Soon after Disney acquired Lucasfilm, the axe was put to the popular animated TV series, Star Wars: The Clone Wars.  The show was nixed because it was created before the acquisition, and aired on Cartoon Network as opposed to Disney’s kids channel, Disney XD.  But we knew a replacement wouldn’t be far behind, and now the studio has announced that production is underway on the new animated series, Star Wars Rebels.  Simon Kinberg (who also working on a Star Wars spin-off/standalone film) will executive produce and write the screenplay for the one-hour series premiere.  Dave Filoni (Star Wars: The Clone Wars) and Greg Weisman (Young Justice) will also executive produce (i.e. these two will probably be the showrunners).  The series will take place during the twenty years between Episode III and Episode IV, and shows “a time where the Empire is securing its grip on the galaxy and hunting down the last of the Jedi Knights as a fledgling rebellion against the Empire is taking shape.”  If Admiral Ackbar is not a main character, then this entire series is pointless.

The series will premiere in fall 2014 on the Disney Channel before moving to Disney XD.  Hit the jump for video of Pablo Hidalgo talking with Filoni about the series.  We’ve also included the press release.

We’re currently in a time when Hollywood seems more likely to revamp, reboot, remake or re-adapt an already established property than to take a chance on something wholly original.  Financially, this makes sense as the general public is already aware of the franchise in question and may be more likely to go see a new iteration out of a sense of nostalgia or plain old curiosity.  We’ve seen Hollywood continually mine our rich, fertile and imaginative childhoods as a source of box office fodder (Transformers, G.I. Joe, Teenage Mutant/Alien Ninja Turtles) and that’s not likely to stop any time soon.  So I’m here to take the initiative and offer up some forgotten franchises, some lesser-known vintage properties and some downright obscure media to sacrifice to the box office gods.  Our initial feature will plead the case for a re-imagining of one of my favorite mid-90s animated shows and you can read it after the jump.  Hollywood! Adapt This: Disney’s Gargoyles.  

Cartoon Network unveiled their new and returning series yesterday and one of the new ones was Young Justice.  Based on characters from the DC Universe, Young Justice will feature teenage versions of Robin, Aqualad, Kid Flash, Superboy, Miss Martian and Artemis.  The series will be executive produced by Sam Register (Teen Titans, Ben 10, Batman: The Brave and the Bold) and Brandon Vietti (Batman: Under the Red Hood, Superman Doomsday, The Batman) and Greg Weisman (Gargoyles, The Spectacular Spider-Man, W.I.T.C.H.) are the producers.

No word on the premiere date, but I’d imagine it’s sometime in the fall and we’ll hear specifics at Comic-Con.  Hit the jump for the first image/poster from the series.

Hello, True Believers! Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few days, you’ve heard about Disney’s acquisition of Marvel Entertainment, all the details of which can be read here. Now, there have been a lot of panicky reactions shooting across the interwebs since this news has leaked, some concerned with the future quality of Marvel’s film properties, some concerned with the fate of the comic book wing of Marvel Entertainment, and some with Marvel’s preexisting television projects. Today, however, we have some potentially very good news for fans of TV’s “Spectacular Spider-Man” and for Spidey fans in general: Sony has relinquished all television rights for the web slinger in favor of some more favorable film options for the property. Not only does this open up the future for animated projects, but could possibly give us the opportunity for a Smallville-esque live action Spider-series. Is your spider-sense tingling? If so, hit the thwip…er…jump, for more.