Moderated by David Collins, Dave Filoni and Joel Aron talk as much as they can about the upcoming third season of The Clone Wars while dodging spoiler questions from a number of cute innocent children...

(This report is based on Sunday's TCW S3 Panel)

- VIDEO CLIP: Things kick off with a clip of S3 in which Kamino is under siege by Ventress, Greivous and the Separatists

- The panel will ultimately feature more TCW footage than they have ever shown in a panel previously

- Joel Aron: Every detail is meticulously thought out. They wanted the Kamino siege to be bigger in scope than Season 2's Landing at Point Rain.

- Dave Filoni - Still trying to make organic settings more realistic. Look for the look of water to be severely upgraded including reflections.

- The new Trident Drills from the Kamino siege clip were Jules Verne inspired

- New Aquadroids have more sharp angles than regular SBDs.

- The clones on Kamino are clean and have yet to develop their distinguishable traits and personalities...ARC troopers are present as well.

- Rex is a key character

- Dave Filoni: Stop sending cute little kids up to ask about the fate of Ahsoka

- Joel Aron: It takes 10 weeks to make an episode. They are now using efficiencies from the Prequels to make new water and explosion/smoke shots more realistic

- Dave Filoni: Not sure how they are going to do all that they have planned for Season 3 but as always, they'll reach for the skies and figure it out.

- Dave Filoni: Ventress will be quite different from the beginning to the end of Season 3.



- VIDEO CLIP: We're shown a clip where an injured Ventress lands on Dathomir and encounters her Nightsister mother (get ready for some retcon EU fans)

- Dave Filoni: We're going to learn a lot about the past of Assaj Ventress. (On a personal note, I wonder if, besides the whole Mando thing, this also played into Karen Traviss leaving the EU. I believe she created a backstory for Ventress in the TCW movie novelization)

- Dave Filoni: The Nightsisters use witchcraft, not necessarily The Force. There are similarities but their powers and uses are different.

- Dave Filoni: Dathomir has a red/blood red color scheme

- Dave Filoni: Season 3 villains are "more potent." Through victories, the Jedi have become overconfident. Look for Dooku to be more evil and intense in S3 while displaying his prowess as a Sith Lord

- VIDEO CLIP: The next clip shows a sleeping Dooku awakened and under attack by 3 lightsaber-wielding assailants. Dooku's pajamas look comfy.

- Dave Filoni: Season 3 is looking bad for Ventress

- Dave Filoni: George Lucas told Dave to show a lot at CV while the PR department said no. Lucas specifically wanted Dave to show the Ventress clip on Dathomir.

- Dave Filoni and George Lucas drew on EU inspiration for the look of the Dathomiri witches but added their own characteristics.

- Katie Lucas wrote a decent amount on Ventress in Season 3 and sourced a lot of EU material.

- Dave Filoni: In speaking to aspiring film makers - listen to those who know more than you.


- VIDEO CLIP: We (and Count Dooku) are introduced to the black and gold Zabrak, Savage Oppress. The color scheme of Savage was not so much a nod to Filoni's love of the Pittsburgh Steelers but simply to create a different look from Darth Maul. Watch the clip here!

- And then with big sound that made your clothes rattle and on one heck of an HD screen, we were presented with the long Season 3 trailer! This was also shown again at the end of the panel.





Notes from the fan Q&A:

- Jango was possibly adopted into Mando culture as opposed to being born Mandalorian

- No full episode commentaries with Dave Filoni are on the horizon just yet

- There are tie-ins to the OT in Season 3

- The character of Durge was replaced by Cad Bane in the series.

- There are big leaps in character development in Season 3

- Anakin isn't a bad guy, he was simply deceived.

- Ahsoka is maturing with new fighting styles and less impulsiveness

- Dave Filoni stands and brings up a young kid with the best Commander Fox costume you'll ever see and states that fans like him are why he gets up so early to do what he does for TCW. (While this is happening, a female fan kind of wanders up on stage and sits in Dave's seat...before being politely led out of the auditorium.)


Make sure to visit Starwars.com for Pete Vilumur's fantastic official write up on the panel as well.


UPDATE: Here are a few more TCW videos screened at CV and filmed by our friend Aaron Goins. These were recorded during the panels so we'll make sure to let you know when they officially pop up online as well.











Thanks Aaron!