Various reports are starting to come out that STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS may not be back for a sixth season, despite future seasons being in production. Swank-mo-tron over at Big Shiny Robot has said he’s heard rumblings that it may not make it, and Jason Swank and Jimmy Mac at Rebel Force Radio have said the same thing on their podcast.

STAR WARS fans cannot let this stand.

When Clone Wars first began, it was simply a cartoon set in the STAR WARS universe. The animation wasn’t the greatest, and the stories, while fun, were simple and kind of disposable. However, starting in the second season, the animation began improving, and the storytelling took on a larger, more epic scope, evolving to where now, this cartoon isn’t just something to pass the time with between movies but rather feels like an integral part of the saga.

Somewhere along the line, Star Wars: The Clone Wars became (more often than not) what the fans were expecting from the prequels pre-1999.

If Disney and the new regime at Lucasfilm were smart, they’d recognize this. They’d look at Clone Wars, realize that they’ve got a great thing going on with it, and look to maximize its potential. I know a lot of STAR WARS fans who were disenfranchised with the prequel trilogy — The Clone Wars would go a long way in winning them back, but they aren’t going to put the effort in to catch it on TV right now.

Disney and Lucasfilm could be using this show as a rebranding of the adventures of Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi prior to the Original Trilogy, but they have to get it in front of more people. Put the show on Netflix and Hulu, in the proper chronological order, making it easy to access. I guarantee that the fans who didn’t like the prequels enough to care about checking out this cartoon will watch it out of convenience. And if they watch it, they will like it. It’s a good show.

As for future seasons, well, there are still a few years before EPISODE VII comes out. This show is already in production, is a quality program that usually garners good reviews from the people who bother checking it out, and could be so much more with some support from the distributors and merchandizing partners, bringing Disney and Lucasfilm more money until the world explodes with the release of the Sequel Trilogy.

But they need to support it.

And we need to show them that we will support it.

There are a number of petitions and calls for action going around, and the one I just signed is up at causes.com. I’d ask that any STAR WARS fan reading this take a few seconds and add their name to the list. If you’ve got more than a few seconds, writing an actual, physical letter may be a better way of letting them know that we want our show to remain on the air.

Disney Studios
500 S Buena Vista St
Burbank, CA 91521
Attn: Bob Iger

Lucasfilm
P.O. Box 29901
San Francisco, CA 94129-0901
Attn: Kathleen Kennedy

If you go the snail mail route (as I intend to), please be sure to remain respectful even while discussing your passion for Star Wars: The Clone Wars. As the saying goes, “you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.”

In the meantime, we need to get the word out, so let them know we want this show, and let others know that it may be in trouble and rally them to the cause. STAR WARS has the best (and most vocal) fanbase out there. It can be saved.We just need to let them know that we want it.

Thank you.