We now have some more details about the cancelledStar Wars: UnderworldTV series. Longtime Lucasfilm employee and producer on the series,Rick McCallum, shared some juicy tidbits of information in an interview with theYoung Indy Chroniclerspodcast.
Says McCallum, of the scripts for the series, and why the show never “jumped to hyperspace”:
I think we had over sixty scripts, third-draft scripts…again, the most wonderful writers in the world on it. We created exactly the same experience for everybody on the Ranch…it was a phenomenal group of talent. These were dark. These were not…they were sexy, they were violent, they were just absolutely wonderful, wonderful…complicated, challenging…it would have blown up the wholeStar Warsuniverse. And Disney definitely never would have offered to buy it from George. [laughs] It’s one of the great disappointments of our lives. But the problem was, each episode was bigger than the films. The lowest I could get it down to, with the technology that existed then, was about $40 million an episode.
For comparison, McCallum notes that HBO’sBand of Brothers, considered an exorbitantly expensive series at the time, cost $12 million USD an episode.
What Do We Know About ‘Star Wars: Underworld’?
Underworldwas set on the galactic capital world of Coruscant, which first appeared inThe Phantom Menace; however, it would not have taken place among its gleaming spires and stately temples, but in the seedy, sunless underworld beneath them. It would not have featured any characters from the movies, was said to follow an anthology format, and was inspired byfilm noir, with relatively minimal action and more dialogue. Said Lucas, “It’s more of what I would call a soap opera with a bunch of personal dramas in it.” Although it was scuttled when Disney acquired Lucasfilm in 2012, elements of it have fund their way into the newStar Warscanon, whether in theClone WarsTV series or inThe Book of Boba Fett. As currentStar WarsmaestroDave Filoninoted in aVanity Fairinterview, “It’s something we’re very precious with at Lucasfilm because it represents this big piece of work that George did before he basically leftStar Wars.”
Underworldisn’t the onlyStar Warsproject that ended up in the Great Pit of Carkoon in the wake of the Disney deal. Lucasfilm produced 39 episodes ofStar Wars: Detours, a CG-animated comedy series from the creators ofRobot Chicken, before its acquisition by Disney; they remain locked away in the Disney vaults, and have never been broadcast.
Rick McCallum’s full interview with theYoung Indy Chroniclerspodcast is available online now. Stay tuned to Collider for future updates.
