Star Wars: Underworld

The Star Wars live-action TV series is a science fiction television series currently set to debut in 2009. It will be an Expanded Universe production set in the fictional Star Wars galaxy. The project, which has yet to be given an official title, was first announced on April 23, 2005 by Star Wars creator George Lucas at the Celebration III fan convention in Indianapolis, Indiana.

The series will be set during the 19-year timespan between the films Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (19 BBY–0 BBY). It will focus on minor characters of the Star Wars galaxy, rather than those seen prominently in the films. However, Lucas has stated that some of the main characters may make cameo appearances.

Development
Since the release of the original Star Wars film, George Lucas had been involved (to varying degrees) in three live-action Star Wars productions: The Star Wars Holiday Special, Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure, and Ewoks: The Battle for Endor. While the holiday special was a critical failure, both Ewok films won Emmy awards and had a positive critical reaction. In 1992, Lucas produced the television series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, during which he developed a love of making television.

In 2005, Lucas first announced his plans for a live-action Star Wars television series at the Celebration III fan convention. He also spoke of his plans for a new animated television series set during the Clone Wars. He stated that "we will probably do the animated series first" and that, in reference to the live-action series, "we probably won't start that until sometime next year."

At Celebration Europe, McCallum stated that "I’ve had three conceptual artists working on it now for about seven months."

Writing
Lucas is currently in the process of planning out the character and story arcs, which he has been working on over the last several months. At Celebration Europe, McCallum stated that that there would be "a whole bunch of writers from literally all over the world – we have Australia left, that’s the last place we’re going to meet some people – we’re hoping to get a group of six or seven writers ready sometime between September and December to make the final choice and then we’ll start doing story outlines." Lucas and McCallum were unable to attend Celebration IV because they were in London interviewing writers for the series. The interview process will be finished by September 2007, with the story outlines taking shape over the next three months after that. Writers of the Star Wars books and comics will be considered as part of the final interview process in September. The series will be shot in Sydney, Australia, with casting set to begin around June 2008.

McCallum says on the writing and plot of the series: "We are just starting to interview writers and trying to really figure out which direction to go to. He envisions somewhere like 100 hours between Episode III and Episode IV with a lot of characters that we haven't met that have been developed in some of the novels and other things. We are really excited about that. Finally, we could have the opportunity to answer everybody's questions once and for all by the time we finish the series." Regarding the series, he says: "It is going to be much darker, grittier. It's much more character-based." The show is still in its early planning stages, so many plot and/or story elements may change.

Lucas and McCallum have interviewed over 200 prospective wriers for the series from all over the world&mdash;including England, the United States, Paris, Prague, Budapest, and Australia. He was looking for "Writers of real signifigance". After a writing conference in late 2007, McCallum hopes to narrow the writing staff down to about five or six writers. It will then take around six months to complete the scripts, after which McCallum hopes to begin shooting in 2009 in Australia. In a September 2007 interview, Lucas said that he planned "to start writing it in about a month from now," and that the entire first season will be filmed, then filmed, before soliciting the first season, working on the following seasons once it has a home. As of October 29, the six writers have been hired and will start work in November 2007.

Filming
Lucas will write and produce the first season, and then "hand it off from there", while remaining executive producer and general overseer throughout the rest of the series. The style of the series will be similar to Lucas' The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles TV series. Lucas hopes to use the show as a template for how he will do his "more personal films" that he hopes to create. Rick McCallum expects production to begin in 2008, for a 2009 release.

Lucas has stated that, in producing the show, "we will do what would typically cost $20 million, for $1 million." Principal photography will take place all around the world, with a base likely in Sydney, according to McCallum. Lucas has said that he intends to shoot the series using consumer-level cameras, which Rick McCallum has said will be hi-definition cameras. Pre-production was expected to begin in January 2006. Whether it has or not has not been confirmed.

Rick McCallum initially stated in 2005 that "He [George] envisions somewhere like 100 hours between Episode III and Episode IV". . However, in 2007 at Celebration Europe, he said that the hope is to do "up to 400 episodes". Like on The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, McCallum and Lucas hope to give each episode the look of a feature film, with feature-level production values and visual effects on a television budget.

Series producer Rick McCallum expects the first season to consist of thirteen-to-sixteen episodes, shot over a one-to-two-year time period.

According to IESB, McCallum has said that each episode will have a budget of 2-4 million dollars, and that he is looking to hire writers from Battlestar Galactica, Heroes, and Lost.

In an interview with the BBC in March of 2006, Rick McCallum explained that the series would begin filming and be ready in 2008.

Musical score
Rick McCallum stated at Star Wars Reunion 2 that he hopes to have John Williams on the musical score for the series (though too early to tell) and added that each episode will have its own original score.

Plot
According to George Lucas at Celebration III, in the series, "a lot of the issues from the films are connected, but you won't necessarily see a lot of the people that are connected." In a 2006 interview, when asked about the show, McCallum replied, "Think about bounty hunter, that’s all I can tell you." Lucas also said that the series won't be based on the Skywalkers and it will be for more mature audiences like TV shows Battlestar Galactica and Firefly. According to USA Today, Lucas has described the show as "bare-bones" and "action-heavy."

In Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Palpatine, Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic, declared himself Emperor and transformed the Republic into the Galactic Empire. In the process, he ordered the execution of Order 66, in which all members of the clone army of the Republic turned on their Jedi leaders and killed them. In a speech he delivered to the Senate, however, he reported that there were remaining Jedi, and that these survivors would be "hunted down and defeated".

The series is set between 19 BBY and 0 BBY, referred to as "the dark times" by Obi-Wan Kenobi in A New Hope. It is during this period that the newly formed Galactic Empire will rise to ultimate power throughout the galaxy. It is during this time period that the first Death Star will be constructed, albeit with many problems along the way.

Nevertheless, most of the stories will be told from the perspective of minor characters from the Star Wars galaxy. Lucas has described it as "one show that will split into four shows, focusing on different characters." According to George Lucas, Boba Fett may play a significant supporting role in the series, with Daniel Logan reprising his role from Attack of the Clones. According to Lucas, several of the major characters from the films may have small appearances as well.

Over the course of the show, the fledgling Rebel Alliance will gradually form into a full resistance against the Empire. The Alliance, with its loyalist intentions to restore the Old Republic, will ultimately win its first battle against the Empire, setting up the events for A New Hope. Per the opening crawl of A New Hope, only one major Rebel victory can occur in the series; however, it is possible that the Rebels may achieve minor victories or even suffer defeats before that.

Recent Star Wars productions have revealed all that is known at this point about the period the series will take place in:


 * The Evasive Action: Prey webstrips reveal that an unknown number of Jedi escape Order 66 for any number of reasons (not actively involved in the war, "conscientious objectors," semi-rogue, skill, luck, etc.), and are hunted for a time by Darth Vader. At some point, Vader is told to focus on helping Palpatine build the Empire, and less on remaining Jedi, leaving that to others.
 * Yoda is in self-imposed exile on Dagobah, while Obi-Wan becomes a hermit on Tatooine after taking baby Luke to live with Owen and Beru Lars. The Last of the Jedi: The Desperate Mission reveals that Obi-Wan resides there until contacted about Anakin's one time rival, Ferus Olin. He then goes on one final adventure off-planet before returning to Tatooine. He may have some further planetbound adventures, but otherwise mostly watches over Luke, from a distance.
 * A.C. Crispin has stated that she proposed a book series dealing with Princess Leia Organa between Episode III and IV, but that "Lucasfilm didn't approve the idea of a Leia backstory because they want to keep that era of the SW continuity untouched for the television series they're considering."

An AICN insider report from October 15, 2007 stated that the series will include:
 * Podracing and the political interaction that went with it
 * "Rebel bases and Imperial Star Destroyers...Imperials will be everywhere in the new show - undercover operatives, Imperial Officers of all makes and ambitions, and nearly all of them will be afraid of Darth Vader."
 * Characters including Oola, Bib Fortuna, Boba Fett, Thall Joben, a Rebel general named Durron, "a straight-laced Rebel with the last name Naberre [sic]...in his 20s," "at least" one Mandalorian, and "General Papanoida"
 * A plot involving the Death Star plans
 * A more emotionally nuanced, morally gray take on characterization

Cast

 * Daniel Logan   as Boba Fett . Logan portrayed the young Boba Fett in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones. He has reportedly been asked by Lucas to reprise his role as Fett for the series.

The series will feature minor characters that will be from both from the films and the Expanded Universe. Lucas stated at Celebration III that cameos by main characters are not totally out of the question. Lucas has said that "the Emperor and Darth Vader are heard about — people talk about them — but you never see them because it doesn't take place where they actually are. There are storm troopers and all that, but there are no Jedis."

Frank Oz (Yoda), Ian McDiarmid (Palpatine), Hayden Christensen (Darth Vader), Jimmy Smits (Bail Organa), Wayne Pygram (Wilhuff Tarkin), Ewan McGregor (Obi-Wan Kenobi), Temuera Morrison (clone troopers) and Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca) have expressed their interest in occasional appearances. Sam Witwer has hinted that he may be involved in the show.

Lucas himself instructed the writers of the Star Wars: Republic comic book series not to kill off the Quinlan Vos character. This has led some fans to speculate that Vos may play a role in the series. Lucas had originally written a scene for Revenge of the Sith involving Vos, but ultimately, he only got a mention in the film (Obi-Wan explains to Anakin: "Master Vos has moved his troops to Boz Pity").

Crew

 * George Lucas&mdash;creator/executive producer/story
 * Rick McCallum&mdash;producer
 * Erik Tiemens&mdash;concept artist

Release and broadcast
In a 2006 interview, Steve Sansweet stated that the series will be released "toward the end of the decade". He gave the time period until release to be "about 3 years". This was supported by an April 2007 poster advertising the next three years of Star Wars: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed in 2007 (it has since been pushed back to 2008), the new Clone Wars TV series in 2008, and the live-action series in 2009.

According to series producer Rick McCallum, the series will be broadcast on cable. Both Disney and News Corp are rumored to have shown interest in acquiring broadcast rights for the show, with the former offering ABC and ABC Family and the latter offering FOX and FX. Lucas is also interested in distributing the series via the internet&mdash;specifically StarWars.com. Rick McCallum expects the series to be released simultaneously worldwide, though he says it is still too early to tell.

Marketing and spin-offs
A teaser image for the series was shown at Toy Fair 2007, and featured a close-up of Boba Fett's helmet.

Jim Ward has stated that the new series offers LucasArts the opportunity to expand the gaming universe of the Star Wars series. According to Ward, "It's a whole environment for us to go and make some great games." LucasArts employees have also discussed this with the media. According to Sue Rostoni, spin-off books are also likely, but as of June 2007, have not yet been discussed.

At Celebration III, Lucas stated that if this series (along with Star Wars: The Clone Wars) is successful, more television series may follow. He explained that he has considered setting the time frames of these possible shows during time periods far away from his films. When asked by a fan at his AFI lifetime achievement ceremony if this may include the Knights of the Old Republic/Sith Wars era, Lucas explained that is always a possibility, and that he may be interested in taking the franchise to those story areas one day. At Celebration Europe, McCallum repeated that "One of the ideas is that we’ll have multiple series going on in about two or three year’s time." McCallum hopes that after the series' second or third year, a character could have his/her own spin-off series, and by the fourth or fifth year, the production staff could have at least five separate series running. Indeed, Lucas has described the series as "one show that will split into four shows, focusing on different characters."