That's still a few weeks away though. Tonight's episode brings back an old friend, the Weequay pirate Hondo Ohnaka, who was last seen capturing and imprisoning Count Dooku and, later, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker. The three Force users eventually escaped of course, and Ohnaka fled the scene, fearful at the realization that he'd made a powerful enemy in Dooku. Tonight, Anakin and Obi-Wan will ally themselves with a group of bounty hunters as they defend a village on the planet Felucia. And if you think that sounds a lot like the premise for Akira Kurosawa's 'Seven Samurai'... well... you're right!
In an interview with MTV, 'Clone Wars' supervising director Dave Filoni spoke to the inspiration behind tonight's episode. 'The story idea definitely comes from [George Lucas], as all of the stories now do,' he explained. 'They start with an outline that we sit down at a table and work out. [He'll say] 'we're going to do something similar to Seven Samurai,' and it's totally out of respect and love for the material, and the type of interesting story it could be.'
'The story stands that test of time,' Filoni said of 'Samurai.' 'You can take it and look at popular media everywhere, from 'A Bug's Life' to 'The Magnificent Seven.' George having worked with Kurosawa in the past, there's even a little blurb at the beginning of [tonight's episode] that says 'In Memory of Akira Kurosawa.''
In an odd bit of parity, tonight's episode, 'Bounty Hunters,' falls quite close to the 100th birthday of the famed Japanese director behind 'Seven Samurai.' Filoni insists that it's all coincidence, though nothing out of the ordinary when it comes to the 'Star Wars' creator's sense of timing, even unintentional. 'If [Lucas] had any idea when he pitched this story that [it would air close to Kurosawa's 100th birthday], then he really is Yoda.'
What fans should watch closely tonight is the Hondo Ohnaka character, which Filoni says is one of Lucas' favorites. 'I think he's found [Hondo] to be a very interesting character. He likes that kind of ruffian guy [with whom] you don't have to suddenly worry about, is he a Jedi? Is he a Sith? What powers does he have? He's got the powers of how clever can he be to outwit these guys that have vastly greater powers than he does, and yet somehow Hondo hangs in there and fights them right to the edge.'
You can see for yourself tonight when 'Star Wars: The Clone Wars' airs tonight at 9pm on the Cartoon Network.
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