(Warning: The following contains potential - albeit entirely speculative and largely unlikely - SPOILERS for any future Star Wars-themed TV show that ABC may or may not make. As Yoda so sagely advised Taylor Swift that one time: "Say I did not warn ya, do not...")
Now, with Star Wars Rebels going from strength to strength, Lego Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures newly arrived, and the Star Wars movie universe finally in full flow once more, you might think that the sense of urgency behind a live-action Star Wars-themed TV show has been somewhat lost. After all, with so much Star Wars on our screens at the moment, the absence of a regular network TV show isn't overly noticeable. That, though, hasn't stopped ABC from attempting to fill one of the final gaps in the current glut of on-screen geekery. Y'see...
ABC Might Be Trying To Make A Star Wars TV Show Happen
Indeed, as ABC Entertainment president Channing Dungey recently revealed during the Television Critics Association’s semi-annual press tour, there's very much a desire at the network to bring some sort of Star Wars-themed TV Show to our screens. As she put it:
"Oh, as a fan, I would absolutely love to say ‘Yes’...The conversations with Lucas[film], we have had conversations with them and will continue to have conversations with them. I think it would be wonderful if we could find a way to extend that brand into our programming."
To which she later added:
"It’s all a little bit hush-hush,...That company exists under a big shroud of secrecy. If you feel Marvel’s secretive, [Lucasfilm] takes it to a whole other level … [Talks] are ongoing. We don’t have an official timeline yet."
Which is both inevitably vague - and extremely intriguing. The big question it raises, though?
Will ABC Actually Make The Star Wars Show We've Been Waiting For?
Specifically, Star Wars: Underworld, the long rumored 'dark' Star Wars show that has now spent over a decade in development hell. Once described by former Lucasfilm producer Rick McCallum as "Deadwood in Space", the show was set to be a gritty look at the seedy underbelly of the Star Wars universe in the wake of the prequels - and with over 50 scripts reportedly sitting in a storage space somewhere, many fans have retained a glimmer of hope that we'll see it someday. After all, who doesn't want to see a show explore the rise of Emperor Palpatine, Jabba the Hutt and Boba Fett - with perhaps a cameo or two from the likes of Alden Ehrenreich's newly cast young Han Solo and Jimmy Smits' Bail Organa?
Sadly, though, with ABC leaning towards a much less gritty style with its shows than such a series would require, the resurrection of Star Wars: Underworld seems a little unlikely on the Disney-fied network. Unless, of course, ABC were to produce the show for another network entirely. After all...
It's Possible That ABC Entertainment Could Produce A Star Wars Show For Another Network
It is, in fact, not all that uncommon for the production divisions of major networks to produce shows that ultimately wind up on other networks - especially in situations where a pilot isn't ultimately picked up by the production division's 'home' network. Which means that it's not impossible to imagine that ABC Entertainment - owned by Disney, much like Lucasfilm - could produce a darker Star Wars themed show for a more 'edgy' cable network of some kind. That, after all, would allow Disney to keep every element of the show - bar distribution - in house, while also maintaining a little distance between the home of Mickey Mouse and whatever murderous space-gangster-centric escapades the show opted to get up to.
Or, alternatively, ABC could wind up making a midi-chlorian heavy, Episode I-style light-hearted romp, with pod-racers, gungans and pratfalls a-plenty, and Star Wars: Underworld could be dragged back down to the development hell from whence it came.
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Only time, it seems, will tell...
What do you reckon, though?
MoviepilotScifi
via EW