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Coming to Netflix, 'Star Wars' is, via unseen 'Clone Wars' shows

The streaming-video service, which has long lacked the famed intergalatic franchise, will premiere 13 unaired episodes of Cartoon Network's "The Clone Wars" animated series.

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Headshot of Joan E. Solsman
Joan E. Solsman Former Senior Reporter
Joan E. Solsman was CNET's senior media reporter, covering the intersection of entertainment and technology. She's reported from locations spanning from Disneyland to Serbian refugee camps, and she previously wrote for Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal. She bikes to get almost everywhere and has been doored only once.
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  • Three Folio Eddie award wins: 2018 science & technology writing (Cartoon bunnies are hacking your brain), 2021 analysis (Deepfakes' election threat isn't what you'd think) and 2022 culture article (Apple's CODA Takes You Into an Inner World of Sign)
Joan E. Solsman
Lucasfilm Ltd

Netflix will get its first brush with the Force soon.

The streaming-video site will premiere 13 unaired episodes of the former Cartoon Network animated series "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" on March 7 in the US and Canada. The episodes, called the sixth and final season of the series, have previously been seen only in Germany.

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In an exclusive deal with Disney, which bought Star Wars shop Lucasfilm in 2012, Netflix secured the rights to the full catalog of "The Clone Wars" seasons and a movie, plus "director's cut" episodes not seen previously.

It gives Netflix its first toehold in the Star Wars franchise to date. The streaming service has long lacked any content linked to the popular space epic, but Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos said in a statement that "The Clone Wars" marks "an important moment as Netflix welcomes more and more first-run content from The Walt Disney Company and its subsidiaries."

The Star Wars series deal is unrelated to Netflix's huge agreement with Disney, one of the top six film studios, to be the only U.S. subscription TV service offering relatively newer movies from many of the company's animation arms, like Pixar and Walt Disney Animation, as well as Marvel and Lucasfilm. It also developing four live-action series and a miniseries based on Marvel characters for 2015.