The Cartoon Network has ordered a second 22-episode season of the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars from Lucasfilm Animation.  The first episode of the second season of Clone Wars will debut in the fall of 2009.  The last episode of the first season airs on the Cartoon Network on March 20th.  The first season of Clone Wars begins its run on the TNT network this Saturday, February 14th with back-to-back episodes at 11pm (following an NBA event).  The series then shifts to its regular TNT timeslot on Wednesday nights with back-to-back episodes running from 10pm to 11pm (ET, PT).

With the tremendous ratings that the series earned during its debut on the Cartoon Network (see “Clone Wars Scores Highest Ratings Ever”) and its solid rating performance since, the renewal of the Clone War series was a foregone conclusion.  It should also be a boon to retailers to keep this property in the public eye.  Brian Goldner of Hasbro reported that his company’s Star Wars toys showed a solid improvement in 2008 (“Star Wars was up significantly for the year.”), something that can largely be attributed to the Clone Wars movie and cartoon.  Both Dark Horse and Penguin Books have published Clone Wars graphic novels that have done quite well and helped to boost Star Wars to the top of ICv2’s Top Genre Graphic Novel Properties list for 2008.