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Bounty hunters change the dynamic in season two. New facial rigs have provided more expressive performances. TM & ©2009 Lucasfilm Ltd.

Season two of Star Wars: The Clone Wars kicks off tonight with a special one-hour premiere, "Rise of the Bounty Hunters," (8:00 p.m. on Cartoon Network), and we caught up with director Dave Filoni about the latest adventures of George Lucas' CG-animated series at Lucasfilm Animation. Merciless Bounty Hunter Cad Bane leads his droids to battle the Jedi, whose lives become more complicated and forbidden relationships are revealed.

Bill Desowitz: This second season introduces bounty hunters. What's the impact?

Dave Filoni: Yeah, I'm really excited. Last season was about: What's this show? What's it going to be? What does it mean that it's CG? The audience now knows what it's about going in, but they're going to be surprised how much we've evolved the show, not just in the scenes and the stories, but also the animation itself and the way the show looks.

BD: And what's the story arc?

DF: What the bounty hunter adds is sort of a third party. They're not the Separatists, they're not the Republic: they work for the highest bidder -- their morals are different. What they're trying to get out of the war and the chaos are different. I think it's interesting to assume that every bounty hunter would be a bad guy, but that's not necessarily the case. The bounty hunters can make choices. They're in the same kind of gray area as Han Solo. And you understood as a kid that there was this whole world of Greedo and Han and the cantina denizens that were different from the rebels or the Empire. And I think we really missed that in the first season. So we have that element and it's going to affect our main characters of Anakin and Ahsoka and Obi-Wan. When we get to Ahsoka, we're going to see her maturing process and her relationship with Anakin strengthen. And they act differently this season: she's not as snarky; she has to pay consequences for her actions, but she's smarter and she's more like Anakin. We see that Anakin cares more about her, which is part of Yoda's plan. And the big question is: Will Anakin learn that she is self-reliant and let her go?

Obi-Wan has a much more interesting arc in that we see that he's much more vulnerable. He's always been a very venerable Jedi Knight: always seeming on top of everything. We see a slightly more flawed Obi-Wan and we learn a bit more about his past and where he came from. So we get to go a bit more behind the beard, which I think a lot of fans have been wanting to see.

Obi-Wan is less mysterious and slightly more vulnerable in season two.

BD: Sounds richer. What about this adventure for you in CG animation?