History in Objects is a continuing series exploring Lucasfilm’s legacy stretching from their founding in 1971 to today, and their most recent article focuses on a very early 2006 crew shirt from Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
By 2006, the relatively small Lucasfilm Animation crew at Skywalker Ranch was busily working on development of the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars. In collaboration with their overseas partners, they had the responsibility of carrying Star Wars into a new era, and worked closely with George Lucas who guided the storytelling and mentored its creators.
Supervising director Dave Filoni had been hired in 2005 not long before the release of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. The 30-year-old had been working as an episodic director at Nickelodeon on the animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender. He was also a passionate Star Wars fan who’d made his own costume of Jedi Plo Koon. Filoni’s love for the Kel Dor master not only inspired his appearances in The Clone Wars, but also a recognizable behind-the-scenes icon.
Filoni’s hand-drawn “Plo Kool” doodle was adapted into an approval stamp used to sign off on concepts, designs, and other artwork during the busy period of creating the foundational look and feel of the series. The tongue-in-cheek image was then affixed to a Clone Wars crew shirt from 2006 (perhaps Lucasfilm Animation’s first ever).
Read the article in full here.
