Source: IGN | EW | Posted By: Dan Geer
Ever since it was first announced way back in 2005 at the Star Wars Celebration III Convention in Indianapolis, Indiana, the Star Wars Live-Action series has become the most anticipated project from Lucasfilm that almost seems like it will never see the light of day.
We know that 50 scripts have been written for the show, that it takes place between Episodes III and IV of the film series, and that it will deal with minor characters from the films and/or characters we’ve never seen before. It has also been mentioned in the past that Boba Fett, the infamous bounty hunter who captured Han Solo in The Empire Strikes Back, will be a part of it. However, the show is currently delayed because George Lucas and producer Rick McCallum are waiting until it becomes affordable to produce TV episodes that hold their own against the epic visual scale of the feature films.
It has been a while since we last had an update, but this week McCallum has been commenting on the status of the series while promoting his upcoming film, Red Tails, with both IGN and Entertainment Weekly, discussing the working title of the series, the difficultly of producing it, and even some vague plot details. Read on to watch IGN‘s incredibly interesting interview, and for snippets from the EW article!
IGN Rick McCallum Video Interview:
In the EW interview, Rick McCallum reiterated that Star Wars: Underworld is just a working title at this point (although I personally like it enough for it to become the official title), that the project is still more than four years away, and that we should expect to see “smugglers, gangsters, bounty hunters, and a few Wall Street-type power brokers.” The article also speculates on what Star Wars characters might appear in the show:
A number of behind-the-scenes moves over the past few years have fueled speculation: George Lucas himself ordered that popular Jedi rogue Quinlan Vos survive the Star Wars: Republic comics series; A.C. Crispin’s proposed young Princess Leia novel series was canceled, as was a Boba Fett novel to be penned by Mandalorian obsessive Karen Traviss. Could this mean that Vos, Leia, and Fett could be involved in a TV series?
Obviously, McCallum isn’t saying. But the fact that over 50 scripts have been penned “by writers hailing from Europe, Australia, and North America,” according to McCallum, suggests that the show could be envisioned as an anthology series, sort of like a television analogue to the Tales of the Mos Eisley Cantina short-story project in the ’90s, with many already-established aspects of the Expanded Universe included.
McCallum has already stated that Fett would be involved, and the idea of Quinlan Vos or even Leia being involved could be quite interesting. I’m not holding my breath to see Leia though, since she’d be really young during the show, and McCallum told EW that it will not deal with Luke or the Skywalker saga. It is a show about minor Star Wars film characters, as well as new characters, so a character like Leia just seems out of the question.
Everything that has been revealed about this show sounds very promising. It really is too bad that we won’t see this show any time soon. But, just like this article says, at least we can get our weekly Star Wars fix with The Clone Wars on Cartoon Network!
Head on over to IGN and EW for full articles!
