New Star Wars animated show "Rebels" coming fall 2014

Another possibility is spinning something off from a new character in one of the new Trilogy movies, if they prove to be interesting or popular enough.

 

There's a new article on the Star Wars Underworld webpage that mentions what the much-discussed live-action TV series would have been like had plans for it not been more or less shelved after the Disney takeover and the announcement of the new movies. Apparently there were plans to depict Han and Chewie meeting for the very first time (though there was no mention of the circumstances or just when in the timeline it would have happened) and Lando losing the Falcon to Han in that game of sabacc. The series would have shifted between telling stories in the parts of the Star Wars galaxy we were familiar with and those we'd never seen before, showcasing both old, popular characters and all-new ones. I still hope we get a live-action series at some point even if it's based on a different concept.

 

^Yeah, sounds like it was basically going to be The Young Han Solo Chronicles. Now, why does that seem familiar?

 

Me too. I'm interested to see what Ron Moore came up with for a Star Wars series.

 

It was fairly obvious that the live-action series wasn't going to happen well before the Disney sale. At one point they had claimed it was coming out in 2009. By 2012 we had had nothing but excuses and delaying tactics. It was beginning to resemble a certain episode of The Office. I suppose now they can point at Disney but the truth is that it wasn't going to happen and they wouldn't admit it.

 

Maybe so. Unless they were dragging their feet on an epic and ridiculous scale and the most indecisive people in the history of that franchise. At one point there was a rumor they'd solicited more than 100 different writers from all over the world to contribute and submit story treatments for episodes and were actively looking for the best ones they could find, so I doubt they'd expend all that time and all those resources if they weren't at least (at some point) trying to get the show made, but the persistent delays combined with long stretches of no updates nor any other news whatsoever did make it feel like it wasn't gonna happen.

 

I always figured it was because Lucas had become too much of a perfectionist, too spoiled about getting everything exactly the way he imagined it. That was impossible to do in live action on a TV budget, and Lucas had forgotten how to make compromises. So it just wasn't going to happen as long as he was in charge.

 

That's pretty much what I thought was accepted on that. They had scripts, but they couldn't do it on a TV budget, so they weren't going forward until the economics of TV changed or they could figure a way to change them.

 

Can't say that I blame them. It's not like they had a pressing need to make a live action series and there is some merit to the notion that if you know you can't do it right, don't do it at all.

...on the other hand they had a opportunity to push the envelope and try to do more with *less* like they did back in the old days. I kind of wish they'd just gone ahead and made a try of fit.

 

It would have made for a nice addition to the Star Wars universe if the darker, grittier atmosphere and settings would have turned out to be the case. Star Wars always needed a little more grit and dirt and a look at the underbelly of the Emperor's rule. Maybe one day they'll launch a series along those creative lines.

 

Regarding the Han Solo there are some story notes in the Making of books that reveal that Han's past as an Imperial officer/pilot was pretty much Lucas's idea...also the old EU thing about C-3PO being a century old. The latter was retconned as 3PO's 'parts' being a hundred years old when found and rebuilt by Anakin.

The notes also mention that Leia had siblings on Alderaan(!).

You know, with Lando being in Rebels, perhaps we'll see the Taanab battle mentioned in ROTJ. I know the EU already explained that but since that's no longer canon...

 

Maybe they'll do the story about the Death Star plans too!

 

Yeah, that's the best example of the EU getting sort of tangled...although one can mostly blame the video games for this, it seems almost every single one had a "Steal the plans" level that contradicted another game. Although the Radio drama and the Han Solo novels further complicated things.

 

I always liked the EU explanation that Kyle Katarn had been the Rebel agent responsible for stealing the plans to the original Death Star. I liked Kyle Katarn as a character in that timeframe of the continuity and how they wrote him into that sequence of events.

 

It's interesting how different Kyle is in "Dark Forces"'s cutscenes-he's much more of an anti-hero. Jedi Knight, the illustrated novels and the later sequels and appearences in the novels/comics made him more of a likeable hero (as well as making Jan his love interest)

 

He was always an interesting character, that's for sure. He's had quite the little fan following over the years.

 

He's kinda the Chuck Norris of the Star Wars Expanded Universe.

 

Only with a better personality.

 

I could never Force Grip him in Jedi Academy. He would just shrug it off.

 

Maybe he wasn't into you that way