Untitled Star Wars TV series
Ok, this isn't fresh news, George Lucas mentioned it 18 months ago, but it's still happening. Up to 100 hours of Star Wars TV will be set in the 19 fictional years between the two film trilogies. It's set to start filming soon and hit screens in 2008. According to reports, pre-production may well already have begun. Lucas will write and direct the first season and the show will focus on minor characters from the movies and the other 'expanded' universe books, novels and games. Major characters, particularly from the recent films, are very likely to appear too and many key actors have expressed an interest. The beard is quoted as saying "a lot of the issues from the film's are connected, but you won't necessarily see a lot of the people that are connected." and he added "it's going to be much darker, grittier. It's much more character-based." Producer Rick McCallum has said "think bounty hunter". Good choice.
What we know already: Over the course of the show, the fledgling Rebel Alliance will gradually form into a full resistance against the Empire. Vader will hunt the few remaining Jedi and then, at some point, he is told to focus on helping Palpatine build the Empire, and less on the remaining Jedi, leaving that to others. Obi-Wan becomes a hermit on Tatooine after taking baby Luke to live with Owen and Beru Lars. He then goes on one final adventure off-planet before returning to Tatooine. He may have some further planet bound adventures, but otherwise mostly watches over Luke, from a distance. Interestingly, A.C. Crispin has stated that she proposed a book series dealing with Princess Leia Organa between Episode III and IV, but that "Lucas film didn't approve the idea of a Leia backstory because they want to keep that era of continuity untouched for the television series." C3P0 is already attached to the show.
I used to like the fact that Star Wars (unlike say Trek) was only movies with high quality effects and so on. However, the patchy recent films made a lot of people wish that Lucas could hand the reins over to some younger, more dynamic writers and directors. That looks like it will happen now. I'm sure some extremely talented poeple will want a piece of this pie. The Star Wars universe is a fantastically well designed environment suitable for a variety of great stories. And the "grittier tone" mentioned suggests that drama rather than throw away action will be the focus. I might have to start watching TV again come 2008/9.
I have a good feeling about this…
[...] Es gibt neue Details zur geplanten Star Wars TV Serie: Die Dreharbeiten zu der von mir sehnlichst erwarteten Serie starten noch dieses Jahr und die ersten Folgen sollen 2008 über die Mattscheibe flimmern. [...]
Not to be a complete nerd, but doesn’t Obi hand the baby Luke over to to Owen and Beru at the end of Episode 3 already? And wasn’t the Empire pretty much fully formed in terms of flying a fledgling Star Destroyer and overseeing the construction of the Death Star? And all the Jedi are dead now too? When I say ROTS I remember being suprised how much they actually tied up by the end. It kind of left me thinking that nothing at all happened between the two trilogies.
What I don’t get is Lucas’ continual revisionist attitude as to what the focus of the franchise is. Bullshit did he conceive the fucking trade federation nonsense back when the story he was filming was about a young farm-boy going on an adventure. He keeps shifting what the whole story is supposed to be about. People loved the first three films and he’s all “Seriously, it’s all about what made Darth Vadar Darth Vadar man, trust me, that was MY VISION” Rubbish. Now he’s going to say that the whole 6 films were always a primer, some background work, for the most amazing grass-roots gritty sci-fi action thriller drama.
Nothing happened between those two films. Fact. N-o-t-h-i-n-g o-f n-o-t-e a-t a-l-l. Otherwise why was it not the focus of 15 hours of fucking expensive screentime?????????