Star Wars sequel trilogy of episodes "VII", "VIII" and "IX". Dale Pollock, George Lucas's biographer, revealed in a 2012 interview, that as part of his biographical research during the 1980s, Lucas had allowed him to read the plot outlines for the at the time comprising 12 planned "Star Wars" film episodes, albeit on the condition of signing a confidentiality agreement. Those plans Pollock saw, however were drastically changed after "Empire Strikes Back" released because Lucas decided not to make the sequel trilogy, and instead finish the story as a trilogy, by ending the storyline with "". This led Lucas to rework and fully incorporate
Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008 TV series) announced that "The Clone Wars" would be "winding down" to focus on the "Star Wars" sequel trilogy and a new series, "Star Wars Rebels". On February 13, 2014, Netflix announced that starting on March 7, 2014 they would begin the US distribution of the entire TV series, including some previously unreleased director's cuts, and the previously unaired new season dubbed "The Lost Missions". The latter also became available for purchase on digital video stores, such as iTunes, in . In November 2016, Pablo Hidalgo from the Lucasfilm story group revealed that the "Young Padawans" arc from Season 5 was intended