Thanks to Star Wars Expanded Universethe fans were able to discover in more detail the universe initially created by george lucasand this, through different works, ranging from novels to comics, through films and series. And precisely, one of the biggest unfulfilled wishes of George Lucas could now become a reality.
the rebirth of the underworld?
After the success of other Star Wars series on Disney+, George Lucas’ original vision for a live-action series set in this galaxy far, far away could finally come to fruition. Because before Disney acquired Lucasfilm, the filmmaker was trying to bring a project called Star Wars: Underworlda realistic series that would have been a significant departure from the original trilogy and that of the prequels, centered on the Skywalkers. Although it unfortunately never saw the light of day and inspired other projects Star Warsthe moment seems more than opportune to relaunch the project.
Set on Coruscant, underworld had for ambition to explore the depths of the planetin a period between the events of the films Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005) and Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977). Lucas spent many hours on this project with different writers, hoping to create a series of an unprecedented level. However, the project was finally put on hold, in particular due to budgetary constraintsthen because of the takeover by Disney in 2012.
However, the time seems ideal for Star Wars: Underworld can finally see the light of day, thanks to the rise of streaming and Disney+. Not only series like The Mandalorian have proved the success of the Star Wars seriesbut they also showed the value of stories not centered on the Skywalker saga. In addition, new technologies have emergedhelping to solve existing budget problems.
the series planned by George Lucas
As reminded ScreenRantaccording to reports and updates provided by Lucas himself between 2005 and 2010, Star Wars: Underworld should be Lucasfilm’s next big project after completing the prequel trilogy with Revenge of the Sith. This project was being developed alongside the anime series Star Wars: The Clone Warswhich began airing in 2008 and was a sequel to the animated film of the same name.
Set after the rise of the Empire, underworld had to depict the darkness of Coruscant and its lower levels, where crime and lawlessness run rampant within the Imperial Center. The series was also to be related to the video game Star Wars: 1313also dropped, in which players would have taken on the role of a bounty hunter operating on level 1313 of Coruscant, considered one of the most dangerous places in the galaxy.
Having originally planned to write 25 scenarios for episodes of around 40 minutes, Lucas apparently enjoyed the process so much that the writing team ended up having about 50 scripts in various stages of development. While Lucas encouraged the writers to think big, assuring that budget wouldn’t be an issue, however, budgetary concerns seem to have been the main reason of the pendingunderworld. Here’s what Lucas said in an old interview with MovieWeb :
For the moment, [Underworld] looks like the Star Wars feature films. But we have to find a way to do it at one-tenth the cost of feature films, because it’s television. We are working on it, and we continue to work on it. We will get there one day or another. It’s just a very difficult process.
It seemed that each episode cost almost the same amount as a feature film. That’s why Lucas finally put the show on hiatus in 2010, stating that he and Lucasfilm were just waiting for the technology to get to a level where it would be possible to produce the episodes cheaply. But when Disney acquired Lucasfilm in 2012, this put the series on indefinite hiatus.
That said, in 2020, an old Stargate Studios test footagea special effects studio, has been talked about again, in which we can see Stormtroopers chasing a rebel agent, rekindling fan interest around Lucas’ unfinished project.
The elements of Underworld that we can already find
Although Disney has not followed up on underworld, his legacy can be seen in the various films and series released so far. Intended as a link with underworldthe video game 1313although cancelled, became the inspiration for a few episodes of The Clone Warswhere Ashoka Tano visits Floor 1313 in the series’ final season.
In addition, elements of the films RogueOne (2016) and Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018) would have originally been envisioned as episodes of the series underworld, before becoming their own feature films under the Disney umbrella. Forrest Whitaker’s character, Saw Gerrera, appearing in many projects, was also to be a character inunderworld.
why the project could be reborn today
There are mainly two reasons why Star Wars: Underworld could go back to development. First, thanks to the age of streaming, having made studios more willing to pay larger sums for the small screen, and Disney is one of them. For example, the first season of The Mandalorian reportedly cost $100 million to produce, i.e. an average of around 15 million per episode.
Then the appearance of new technologies could also revive the series of Lucas. Indeed, Industrial Light and Magic, a subsidiary of Lucasfilm, has created a new technology called The Volumewhich uses groundbreaking real-time virtual sets found in The Mandalorian and other projects, thanks to powerful game engines. The technology that Lucas has been waiting for since 2010 seems to have finally arrived.
Thus, although a large number of elements of Star Wars: Underworld have been reworked and used for other projects, the series could still be made, but in an updated form, to better suit the streaming era. In any case, it seems that the biggest obstacles have been largely removed. George Lucas’ series could then finally see the light of day, offering a darker look at the Star Wars galaxy.
