Star Wars: Ewoks

• 1. Introduction

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  Star Wars: Ewoks arrived on ABC on the 7th of September, 1985, bringing the forest moon of Endor into American living rooms every Saturday morning. The tiny, bear-like creatures who had charmed audiences in Return of the Jedi two years earlier were now the stars of their own animated series, and the galaxy far, far away suddenly felt very small.

  The show was produced by Nelvana Limited, a Canadian animation studio, on behalf of Lucasfilm. It first aired alongside a companion series called Droids as part of a block called The Ewoks and Droids Adventure Hour. Then it continued alone, rebranded as The All-New Ewoks, until its final broadcast on the 13th of December, 1986.

  What did this series set out to do, and did it succeed? Critics who looked back at it were not always kind. But the story of how it was made, who voiced its characters, and how its world was built raises questions worth answering. What exactly was life on Endor like before the Empire arrived? And why does one episode connect so directly to the events of Return of the Jedi that it has been called a narrative link between the cartoon and the film?

• 2. Life on the Forest Moon

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  Wicket W. Warrick, the young Ewok audiences first met in Return of the Jedi, sits at the center of the series. He is the youngest brother in the Warrick family, described as headstrong and determined, with dark brown fur and an orange hood that switches to green in the second season. His driving ambition is to become a great warrior, and that ambition consistently lands him in danger.

  Around Wicket, the show built a community of families. Chief Chirpa led the tribe after the death of his wife Ra-Lee, raising two daughters: the younger Princess Kneesaa, who often served as the group's voice of reason, and her older sister Asha, who had gone missing at the time of their mother's death and was eventually reunited with her family. Wicket's best friend Teebo, the older child of Warok and Batcheela, became an apprentice to the tribe's shaman, Master Logray, drawn by a fascination with sorcery.

  Endor itself was crowded with creatures and factions. The Duloks, a rival species, formed the main recurring threat, led by King Gorneesh. Morag, a Tulgah witch, carried a personal grudge against Master Logray. Beyond them, the forest held giants called Phlogs who had originated offworld, canid wanderers called Jindas cursed to eternal nomadic life by a Rock Wizard, and a tree demon called the Raich who had once been imprisoned by brave Ewok warriors using a magical hat crafted by the two-headed magician known as the Gonster.

• 3. The Voices Behind the Ewoks

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  Cree Summer voiced Princess Kneesaa in the first season before Jeanne Reynolds took over the role. Summer, who would go on to become one of the most recognizable voices in North American animation, was still early in her career when she recorded those lines. Jim Henshaw originated the voice of Wicket before Denny Delk assumed the character.

  The cast extended across a large ensemble. Jackie Burroughs voiced the villainous Morag, giving the Tulgah witch a distinct presence against Doug Chamberlain's measured performance as Master Logray. Alyson Court played Malani, the younger sibling of Teebo, who harbored a persistent crush on Wicket. Don Francks voiced Umwak, the Dulok shaman serving as right-hand man to King Gorneesh.

  The two direct-to-video compilation films created during the production of the Star Wars prequel trilogy added one more voice to the roster. In the 2004 release Tales from the Endor Woods, narration came from "Adult Wicket," voiced by Alex Lindsay, framing the childhood adventures as memories recalled from a later vantage point. That framing gave the old cartoon episodes a retrospective weight they did not originally carry.

• 4. Two Seasons, Two Styles

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  Season one carried a relatively sophisticated approach to storytelling. The theme song was written and performed by Taj and Inshirah Mahal. Episodes ran in the standard half-hour format alongside the companion Droids series.

  Season two broke from that approach in nearly every direction. Episodes were shortened to an 11-minute format, meaning two segments fit into a single half-hour slot. The writing and visual style were both simplified. A new theme song, "Friends Together, Friends Forever," replaced the original, written and performed by Patrick Gleeson. Four episodes were long enough to run as standalone half-hours: "The Raich," "Night of the Stranger," "The Season Scepter," and "Battle for the Sunstar."

  That last episode, "Battle for the Sunstar," became the most discussed installment of the run. It was the penultimate episode of the series before being reaired as the finale. In it, Wicket and his friends leave the forest moon's surface and board an Imperial Star Destroyer. An Imperial scientist named Dr. Raygar attempts to use the Sunstar to overthrow the Emperor, whose shuttle makes a brief appearance. Critics and fans noted that the episode forms a connection to Return of the Jedi, which shows the Empire using Endor as the base for the second Death Star.

• 5. Toys, Comics, and Home Media

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  Kenner Products launched a line of action figures based on the series in 1985. A second wave of figures was designed and prototyped but never reached shelves, cancelled after the initial wave sold poorly. Several Ewok-themed vehicles, playsets, and accessories were advertised on the packaging of the existing figures but were never released under the Ewoks Cartoon brand.

  Star Comics, an imprint of Marvel, published a bi-monthly Ewoks comic in 1985. It ran for two years and produced 14 issues in total. Issue ten crossed over with issue four of the companion Droids comic, continuing a story called "Lost in Time." A Spanish publisher, Editorial Gepsa, also produced two-page Ewoks comics within an anthology series. Much later, in 2013, a one-shot graphic novel titled Ewoks: Shadows of Endor bridged narrative gaps between the cartoon, the two films, and Return of the Jedi.

  On the video side, almost all episodes were released on VHS during the 1980s and 1990s. The UK PAL releases across six cassettes edited out opening sequences and credits. Two direct-to-video compilations followed: The Haunted Village, released on VHS in 1997, and Tales from the Endor Woods, released by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment on DVD in 2004. The complete series became available on Disney+ on the 2nd of April, 2021.

• 6. Reception and Later Legacy

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  Historian David Perlmutter described the series as "unremarkable both technically and creatively." Screen Rant placed it within a period when television executives had little understanding of what made good children's animation, comparing it to The Smurfs, Snorks, and Care Bears. SyFy Wire framed the show as "more a marketing ploy for Lucasfilm than a worthwhile extension of the franchise," built to sell toys, cereals, and action figures, though the same assessment acknowledged that it included a few genuinely entertaining episodes that appealed to both parents and children.

  Lucasfilm excluded the series from the official Star Wars canon in 2014. Despite that, certain elements survived into canon through other channels. The Duloks appeared on Coruscant in chapter 21 of the 2D animated Clone Wars series from 2003. Some series elements were included in the canon reference book Ultimate Star Wars, published in 2015, and in later reference volumes. The canon web series Star Wars Forces of Destiny, which ran in 2018, also incorporated material from the original Ewoks show.

  The most unexpected legacy moment came from outside the Star Wars universe entirely. The series' opening titles appeared briefly in an episode of the fourth season of Stranger Things, released in 2022. Elements of the Ewoks animated world, meanwhile, continued to be documented in Star Wars reference media including A Guide to the Star Wars Universe and the Star Wars Encyclopedia.