Star Wars: The Clone Wars – Rise of the Bounty Hunters premieres on Cartoon Network on Friday, October 2 at 8pm ET/PT, back-to-back with “Holocron Heist” and “Cargo of Doom”, in two can’t-miss episodes where bounty hunters and ruthless mercenaries, led by the ruthless Cad Bane, steal the show. This is a special, one-hour episode of The Clone Wars! First introduced in the shocking finale of Season 1, Bane returns to wreak even more havoc and casualties – bringing his own elite arsenal to bear on the heart of the Republic. Hired to infiltrate the Jedi Temple and steal a precious holocron – an ancient memory storage device – Bane won’t let anyone stand in his way. When Ahsoka is assigned to guard the Jedi Archives as punishment for disobeying orders, this seemingly boring duty puts her directly in Bane’s path to his goal. "If you saw the last episode of last season, you knew that Cade had no problem taking a dip into the tiger's den. He was brave and fearless, and that really caused a lot of trouble for the Jedi," said Dave Filoni, supervising director of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. "These episodes really bring back the spirit of adventure that is Star Wars, and that's what I've always loved. There's a big war going on out there, but the conflict is so much more personal and personal. When you throw someone like Cade into the middle of that chaos, the stakes are raised. It makes it more tense and more entertaining." The character of Bane allowed the crew of The Clone Wars to revisit the original films they loved, tracing back to George Lucas's concept for Bane from the original Star Wars to make this possible. "[Cad Bane] is a concept that really goes all the way back to the first movie, and it draws a lot of inspiration from all kinds of genres, including the Western," said Lucas, creator and executive producer of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. "When it came time to introduce a ruthless bounty hunter character to the franchise, he was a natural fit. He's a top-notch gunslinger -- he's mysterious, and he's ruthless. It's been a thematic part of Star Wars from the beginning." Ruthless bounty hunter Cad Bane ponders his next vicious move in "Holocron Heist," an all-new episode of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, premiering Friday, October 2 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Cartoon Network. Following the classic Star Wars trajectory established by the original trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars Season 2 will deepen the story of the conflict itself, exploring aspects of war never before seen. Just as The Empire Strikes Back added depth and complexity to the classic archetypes established in A New Hope, Rise of the Bounty Hunter peels back the layers to reveal a complexity and intensity that was only briefly glimpsed in the series’ first season. Cad Bane and his cadre of bounty hunters are about to escalate the action… and the artists at Lucasfilm Animation are happy to help!