Before the sale of Lucasfilm to Disney, George Lucas had reportedly created a large number of Star Wars scripts that would have taken the series in a much darker direction.
In the lead-up to the purchase of Lucasfilm by Disney in 2012, fans could sense that something unusual was going on. The Clone Wars was still going strong on Cartoon Network – but after the completion of the Legacy of the Force series, things on the publishing front went eerily silent. After a bit of a gap, standalone novels focusing on individual characters were released, much earlier in the timeline. This felt like a very odd change from the long-form story arcs we had become accustomed to.
Luke Skywalker watches the Tatooine sunset in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope – YouTube, Collective Culture
At Dark Horse, storylines at either end of the Galactic Timeline were still being explored, such as the Dawn of the Jedi and Legacy II series. The publisher had recently updated the layouts/formats of their monthly titles, leading to a more unified visual style that looked like a major upgrade.
Lucasarts had been in turmoil for some time, with leadership changes wreaking havoc with release schedules and a number of high-profile project cancellations.
It felt like something was in the air — like the Lucas companies were collectively holding their breath: as though for some big announcement, or perhaps signalling that the storyline of the EU had reached its natural end.
Amid all of these somewhat troubling signs were frequent chatter about a series being developed focusing on the criminal elements in the Star Wars Galaxy, Star Wars: Underworld.
George Lucas via Laurent Touil-Tartour YouTube
First announced at Celebration III in 2005, it was intended to be a gritty story exploring the seedy underbelly of the criminal elements in Star Wars. George had long expressed in interest in scripts that would revolutionize long-form storytelling in the TV space, anticipating that in the future TV viewership would overtake the movies.
He attempted to pioneer revolutionary new technologies (including what would later become the Volume) to reduce the costs such storytelling would incur. Over a seven year period, 50 scripts had been developed for what was intended to be a multiple-year series. Largely scripted by Ronald D. Moore, of Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica fame, the series promised a new era of Star Wars storytelling — with a much grittier, adult-oriented promise.
Also in development during this period was Star Wars: 1313. Like Underworld, the story focus was to be on an up-and-coming bounty hunter (later revealed to be Boba Fett) as he perfected his craft after the death of Jango.
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Now, YouTube channel Young Indy Chroniclers has published a portion of an interview with Rick McCallum providing more details on the lost Star Wars: Underworld series. Unfortunately, it seems they were never able to get the budget for the episodes below $40 million dollars per, when a target goal would’ve been roughly $5 million.
Test Footage for Star Wars: Underworld made its way online a few years ago. While not up to a modern standard, it’s easy to see that Lucasfilm was still innovating in both technology and technique to bring a true cinematic experience to the small screen.
Taken in aggregate, it’s easy to see that had Disney not purchased Lucasfilm, the plan was to explore the gray area of the Star Wars Universe — the pockets of the galaxy where rogues caught between the Rebellion and the Empire did their best to survive and profit.
Somewhere, locked deep in the Vault at Disney, some reported 60 George Lucas Star Wars scripts exist, encompassing these episodes, the internal build of Star Wars: 1313, and the script treatments for George Lucas’ Episodes VII, VIII, and IX.
What an alternate reality we would be in today had these productions moved forward.
Do you think the direction of these George Lucas Star Wars scripts would have been better for the franchise? Sound off in the comments and let us know!
Lucas is responsible for the state of Star Wars. He sold it to Disney and then supported Iger. He destroyed his own legacy.
Exploring the criminal element of SW would have actually been an interesting arc, IMO. Too often the series comes off as all about the Jedi and black-and-white good vs evil stories. Anyone mentally older than twelve realizes there are shades of gray to any world and certain media did try and explore examples of it. The Jedi Consular class story in SW:TOR has politicians who “do the wrong things for the right reasons,” for example. The entire Smuggler class story is about the underworld and how criminals can still be good guys.
(No, I don’t recommend playing it now even if it’s still running. It was almost dead when I last played seven years ago and it’s an Evil Actualized MMO.)
As for those movie scripts, I think anything would have been better than Darth Kennedy’s ones. How much better is the real question and one we’ll likely never get an answer to.
They had a great choice. Between the Lucas scripts, the Thrawn books, a KOTOR trilogy, or to let the Skywalker Saga rest and start something completely new for the post-Endor era.
I really don’t understand how you would come up with a Epi4 Remake if you could do one of these.