George Lucas' Star Wars TV Show Scripts Had No Budget Constraints
George Lucas once had huge plans for a Star Wars TV series, with numerous "crazy and big" scripts having been written, says former writer.
Canceled Star Wars TV show, Underworld, scripts were being written with no budget constraints at George Lucas’ request. Over the years, the legendary Star Wars creator has been at the center of numerous fan debates on a wide range of topics relating to the acclaimed franchise. Beyond the original Star Wars trilogy (as well as the prequels), Lucas worked tirelessly at developing new concepts and potential directions for his beloved franchise.
Most of these never came to fruition and some, like the made for TV Ewok films such as Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure and Ewoks: The Battle for Endor, have been disparagingly looked back on by some fans. After the prequels were released, Lucas turned his attention to creating the first live-action Star Wars TV show, Underworld. An ambitious project that would have spanned multiple seasons. Over the years since plenty of tidbits about the series have leaked out to the public, but the project ultimately died when Lucas sold the Star Wars brand to Disney.
The truth of the matter, however, is that the Star Wars maestro was undertaking some seriously ambitious planning for a Star Wars TV series at one point. News of “big and crazy” scripts for the series has recently become available, courtesy of a Collider interview with writer and producer, Ronald D. Moore. Said Moore:
“It was an extraordinary undertaking for someone to do. I don’t know anyone else that would really take that on… At the time, George just said ‘write them as big as you want, and we’ll figure it out later.’ So we really had no [budget] constraints. We were all experienced television and feature writers, so we all kind of new what was theoretically possible on a production budget. But we just went, ‘For this pass, OK let’s just take him at his word just to make it crazy and big’ and there was lots of action, lots of sets, and huge set pieces. Just much bigger than what you would normally do in a television show.”
“Yeah, I think it was pretty much one big storyline. It was one long tale with episodic things that would happen. You know, there would be certain events [that] would happen in this episode or this episode, so it was sort of an episodic quality to some of it. But it was telling a larger narrative, in terms of the story of those particular characters in that setting.”
From the sounds of things, Lucas had something truly spectacular planned. It is unfortunate fans will never get to see just what came out of those epic story sessions at Skywalker Ranch, but given Disney’s ownership of the franchise, perhaps there’s still a chance that one day the episodes will be re-visited, in order to establish what can or can’t still be used.
For now, fans will just have to use their collective imaginations regarding the sorts of big and crazy stories that could have taken place in the Star Wars universe. And if that fails, there’s always the upcoming female lead Star Wars series, an Obi-Wan series, a Cassian Andor series, and of course, the second season of The Mandalorian. In short, there’s plenty of Star Wars TV on its way for those who crave more.
Source: Collider