prior to the series' cancellation, but was uninvolved in work that was undertaken following the series'
revival. Out of a desire to keep to Lucas's vision for the franchise, Filoni discussed series concepts and ideas with Lucas, and Lucas provided comments on the episodes of the final season as they were being produced. According to Maul voice actor
Sam Witwer, the four episodes that compose the arc were designed as a four-part series finale that "is meant to be seen in its entirety together", as a movie. The arc was written to be able to be viewed completely standalone from any other episodes. Substantial care was taken to ensure that the arc maintained
continuity with existing works in the franchise. Despite the events of the Siege of Mandalore arc intersecting with
Revenge of the Sith, Filoni avoided repeating the events of the film and ensured that they were almost entirely offscreen, despite them deeply affecting the events of the arc. Instead, he chose to focus on characters that were not in the
prequel trilogy, such as Ahsoka and Rex. This was to ensure that the characters and plotline of the film remained intact, as well as out of a lack "of desire to tell any of those scenes necessarily again". He described it as "a challenge not getting something chronologically out of order", During the process of writing the 2016 novel
Ahsoka, author
E. K. Johnston was instructed to avoid writing action sequences set during the siege of Mandalore in order to avoid contradicting plans for the story arc in the series, which had, unbeknownst to her, been renewed. Although the 2003 miniseries
Star Wars: Clone Wars is no longer
canon to the franchise, in keeping with the original intent of the newer series to not supersede the miniseries, reference is made to Shaak Ti's failure to protect Palpatine, an event which is depicted in the miniseries. The integration of
The Clone Wars characters in
Rebels affected how they were utilized in the Siege of Mandalore arc. Filoni felt that it was unfortunate that the appearance of the characters in
Rebels may have caused the arc to have reduced tension, as the audience would know that those characters would survive. He stated that as Ahsoka had gained experiences away from the Jedi Order, she had changed, while Anakin wished for things to return to how they were before. The cast and crew of the episode noted that key parts of the reunion included Ahsoka's reaction to the clones, who had painted their helmets to match her colors, and Anakin offering her her old
lightsabers, which was not part of the original script for the arc and was added after the series' renewal. "The Phantom Apprentice" was directed by Nathaniel Villanueva. Several events from
Revenge of the Sith were referenced throughout the episode to help ground the arc within the film's timeline. The title of the episode was designed to be applicable to both Maul and Ahsoka, as former apprentices of the
Sith and
Jedi, respectively, as well as Anakin, as the secret apprentice of Palpatine, unbeknownst to both himself and the other Jedi. The creators of the episode felt that unlike the lightsaber duel between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Maul in the
Rebels episode "
Twin Suns", which was very brief, the duel between Ahsoka and Maul needed to be big, and that it was very important to make it among the best lightsaber fights in the series. To this end,
Ray Park, who had physically portrayed Maul in
The Phantom Menace, was brought in to perform
motion capture for the character. Park devised a new fighting style for Maul, rather than reuse the style he used in
The Phantom Menace, to reflect Maul having aged and gained robotic legs in the interim period. Keith Kellogg, the animation supervisor for the episode, explained that many of Park's mannerisms were implemented in the animation for Maul, and that the motion capture data then had to be altered to match the animation style of the series. Filoni described the problem of having to portray the event differently to its portrayal in
Revenge of the Sith, as the audience of
The Clone Wars saw the
clone troopers as real characters. He stated that the key was "about understanding that they are in a situation where they don't have free will. [He] tried through every method possible, visually, musically, color-wise to show that they became somebody else". Filoni used Ahsoka and Rex reciting the catchphrase "I am one with the Force and the Force is with me" from
Rogue One to display the bond between the characters and provide an explanation of how Ahsoka is able to remove Rex's inhibitor chip for those that may not have seen a previous arc in
The Clone Wars. This idea was eventually discarded for being self-indulgent. The scene was designed to emphasize Vader's humanity, as the character had been portrayed as a hero and one of the leads throughout almost the entirety of
The Clone Wars. As such, his eyes are visible through the helmet, just as they were in the original
Star Wars film, and Vader's picking up Ahsoka's lightsaber is meant to mirror Anakin giving it to her earlier in the arc. The ending was changed through the course of production to ensure that Ahsoka and Rex's story was centered, as Anakin's story had previously been told in the prequel trilogy. An unexpectedly high percentage of
assets from the first six seasons of the series had to be remade due to being substantially lower-quality than new assets. Overall, the technological improvements and additional crew experience did not make the animation work easier, but it did open up new animation possibilities. Multiple cast members had to rewatch previous episodes to be able to match their previous performances, due to the length of time that had elapsed since
The Clone Wars was last filmed, and some had voiced older versions of their characters in the interim and had to readjust their voices to the younger versions.
Ray Stevenson and
Sharmila Devar reprise their roles from
Rebels, and
Vanessa Marshall, who starred as
Hera Syndulla in that series,
cameos as Rook Kast in two episodes of the arc.
Donald Faison, who portrayed a character in
Resistance, cameos as a different character in "Old Friends Not Forgotten". This was the third of a string of cameos of
Resistance cast members in the seventh season of
The Clone Wars, as
Bobby Moynihan and
Josh Brener had cameoed in previous episodes. The voices of
Silas Carson,
Hayden Christensen,
Samuel L. Jackson, and
Ian McDiarmid are featured in "Shattered" through archival footage from
Revenge of the Sith. The lightsaber duel in "The Phantom Apprentice" utilized
motion capture, requiring actors to physically portray Maul and Ahsoka. Maul's motion capture was performed by Ray Park, who originated the character in
The Phantom Menace. Park met supervising director
Dave Filoni at a
Star Wars Celebration, and after discussing his collaboration with longtime Maul voice actor Sam Witwer in
Solo: A Star Wars Story, it was decided that he would return again for
The Clone Wars. Filoni also voiced a droid named Cheep in the arc, following his voicing of similar droid Chopper in
Rebels. The title card is red rather than the standard yellow; it had previously been red for the final episodes of the fourth season. The Lucasfilm logo used for the
original Star Wars trilogy opens all four episodes. Rather than a philosophical lesson, the episode's number in the arc, followed by the episode title, is displayed in red. Unlike most other episodes, the Clone Wars theme is not played over the title card. Instead, "Old Friends Not Forgotten" uses the
Star Wars theme by
John Williams. In addition to the title card, John Williams's
compositions for other Star Wars films are used much more frequently in this arc than in previous arcs in order to emphasize how special the arc was, in keeping with the series' philosophy of only using existing
Star Wars music for "special moments". Parts of the score use elements of
the score of Revenge of the Sith to indicate that a scene from the film, such as the opening scene of the battle over Coruscant, and a different scene from the series, such as the beginning of the titular siege of Mandalore, occur concurrently with each other in
the franchise's chronology. Kiner used
synthesizers in the arc, which was the first time that they were used in both the series and also the wider franchise, both of which tend to use
orchestral scores. Kiner stated that despite this departure from the franchise's traditional music, he tried to keep the scope of the music grand, so that it still sounded like
Star Wars. The opening music of "Victory and Death" features a live choir, which is also unusual for the series. == Promotion and release ==