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

The following was posted at www.cinescape.com

STAR WARS - the television series?
Reports surface of a possible Darth Vader TV show

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Dateline: Thursday, January 22, 2004

By: PATRICK SAURIOL
By: News Editor
Source: TheForce.net

Sources for The Force.net have told the website about a tantalizing rumor: there might be a proposal for a post-EPISODE III STAR WARS TV show on someone's desk. The Force.net hears speculation that the premise of the show follows the infamous and terrifying rise to power of Sith Lord Darth Vader between the purge of the Jedi Knights and the start of A NEW HOPE. Whether this alleged TV show would be live-action or animation (as Cartoon Network's CLONE WARS series is) remains unclear.

I've always thought that the 20 years between Ep 3 and 4 would be a perfect time to do more SW be it on tv or as more movies.

Is it from the same writers as the Holiday Special?

Bad Idea.

Would be interesting, as long as they allow enough time for each episode to actually have a plot. My problem with Clone Wars (at least, the first five episodes I have seen) is that the show was too short, and as a result I didn't really feel there was much of a plot underlying the action.

Still, would be nice.

As long as it's an actual series, rather than the silly shorts on Cartoon Network, I'd watch.

Same here. I would like to see a live action series. With the technology they have today, they could make a great t.v. series.

The only problem is that the protagonist would be a majorly evil dude... but if it was a limited-run mini-series following the last of the Jedi being hunted down, it could be excellent.

There have been several seemingly solid reports over at TheForce.net in the last few days, which seem to confirm that a live-action TV series is in the works for 2006. Sounds very promising.

As long as Rick Berman and Brannon Braga aren't writing and producing it, I'll be very happy.

I hope they avoid this time period because it seems there's no real long-term storyline prospects here. The hunting down of the Jedi is interesting but rather depressing and the ending is a foregone conclusion. You could potentially have a small group of Jedi that manage to escape but that plotline would be difficult to sustain for more than a season. The beginnings of the Rebellion would be interesting, but once again anticlimactic with an ending already existing in the movies.

I would think the Post-ROTJ period would be most ripe with possibilities. A series focusing on bounty hunters could be very interesting and show a side of Star Wars that we haven't seen in detail. Another good idea would be a series similar to or based on the X-Wing series of books- focusing on a particular X-Wing squadron. I also think that the post-ROTJ would garner more audience interest. Even people disillusioned by the prequels might be excited by the prospect of seeing X-Wings and Ties back in action.

Further proof that George Lucas has lost it.

How so? Seriously. I doubt Lucas will have much involvement at all in any TV series. Like the books, comics, toys, etc I would expect it to fall under Lucas Licensing with minimal input from Lucas. I imagine he will approve a broad story arc but I wouldn't expect him to write or direct any episodes. A TV series would serve primarily as a revenue generator for Lucasfilm. If he really had another story to tell that he personally felt strongly about then he would film it on the big screen.

If its the "revenue generating" aspect that bothers you, then I would argue that Lucas "hasn't lost it, he never had it" since anicillary revenue streams have been part and parcel with Star Wars almost from the Saga's inception.

I agree. The period between the movie trilogies simply doesn't interest me very much. After the movies might be interesting, although I'm not so much a fan of what Lucas has been approving for the comics, books, and such and they would probably try to squeeze a show into that continuity as well. Maybe something that takes place in the distant past would be more fun, like the Knights of the Old Republic material they've done. With thousands of years of the Star Wars timeline available, it would easy to do something in a completely unexplored setting.

He had substantial involvement with Young Indy, so the idea of a TV series from him isn't totally without merit. I don't like the idea, but it's not unheard of for him to try.

Lucas's involvement with Young Indy was heavily oriented toward focus (trying to bridge the gap between educational and entertainment) and technical (they did a lot of early work on techiques like digital crowd multiplication, etc). He wasn't really involved in the actual writing and directing of the show.

For any SW show I would expect Lucas to either already have a time period in mind, or accept pitches from different producers on what era and storyline they want to pursue. He will obviously have veto power over any stories (similar to his involvement in the current novels and comics). I don't expect him to be on set much or involved in the day to day operations.

The quality of any SW shows will likely be determined by the quality of the show runner and the writers.

Well throw in some good Teen age Angst ala Smallville and throw it on the WB..well actually he dresses in all Black so maybe UPN.

Whatever happened to the original idea of 9 SW's movies?

I'd like to see him stick to the plan.

I hope they don't do anything that's been done in the books. Come up with something new.

Actually, I think Lucas had a "Story By" credit on most episodes of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, and he was on set as a fairly active producer. I suspect he'd be a bit more hands-off with a Star Wars show, just because he's made comments about wanting to do something else once he's done with these movies.