Lucasfilm Animation Adds Brenda Chapman as Consultant

Are big changes afoot at Lucasfilm Animation?  Are they gearing up for new projects?

Word spread via /Film that former Pixar Writer/Director Brenda Chapman has signed on to work as a consultant with Lucasfilm's Animation division.

From /Film:

"That became official this week as she’s now working at LucasFilm, consulting in their animation department on a mystery project. Read more and speculate after the jump.
Chapman’s Pixar to LucasFilm move was first reported by Pixar Portal (via Pixar Planet). The story says she left Pixar at the end of July.
Chapman’s resume speaks for itself, so whether her departure from Pixar was amicable or not, is pretty insignificant. The bigger news is she’s now working at LucasFilm, in their animation department. That department has been strictly devoted to Star Wars: The Clone Wars."

This is news that I first saw on Jedi News, but /Film also points to Lucasfilm Animation's "About" page for some hints at what might be coming down the pipeline from the studio.

"Founded in 2003, Lucasfilm Animation is a digital animation studio launched to produce Star Wars: The Clone Wars - a computer-generated, weekly animated series exploring the further adventures of "a galaxy far, far away." Bringing an unprecedented production quality to TV animation, the series has appealed to an entirely new generation of Star Wars fans, while maintaining the level of storytelling introduced by the live-action films.
In addition to continuing work on Star Wars: The Clone Wars and developing a second Star Wars animated series, the studio is also focusing efforts on feature film animation and other new intellectual properties." ~http://www.lucasfilm.com/divisions/animation/

The second animated series is the Matthew Senreich and Seth Green, who will be discussing and possibly showing stuff from their animated project at Star Wars Celebration VI on both Friday and Saturday at 1pm during the mysteriously titled "Super-Secret Star Wars Panel with Todd, Seth, and Matt (1hr, Celebration Stage (Chapin Theater))."

It would be interesting to see if the Clone Wars series finale is going to get the feature film treatment like it's premier did.

There are a number of interesting feature film animated possibilities within the Star Wars universe.  How about a Dark Times animated Vader film, hunting Jedi and establishing Imperial control while resolving his inner conflicts.  Or what about feature treatment for certain EU or comic tales, even if it is in the direct to video format.  I would love to see Grand Admiral Thrawn in animation.

Hopefully we get some clue as to what Ms. Chapman may be working on at CVI, but it may be a little longer until all is revealed.

To learn more about Brenda Chapman and her impressive career visit her website: http://brenda-chapman.com/ and you can also follow Brenda Chapman on Twitter at @brenda_chapman.