Star Wars the TV show?.... (1 Viewer)

[Jason Walstrom]

New Jedi order rocks dude! But maybe they should create a post ROTJ series with new chars and every once in awhile we get to see a guest spot with wedge or something lol.

 

[David Rogers]

A Star Wars series is a great idea, so long as they pitch it at the 20+ somethings, and not at 8year olds. Not that I hate children (far from it), but it really would be a waste to do a kiddie Star Wars show when you consider the LEGION of adult fans who are willing to spend time and money on things that'll satisfy their Star Wars cravings. A childish Star Wars show would be a direct slap in the face of those fans, much like Episodes 1 and 2 were.

As for themes and thrusts of the show, there are easily dozens of ways it could go. Depends on which timeframe within the Star Wars universe they want to use. Presumably and hopefully, they'll go with the 'modern' era within Star Wars (i.e., post Episode 6 aka ROTJ).

If they slot it into that timeframe, they could detail the rise of the New Republic on whatever scale they wanted. They could follow grand political and inter-racial machinations through the reassembly of the Republic Senate; these stories could stay “top down” in that they’d follow the Senators and other top political and species leaders as they reassemble the political, legal and mutual defense (military) frameworks that would makeup the New Republic. Or they could “drill down” through the layers and have episodes that start “wide” by showing a certain problem and it’s place against the broad backdrop before zooming in to follow that problem as it’s dealt with (successfully or not).

Example: a certain region has problems with rogue Imperial elements raiding the member planets in that area, who are thusly threatening to withdraw from the Republic unless something can be done to provide defense against the attacks. After showing the top level interactions that would basically scribe out the problem and it’s scope, the storyline could follow a New Republic team (of diplomats, of technicians, of soldiers, of Jedi, or a team combining one or more of these elements) who are dispatched out to the region to investigate and resolve. The Top layer provides grand scheme, and then the drill down offers the action/adventure elements we know and love within the Star Wars universe. Resolutions of situations would lead naturally back to the top down layer, and could easily be woven into sequences of connected circumstances or multiple-clues that point to even larger situations (like Sweeps weeks type situations to get folks excited about watching)

The best would be for the show to follow what I think of as the Babylon 5 model, in that the storyline for a season (and hopefully across MULTIPLE seasons) would be over-arcing. The storylines should not be “episodic”. We’ve all seen episodic t-v, and it generally is rather poor. Other shows have used non-episodic (or at least semi-episodic) techniques to great commercial success, including Buffy the Vampire Slayer and 24.

Ideally, the show would not focus on just a small set of characters; there should be some central characters that are fixtures (some Senators, some key military or rebellion figures, some key Imperial Remnant figures, some Jedi, etc…); but characters need to rotate in and out as they’re dispatched out to handle certain crisises. There certainly need to be some fixture Jedi, more than one, not more than four or five though honestly. To focus the show exclusively on the Jedi would ultimately be a mistake, as there’s not as much material in a Jedi-centric show as there would be in a Star Wars show (one that uses the whole of the created universe as fuel for its storytelling). It would also be a mistake for Jedi to always be involved in everything that was happening in the storylines, just as it would be an equally large mistake for Jedi to NEVER be involved.

There’s room for a broad mix. Some episodes should be political or leadership oriented, staying with the moving and shaking within the New Republic’s top echelons as they struggle to reform the Republic. Others should go into individual citizens’ problems (planets and orbital stations, and races/cultures, recovering from the heavy heel of Imperial rule for example), or follow traders/smugglers as they dart through fringe areas trying to make their ends meet. Some episodes should be military centric, dealing with such crisises as pirate or Imperial Remnant raids, or interventions within armed conflicts (border disputes, paybacks for past problems, etc.. ) between two or more New Republic members. Some of the episodes should have little or no Jedi involvement, others could certainly use the Jedi as central figures in the plots (fighting and peacemaking the issues to further the New Republic). And of course, some episodes would deal with New Republic vs Imperial Remnants, or in the rebuilding of the Jedi Order following the demise of the Emperor and Vader in ROTJ.

Yes, I have a lot of ideas. I honestly don’t see how or why it’d be so hard to do a Star Wars show that was wildly successful *and* extremely well done. There’s literally decades of material there at the rate a 22-26 episode per year show could work through. Shows like Babylon 5 and FireFly have shown what level of production quality can be put in front of the c-amera for a million or two per episode (while sad shows like the last 3 Trek series have shown how easy it is to piss money away on crap). With a budget of 3-4mil per episode, surely a Star Wars show would garner top ratings and thus the advertising dollars to make studio and network happy, all while making cash. Oh yeah, and along the way providing actual entertainment for starved Star Wars fans.

But for God’s sake, if you green light it, leave it the f#!k alone for at least a full season so it can settle itself and find the groove. What’s the point in green lighting a series you yank within 13 episodes? (ahem, Firefly, ahem).

 

[Joseph Bolus]

I agree that this would be a popular time frame for the show ... BUT I have it on very good authority that the new TV series will chronicle the 20 years or so between Episode 3 and Episode 4. And that it will *not* center on the Luke and Leia twins (although they will be mentioned from time to time and we may even get some glimpses of the young Leia); but on the Rebel Alliance in general.

We'll just have to wait and see how much appeal this show will have for the hard core Star Wars fan. I think it does have some potential in the right creative hands.

 

[Chris]

Is this thing, though, any more then scuttlebut? I haven't seen this listed as greenlighted or in actual production anywhere..

 

[Andy Sheets]

I don't think it's been officially here's-the-press-release confirmed yet, but even Lucas has basically said it's in development and that they're just waiting to get Episode 3 out there before nailing down the details. It's one of those cases where you can't see the fire, but there's a great deal of smoke floating around.

 

[Paul McElligott]

Apparently, they will start with season 4, then do 5 & 6, wait 20 years before starting season 1.

 

[Mike!S]

They could also go way back in time and do something similar to KOTOR for xbox. This way you don't have to worry about guest appearances and you have completely new characters, without really screwing with the origianl films.

 

[Jean D]

I would like to know more of Yoda's backstory. I find him probably one of the most interesting characters.

 

[Andy Sheets]

I was thinking the same thing. Since things never really change all that much in the Star Wars universe, you can get away with setting a show in a distant time period without having to worry about things being so different from the movies that the audience will be alienated, and you'll have a much more open climate for telling stories.

I'd say you could set it after the movies, but Lucasarts has already spent the past decade doing that in novels and comics and the timeline is now cluttered (plus a lot of the continuity, from what I've seen, isn't very interesting - "Hey the Emperor got resurrected. Again. And they made a planet-smashing space station. Again."). Unless Lucas just gives the finger to everyone that's worked on those and declares a clean slate; then it could work. And I don't like the idea of setting a show between movies because there'll be too much pressure to just do fan service stories in which the only thing that matters is connecting dots between the movies and you won't be able to do anything *too* interesting because it all has to line up with the movies.

 

[John Mansor]

Some interesting rumors going around about this one.

http://www.iesb.net/movies2/movie121004.php

If this is real, I am very excited!

 

[Eric_Connelly]

Remembering my youth, when Jedi came out in 83 it was marketing mayhem, all of the TV shows about the special effects, etc. etc.

I think even back to Empire it was like this.

Wasn't Lucas's original plan to do 3 eps, wait 10 years, do 3 eps, then wait another 10 and the final 3?

I thought Star Wars was originally 9 episodes, not just 6?

I remember hearing this around the time Empire/Jedi came out on one of the specials on TV.

 

[Chris_Morris]

I'll second that. Heck, everyone knows that Wedge is far better than that Luke guy, whoever he is. And it would be perfect if they could get Michael Stackpole in as the writer. And of course the only name that could fit the show would be "Rogue Squadron"

Barring that, the Heir to the Empire series would work too.


Chris

 

[Dalton]

Has anybody heard anything new about a possible SW TV Series? There was alot of talk a couple of months back but i haven't seen anything lately.

Dalton

 

[Sam Favate]

Last I read, Mark Hamill said he didn't know anything official about him and Kevin Smith teaming up on the pilot, but suggested he'd play Luke again. Kevin Smith hinted at knowing something, but said nothing.

 

[Norm]

http://www.darkhorizons.com/news05/050523d.php

 

[TonyD]

what about this one.

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htfo...ight=star+wars

or this one.

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htfo...ight=star+wars

or this one.

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htfo...ight=star+wars


or someone could put them all together.

 

[Michael Reuben]

Done! (Except for the last one, which is pretty old.)

M.

 

[DeathStar1]

I'd love to see them do a 'sequal' to Return of thE Jedi, and undoo some of the stuff I didn't care about in the EU Universe.

For instance, the whole bit about 'Jedi ghosts retiring into the force'. I never liked that idea as it means we'll never see the spirits of Obi Wan and Yoda again in the books...

 

[Norm]

The TV series could explore the other surving Jedi & Vader hunting them down. Otherwise I think I would rather the series take place after Episode 6 or something like a prequel Knights of the Republic. It could flesh out the whole Jedi & Sith beginings.

 

[oscar_merkx]

I would def want to know more about Yoda's background