10 Star Wars Storylines That Would Make Great New Animated Spinoff Series

A myriad of Star Wars projects have been released under the Disney banner, but not all of them are living up to fan expectations. With an immense amount of legends and canon material to pull from, it’s a wonder why Disney doesn’t explore more options in line with what fans really want to see.

One of the most successful Star Wars projects in the franchise’s history is the animated hit Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which had an impressive seven-season run from 2008 to 2020. In that time, other successful animated spinoffs came to fruition such as Star Wars: Rebels and Star Wars: The Bad Batch. Considering the endless possibilities that can come from animation, it would behoove Disney to consider more stories told in that format. There are countless possible storylines from the Star Wars universe that have the potential to be animated spinoffs.

10 The High Republic Era Is Much More Than The Acolyte

With the most recent Star Wars series, The Acolyte, not finding much traction among audiences, it might make sense to re-evaluate other storytelling possibilities that can be derived from that era. The High Republic is a more recently explored time period of Star Wars that has a lot of interesting characters and events detailing the years prior to Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. Taking place a couple of hundred years before, the Jedi are at the height of their power, yet the root of their downfall is already beginning to take form.

With a ton of stories in the High Republic era being told in books and comics, there are more than enough opportunities to tell a new story in animation taking place during that time. One storyline that comes to mind is the one that introduced fans to the era in the first place. The novel Star Wars: The High Republic – Light of the Jedi did a fantastic job introducing readers to the era, its rules, characters and political circumstances. However, as it stands, the High Republic has left a bad taste in fans’ mouths, so it might make sense to hold off on another visual portrayal of the era for the time being.

9 Rise of the First Order Might Give Fans a New Perspective

If there’s one element of Star Wars that is not explored on a deeper level, it’s experiencing what the galaxy is like from the perspective of the bad guys. While there have been episodes of television and runs of comics that do so, fans might appreciate an animated series told entirely from the perspective of the dark side. This particular reign of dark side power could see a ton of new characters, especially Stormtroopers similar to Finn, but also the inclusion of dark force users like Kylo Ren.

An interesting piece of the sequel trilogy involved the backstory of First Order Stormtroopers. Finn revealed that he had been taken from his home and his family as a child and programmed by the First Order into doing their bidding and becoming a Stormtrooper against his will. This is revealed to be the case for many of the Stormtroopers in their ranks. Having an animated series centered around a group of Stormtroopers adapting to their new purpose but then slowly trying to rebel against it would be an interesting spinoff in the Star Wars universe.

8 Rise of the Menace Could Include Darth Plagueis

One of the fan-favorite characters in Star Wars that has only been mentioned in canon and expanded upon in legends material is the evil Sith Lord Darth Plagueis the Wise. Being an integral part of the Republic’s downfall, Darth Plagueis as the sole manipulator of events in the galaxy along with the training of his apprentices would be a fun thing to see on screen. The five or six decades prior to Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace has a ton of material to work with.

Still at the height of their power, the Jedi have minimal large-scale conflicts to intervene in. However, the inner workings of the Sith could show many more occasions of them slowly planting seeds for their eventual takeover. An animated series allows for Darth Plagueis but also for the training and rise of his most powerful apprentice, Darth Sidious. As years go by, it seems the best way to bring Sidious’ origins to life on screen is through an animated spinoff series.

7 A Smugglers Series Would Allow for More Han Solo Adventures

What the animated series allow writers and creators to do best is include fan-favorite characters without the worry of not being able to use the original actors. As seen in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, many major Star Wars characters were explored further when their stories continued in animation. Furthermore, there are more than a few areas of Star Wars lore that have key characters in them. One of those corners of the galaxy is the various smuggling organizations.

Whether exploring a band of smuggling characters audiences never met before or focusing on some that they have, there are multiple time periods to base a smuggling animated series around. The New Republic era would allow for a series centered around the Smugglers’ Alliance and Talon Karde while the Reign of the Empire era could give audiences even more Han Solo adventures. Regardless of who the main characters are, the smugglers’ perspective is different from the typical personas audiences usually spend time with in Star Wars.

6 The Early Old Republic Era Had More Intense Wars

“You fought in the clone wars.” Ever since that iconic line was spoken by Luke Skywalker in Star Wars, it became an intriguing piece of Star Wars lore that fans wanted to know more about. Finally, that era was explored more and more until its entire history had been revealed. While it took some time, the Clone Wars lived up to audience expectations and then some, but it’s far from the only tantalizing era fans want to know more about.

While it has been covered more thoroughly in books, games and comics, the early Old Republic era has yet to be explored by the new canon iteration of Star Wars. An era that saw many wars, the early Old Republic was a time when Jedi and Sith were equal in numbers, at least according to legends material. It was a time when a Republic and an Empire existed simultaneously and the result of two great powers existing at once was some of the most intense conflicts in the history of the Galaxy. Taking place thousands and thousands of years before the events of the films, the early Old Republic seems more fit for the big screen. However, exploring what the galaxy was like for characters existing at that time could most certainly work in an animated spinoff.

5 The Mandalorian Civil War Is the Perfect Clone Wars Prequel

With Star Wars: The Clone Wars existing as a perfect prequel to the original trilogy, there is still room for an animated spinoff that is a prequel of the prequel. As fans will recall, The Mandalorian and Star Wars: The Clone Wars reference a point of great conflict among the Mandalorian people. Before the Clone Wars, Mandalore was a powerful planet of people with long-standing traditions that made them one of the superpowers in the galaxy. However, a civil war would soon ensue that would split the people into two parties.

Although these events have been briefly covered in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, an animated spinoff centered on the planet and its conflicts would make a lot of sense. Fans could see the Mandalorian people at a different time, separate from the events of The Mandalorian. After the Empire nearly purged the entire race, the Mandalorian people have been clinging to survival, but showing them at the peak of their power and then watching it slowly fall apart would make an interesting animated series.

4 The Next Generation Could Come After the New Jedi Order

Assuming Disney is still planning to do a New Jedi Order movie starring Daisy Ridley as Rey, following her as she rebuilds a Jedi Order, then an animated spinoff has some potential. Although Disney may never do “The New Jedi Order” nearly as well as the legends novels did, the time period and the importance of the Jedi presence in a rebuilding galaxy can’t be overlooked. However, there’s actually less excitement around directly following what takes place in the upcoming movie.

There is more than one reason to explore the next generation of Jedi, but even more reasons to center a show around The New Jedi Order many years after it’s been established. Separating from the events of the sequel trilogy can’t happen if Rey remains at the center of upcoming storylines. It would be much more exciting to explore the galaxy many, many decades into the future and from the perspective of new characters influencing the biggest events. What this also allows Disney to do is adapt the most unique conflict from old legends material. Audiences have seen Jedi battle Sith and Rebellions battle Empires, but they haven’t seen the known galaxy have to fight a new danger from deep in the “unknown regions.” The Yuuzhan Vong War may finally have a way to exist in the new Star Wars canon after all.

3 The Rise of Darth Bane Happened During an Interesting War

Audiences have spent a lot of time in eras of Star Wars where the Jedi are many and the Sith are few or vice versa. Similar to the early Old Republic, there was a final time when Sith existed in large numbers, and it was 900 plus years before the events of Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. However, the Sith existed differently than they did many thousands of years before this moment, and they changed again because of one key figure at the center of it.

As mentioned in canon material and explored more greatly in legends material, the Sith evolved into a new philosophy called the “Rule of Two,” which meant that there were never more than two Sith existing in the galaxy at a time. This practice is portrayed extensively in the films through the perspective of Darth Sidious. There was a time when it wasn’t like that for the Sith. During the “Jedi-Sith War” that saw the Jedi of the Republic fighting a more cultish version of the Sith called the Brotherhood of Darkness, one Sith, Darth Bane, changed everything. Establishing the “Rule of Two” and allowing the Jedi to appear victorious is a moment in time that Disney shouldn’t hesitate to adapt into a spinoff series, and it would work just fine in animation.

2 The Greatest Thrawn Crisis Hasn’t Been Adapted Yet

Even though it seems like Disney is telling their own version of the old legends “Thrawn Trilogy” from the 90s with Ahsoka Tano at the center of it, there’s no denying how great it would be to see the real heroes of that story as the main characters of it. And those heroes are incredibly familiar. While doing a version of the Thrawn Trilogy where Ahsoka is the hero audiences follow wouldn’t be bad, but it might devalue the importance of Star Wars‘ most iconic characters.

In the legends books that introduced Grand Admiral Thrawn, it is Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Leia Organa-Solo who are forced to fight the Empire once more in the midst of rebuilding a New Republic. There is a perfect opportunity to tell the story of this crisis correctly, and it starts just right with the events of Ahsoka. What that series set-up works great as a precursor to a larger narrative. What should follow is an animated series portraying the next great war with an Imperial remnant. However, the only way to do it right is to include Luke, Han and Leia as main characters and the only way to properly include the characters once more is through animation. This, along with Ahsoka returning once more to the medium where she was first introduced, feels right for any version of the greatest Thrawn crisis yet.

1 It Would Be Fun to See the Rebellion Era and the New Republic Animated

As previously mentioned, there’s something special about bringing some of the most iconic characters back into Star Wars stories through the use of animation. Star Wars: The Clone Wars allowed fans to spend many more years with characters such as Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Master Yoda because there wasn’t a reliance on casting the right face or bringing back an old face. In animation, all anyone needs is the right voice, and this can apply to any character across Star Wars lore.

While the animated spinoff shows have already explored the era that followed Star Wars: The Clone Wars with Star Wars: Rebels, it wasn’t through the perspectives of the greatest heroes from that era. Anakin and Obi-Wan got their time in the animated sun, but Luke, Han and Leia need theirs too. An animated spinoff taking place in between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back and then subsequently after the fall of the Empire allows for a million more storytelling possibilities for the most important faces in all of Star Wars. Showing Luke, Han and Leia during crucial moments of the most famous war they fought and then fighting early conflicts after their victory has the potential to be the best Star Wars animated project since Star Wars: The Clone Wars.