The Father of Flannel himself has stepped down from his throne in the modest prairie ranch paradise called Skywalker Ranch to talk about the future of Star Wars. TV.
Lucas said that there are a hundred episodes planned for the series, half of which should be completed before the first one airs. Lucas and his company are aiming to premiere the series in the fall of 2008 but are still considering where it would fit best on the broadcast schedule. “So far, everybody’s got the same conundrums,” he said. “‘How do we program it? Where does it live? Where can we put something like this?’ You know, it has to go after 9 o’clock and it can’t be on a kiddie channel.”
Lucas is also working on a live-action series for television and said that he expects to be writing it about a month from now. The series will be set in the Star Wars universe between Episode III and Episode IV and will feature minor characters from the films.
Even in that vast gap of nothingness between the end of the Star Wars movies in the 80s and the revival in the 90s we have always been tagged along with tastes of every corner of the Star Wars universe. Mostly smatterings revolving around Droids and Ewoks with some live action movies in there too. In this crazy paced media world we now have, they kept our appetites whet with the Clone Wars series.
I am excited to see how a new animated series would turn out especially with this revelation that it will be very edgy and adult. Surely not for kids. I think this excludes a fair bit of their audience, but will give a more adult look at the Star Wars universe for us grownups who were there when the movies first came out. Much of the complaints about the prequels revolved around silly fluff characters (JarJar) and that it was a series of commercials to sell toys. This news seems to resolve those issues which spells good things to me.
I am even more hyped about a live action TV show. With the money Lucas has to put behind a project like this, we could see something written as well as Battlestar Galactica but set in a Star Wars Universe. I just pray it gets done right!!
