Star Wars TV series

[Buzz Bumble]

I thought since it now appears to be confirmed I'd give the Star Wars TV series its own topic.


Here's the latest news from IESB.net (as reported in the "Star Wars Over After Sith" topic by Borsk) ...

Since last year George Lucas has been dropping hints regarding the possibility of a TV series. Today they are no longer hints. On USA Today, the TV series was confirmed by Lucas and now most recently the President of Lucas licensing, Howard Roffman, has quoted stating that a live action TV Series will indeed hit airwaves by fall of 2006.

George Lucas is not expected to direct or have anything to do with the day to day operations. Lucas during his USA Today interview said "Ultimately, I'm going to probably move it into television and let other people take it.....You know, I've got offshoot novels, I've got offshoot comics. So it's very easy to say, "Well, OK, that's that genre, and I'll find a really talented person to take it and create it." Just like the comic books and the novels are somebody else's way of doing it. I don't mind that. Some of it might turn out to be pretty good. If I get the right people involved, it could be interesting.

All indications from Skywalker Ranch point to George wanting to find someone to take creative control from his hands. George will remain as an "Executive Producer" but wants to have a creative team including veteran sci-fi writers and directors. The most interesting thing is that George is wanting to hand over the reigns of Star Wars to someone who will respect the films and is actually a fan of the saga. One name keeps popping up during my calls to my "Ranch" associates as a perfect candidate to become "Lord" over Star Wars. According to Lucasfilm insiders George would like someone with writing and directing experience and that already has a connection with the fan base and also be an independent film maker.

So who is this "Fan Boy" that Lucasfilm would like to recruit? Before I drop any names I am sure that plenty of you guys and gals will think that I am absolutely crazy and out of my mind. The first name that I was given was no other than Kevin Smith. "Kevin Smith would be the ideal person to handle a Star Wars TV series", the IESB was told. "He is well recognized with the fandom and he has worked on some capacity with Lucasfilm during a Hasbro commercial a few years back, he is also a very good writer," said the source.

So would Kevin Smith be interested in getting involved in some capacity with Star Wars TV? You normally don't get directors from the big screen go to the small screen but if there is any truth to these speculations we might have the best of Star Wars ahead of us. But as much optimism there is from one side of the Ranch there is also some pessimism. "I just hope that he [George] doesn't just do the TV series for the money that it will make and end up giving us a weekly kiddie show, he needs to learn from the mistakes from Star Trek and give sci-fi fans a quality show," said the source.

In a recent interview that we had with Star Trek head honchos Rick Berman and Manny Coto we asked them what kind of advice they would offer George Lucas regarding a weekly Star Wars TV series. "Its one thing to have three years and over a 100 million dollars to create a one two hour movie compared to 22 to 26 one hour episodes in a year with a very limited budget and still have to remain fresh in the eyes of your audience", said Berman. Manny Coto also had a good point when he said " You have to concentrate on the story and also the characters and not make a weekly special effects show." When asked if he had any other advice for George, "He can always hire me if Enterprise doesn't work out".

So who will helm the new Star Wars TV series? Who ever it is will probably be brought aboard right after ROTS premieres in May 2005. A fall 2006 release would give Lucasfilm one year to get the TV series ready to blast off.

Hopefully those Star Trek fools are kept well away - they've already ruined one sci-fi franchise.

 

[Borsk]

Kevin Smith is good at developing characters and relationships. A Star Wars tv series can't get by on special effects alone. There are far worse choices than him to control the series.

 

[Buzz Bumble]

This piece from Ain't It Cool News is really just rumour, but it is one interesting possibility to think about.

So what would a STAR WARS TV show be about? What premise could possibly fuel a weekly series that wouldn’t also tread on the toes of film continuity? Could the Vader purge support an entire series, and how big a downer would it be just watching him kill Jedi each week? Could it be a Jedi Academy or a Rogue Squadron show?

Nope. Sounds like Lucasfilm knows exactly which character fans are still most intrigued by, even now, over 20 years after his first brief introduction. Yeah... you know who I’m talking about... check out what this spy had to say:

Yep, been a long time since my last report. But I like to save up. So it's time to cash out. Yep, there is a Star Wars TV show on the way. Yep, it takes place between Episode 3 and 4. Yep, the character and story arcs are starting to come together. Hehe... fanboys are gonna love this! Playing one of the series' villans we love to hate is none other than... wait for it... Boba Fett! Expect young Boba (but not nearly as young as in Ep. 2) to feature in the series significantly. And you wondered why Lucas spent so much time focusing on that kid in Attack of the Clones and made sure that you knew that he knew that the Jedi/Republic was responsible for his Dad's death. Now you know.
Cooper the Hound​

Normally, I’d say a bad guy couldn’t really carry the weight of audience sympathy week to week as the star of a show, but Boba Fett is no ordinary bad guy, and this would certainly give Lucasfilm an entire galaxy of possibilities, story-wise.

For now, let’s consider this one an unconfirmed rumor, but I’m already working on a few key sources to try and get something more substantial. I’ll make sure to let you know when we do...

 

[Borsk]

Boba Fett is a cool bad guy because he's mysterious. I don't really want to know that much more about him. Should Boba Fett be in the show? Yes. Should he be the "star" of the show or even be in every episode? No.

 

[Buzz Bumble]

Maybe the TV series will take another minor character who was built up beyond all reason by the fans - "Aurra Sing, the Sandperson Slayer".

 

[Zepp]

too Xenaish...

 

[Buzz Bumble]

I'm still voting for "The Adventures of Jar Jar" or perhaps the stories from the animated Ewoks show redone in live action (they did it with Sabrina - don't ask).

 

[Borsk]

I'm still voting for "The Adventures of Jar Jar" or perhaps the stories from the animated Ewoks show redone in live action (they did it with Sabrina - don't ask).

but only if Jar Jar is played by Richard Dean Anderson...

 

[mynock11]

I think even i would get bored of seeing jar-jar get killed each week but im up for a mini series...lol

 

[Jedi_Joel]

I think even i would get bored of seeing jar-jar get killed each week but im up for a mini series...lol

Oh my! You ^@$*@#(s!!! You killed Jar-Jar! :shot:

 

[mynock11]

Yeah with a deli meat slicer....muuhhaaa :flame:

 

[Stevetrooper]

How about the "Star Wars Tales" comic book done as a TV show? It would be the best way to keep the most options open since you could focus on any characters or time periods. And it makes a good title too. They could do 1 episode stories as well as stories that span several episodes. They could even do an occasional animated episode. Sort of like Spielberg's old "Amazing Stories" TV show.

 

[AmShak]

i like the idea of having a core group of actors (3-5) that we see each week and follow along with. i do not like the idea of it revolving around the jedi or the sith. they should certainly play into it, but not every epsiode. i think it would be more interesting to see someone like han and chewie cruising around. maybe something along the lines of a kyle katarn, kind of a broken jedi.

whatever they do, i think they should be able to visit any of the places that we know of or have seen in the movies, like jabba's palace or cloud city or wherever. i don't want something that seems like a distant relative, i want something that is more connected to the OT.

and NO gungans

 

[Carl Waterworth]

What about tales of a jedi and his padawan or missions of rougue squadren!

 

[Stevetrooper]

With Star Wars Tales you could do all of those things. Movie characters, EU characters, prequel period, Classic period, future period, even the ancient stuff. They could have semi regular characters that you can look forward to seeing again and again, but other stuff as well. This makes the possibilties virtually endless and would keep it fresh.

 

[Borsk]

With Star Wars Tales you could do all of those things. Movie characters, EU characters, prequel period, Classic period, future period, even the ancient stuff. They could have semi regular characters that you can look forward to seeing again and again, but other stuff as well. This makes the possibilties virtually endless and would keep it fresh.

I have a feeling they're going to keep it in a set time frame. I would imagine that the production costs would be quite a bit higher to jump around like that. But, who knows...

 

[Buzz Bumble]

TheForce.net is now reporting a quote from LucasFilm's Jim Ward in the Swedish magazine "Homevision" about an animated Star Wars movie ...

"When it comes to Star Wars, we'll take the franchise to television, animated TV, you may have seen the clone wars stuff we've done. But we will also do live action TV, and perhaps a full animated movie. George will be fully involved in all of this, so you can be sure that the Star Wars saga doesn't end with Revenge of the Sith."

Hmmm ... this could easily get way out of hand and follow Star Trek down the "hopeless" path.

 

[Borsk]

It's important to leave the audience wanting more. If they oversaturate the market with "stuff" (much like Star Trek has done), it's bound to have a negative effect. Even if it was all relatively good - too much of *anything* is not a good thing.

For a while Star Trek was releasing a movie every other year and had 3 tv series on at the same time. Some was good and some was bad, but collectively it was too much.

 

[AmShak]

star trek V :hurl:

 

[Borsk]

star trek: resurrection, star trek: nemesis, star trek: first contact...

:hurl: