George Lucas' Canceled Star Wars Series Could Have Completely Changed The Franchise

"Star Wars" is the centerpiece of Disney+'s programming, with a bevy of TV series that invite endless debate over which ones rank highest. Each series pulls from a different corner of the galaxy, with "The Acolyte" delving into the shadows of the Sith's plots during the prequel era, "Skeleton Crew" embracing a throwback childhood adventure tone, the Emmy-winning "Andor" exploring moral gray areas within the resistance, and "The Mandalorian" continuing the story after the original trilogy.

Long before any of that was an apple in Mickey Mouse's eye, George Lucas was developing a Star Wars series that could have changed the franchise forever. Titled "Star Wars: Underworld," the series was discussed by producer Rick McCallum on the "Young Indy Chroniclers" podcast, where he explained how close it came to becoming a reality.

"I think we had over 60 scripts... like third draft scripts," McCallum recalled. "These were dark [scripts]. They were sexy. They were violent. They were absolutely wonderful, complicated, challenging scripts." Across these dozens of scripts was a cavalcade of ambitious ideas, including Emperor Palpatine's backstory, the rise of the Rebellion, and the depths of the galactic underworld, which McCallum says "would've blown up the whole 'Star Wars' universe and Disney would've definitely never offered George to buy the franchise" if they had ever seen the light of day before Lucas ultimately sold the franchise to Disney. What the series would have covered has been pieced together over the years through comments from collaborators and artists who worked at Lucasfilm.

The show would have served as a bridge between the fall of the Republic in "Revenge of the Sith" and the rise of the Rebellion in "A New Hope." McCallum noted they brought in what he called the "most wonderful writers in the world," including writers from "Lost," "Doctor Who," and "Battlestar Galactica" showrunner Ron Moore.

The series would have explored the criminal underworld of Coruscant, the political hub of the Empire that rules the galaxy. A short piece of test footage was released that showed Stormtroopers and Coruscant citizens moving through bustling streets as a hidden Jedi slipped past undetected. This espionage-style storytelling hints at a world that would later be explored by "Rogue One," which was originally developed by screenwriter John Knoll as a storyline for the series. "Andor" later expanded on this tone to critical acclaim, but another planned storyline would have proven far more controversial.

Cory Barlog, the creative director for Sony's "God of War" series, recalled visiting Lucasfilm and being allowed to read scripts for the series. In an interview with GamesBeat, he said they "made the Emperor a sympathetic figure who was wronged by his [heartless] woman. She's this hardcore gangster, and she just totally destroyed him as a person. I almost cried while reading this. This is the Emperor, the lightning out of the fingers Emperor. That's something magical." Others have pointed out that this approach leans into troubling tropes by shifting responsibility for a galactic fascist regime onto a female character. Regardless, "Underworld" remains one of the most ambitious projects Lucasfilm ever attempted, and that same ambition ultimately proved to be its undoing.

On an appearance on Katee Sackhoff's "The Sackhoff Show," Ron Moore explained that Lucas planned to develop and shoot the series entirely on his own dime."In George's mind, once I've produced it, I'm just going to take it to a network and say, 'take it or leave it.' This is what it is. I don't care what your notes are, I don't care what your thoughts are, it is done, do you want it?" This strategy worked for the animated series "The Clone Wars," but the realities of producing a live-action series on a feature-film scale quickly became apparent. "Andor" reportedly cost Disney $650 million, averaging roughly $27 million per episode across its 24-episode run. That figure makes "Andor" one of the most expensive TV shows ever made and highlights just how ambitious "Star Wars: Underworld" could have been.

Ultimately, Lucas decided that creating more "Star Wars" came second to his family, leading him to sell the entire franchise to Disney in 2012 for $4.05 billion. The sale killed any possibility of "Underworld" seeing the light of day, which Rick McCallum calls in an interview with "Young Indy Chroniclers," "one of the great disappointments of our lives." Lucas, on the other hand, has acknowledged that things don't always work out the way you want them. Based on how ideas from the series later surfaced across the Disney canon, from "Rogue One" and "Andor" to the rise of the rebellion in "Star Wars Rebels," the influence of "Underworld" has quietly endured.