We’ve got a title for the live action Star Wars tv show. Last week, producer Rick McCallum told us it would be Star Wars: Underworld.
Now, McCallum is spilling a few details on what fans can expect when and if the series ever makes it to the air.
“[Underworld is] much darker [than the movies]. It’s a much more adult series. I think, thematically, in terms of characters and what they go through, it will be … if we can ever get it together and George really wants to pursue it, it’ll be the most awesome part of the whole franchise, personally … It’s Empire Strikes Back on steroids,” McCallum says. “Obviously, we changed it for where we couldn’t go in terms of language. It was to be serious performances, very complicated relationships, unbelievable issues of power and corruption, greed, vanity, pride, ego manifesting itself at levels that only equal the world that we live in now, but, as I said, on steroids.”
“Basically, it is like The Godfather; it’s the Empire slowly building up its power base around the galaxy, what happens in Coruscant, which is the major capital, and it’s a group of underground bosses who live there and control drugs, prostitution,” he adds. “This is the best way to put it into perspective: we did Episode III—which is one of the larger of all the Star Wars films in relation to set construction, visual effects, the amount of visual effects and everything else—and that was made for $100 million which was unheard of even five years ago, because had it been made by any studio or anywhere in the United States it would have been easily double that price. So imagine an hour’s episode with more digital animation and more visual effects and more complicated in terms of set design and costume design than a two-hour movie that takes us three years to make, and we have to do that every week and we only have $5 million to do it. That’s our challenge.”
Reactions?
If this idea gets full attention, then this new show could do for Star Wars what Moore’s BSG did for that original series. What Star Wars always lacked for me as an adult was a possibility of realness. Star Trek always felt that it was an attainable future for humanity while Star Wars, while taking place a long, long, time ago in a galaxy far, far away was more light fantasy in space. I prefer a touch of adult plots and real character development on a level that speaks to the realities of human nature – something that the DS9 series & the TNG movies tackled. Moore’s BSG did just that & I’m hoping this is what Rick McCallum is shooting for with SW. Now, if he can just get Lucas’ blessing for a darker, grittier Wars, then let it roll.