Star Wars TV Series in 2006

I'd love to see a Rogue Squadron show that's an homage to Black Sheep Squadron and all those old WWII TV shows that had the gritty pack of misfits.

But whatever it is will be kinda nice to get a weekly Star Wars fix.









Anyone else miss Firefly? lol

 

Anyone care to humour an old man?

I'm not very keen on most of the dramatic proposals mentioned so far in this thread but that's due to my disappointment with the direction that most of the EU has taken I guess. Fair play to those that love it so I'll say no more on that. Liked the Clone Wars shorts though.

Anyway, I've often thought how effective an "in universe" documentory series could be. Not people in silly costumes carrying holocams or anything daft like that, just a series presented as "fact" for the purposes of the show.

No wait........don't leave!

I'm talking about a one-off 12 part series with an episode released quarterly, making it a bit of a TV event befitting the Star Wars name and keeping the material special and of the highest quality.

Remember "Walking with Dinosaurs" when that was released? What about a concept along those lines following the fantastic menagerie of star Wars creatures in their natural habitats complete with narration. Can you imagine seeing a Rancor taking down it's prey? That is something I could get exited about.

Perhaps that could account for six of the twelve parts.

Another six could chronicle different aspects of life in the Star Wars universe with each subject treated seriously in documentory fashion.

Perhaps subjects could be similar to:

Training of a Jedi knight?
Life in a Tusken village?

All shot documentory style with zero acting or even dialogue aside from the narration itself. Make it all about the attention to detail in the culture. I can't think of other subjects right now but the anthropological backbone in Star Wars has always been very strong due to George's personal interest in the subject so the material IS there, I'm sure.

I believe it's the strength of this facet of Star Wars that gives it so much resonance to many people on an almost subconscious level. The GFFA feels real.

The thing is, I see the GFFA as an incredible place where amazing stuff happened to the skywalkers and the other major participants, but where real, dare I say "ordinary" lives went on largely without incident for almost everyone else. To go the "heroes journey" route for others in a series would lessen the impact of the movies' events for me and the whole thing could start to feel a little contrived.

For me, a huge part of the strength of Star Wars is the galaxy and the beings and cultures that populate it. This could be "celebrated" in a pseudo factual series and could, if handled with great care, even add some depth to the movies themselves.

Any thoughts?

 

Live action AND animated? Sort of like the SW Holiday Special?

 

Well you would say that!

 

I dunno, Young Indiana Jones sucked HARD. BUT as long as it's not a "made for the sci fi channel" exclusive (it seems everything made specifically for that channel is terrible) it may be "ok". Star Trek was "ok" until "enterprise" what a bunch of crap. Sci Fi on tv right now is sadly lacking quality- Farspace went way down hill after the 2nd season.

Long time reader, first time typer.

 

Live action AND animated? Sort of like the SW Holiday Special?

What about a "storyteller"-like feel?

Where we have a live-action character (cloaked and masked or not) beginning and ending the episode and an animated feature as the actual story for the episode?

The storyteller could be anyone... Luke, Tionne, The Storyteller ...

 

I think that idea has potential. I for one would like to see Discovery Channel style, mock documentarys about Star Wars "animals" in the wild (Rancors, Krayt Dragons, etc). Imagine following a Wampa stalking it's prey on Hoth, or an in-depth feature about Dianoga infestations on Imperial space stations? Maybe they could make it as a special feature on a future DVD release.

I like the "storyteller" idea, also. I'm reminded of an early concept for the start of Episode IV, that I read about, where a Wookie mother reads from a book to her baby about the exploits of their brave relation, Chewbacca. Then the scene changes to the Rebel ship over Tatooine, and the story begins....
I'd like to see something like that, after all Star Wars has always had sort of fairytale/storybook roots.

I also like the idea of a Star Wars TV series that explains where Tarkin came from and why he's so important. I always imagined him playing a substantial part in the prequels, so when we see him again in Episode IV, we would understand why he only seems answerable to the Emperor, and can say things like "Vader, release him!" without suffering Vader's wrath himself.

I've been thinking about Bail Organa, too. Bail was supposed to be in the senate scene in Episode I (then played by Adrian Dunbar), but his part of the scene was cut from the film, and then the part in the next two films is played by Jimmy Smits. Jimmy Smits is an actor who is mainly known (as far as I know) for TV work, so do you think that perhaps this TV series has been part of the plan from the beginning? A story about about Bail Organa (played by an actor who will do television AND appear in the movies) and the rest of the founders of the Rebellion secretly plotting against the Empire, which also charts Tarkin's rise and shows the audience how he got into such a postion of favour with the Emperor? A sort of Episode 3.5? (or Episode III.V?)

Also, one last thing, if this series is going to debut in 2006, then surely they must be working on it already?

 

Wow there's some really compeling arguments being made in this thread against this as yet unconfirmed series. I mean really, Star Wars becoming a cheesy weekly serial! My God! If there's one thing the vaunted George Lucas would never stoop to it would be the likes of cookie cutter serials like (gasp) Flash Gordon or Star Trek. And the repetitive sets, geez imagine shots of, oh i don't know, say tatooine in almost every episode! Oh and yes I think it's fair to conclude sight unseen that the acting will suffer as well, who ever could we find to deliver the same passionate performances as a Hayden Christensen, Natalie Portman, or even Jimmy Smits? Broad strokes on a large canvas indeed.

 

Maximus I was thinking the same thing about Jimmy Smits. He'd have to be one of lead actors in the series. For continuities sake, Ian McDiarmid would have to come back as well as the actors who are playing Mon Mothma and Tarkin (if he appears) in episode III. And if Aayla Secura surives Amy Allen would make a great lead Jedi.

I'm not sure how far into it the Alliance would be formed or how much they would do because if I'm not mistaking wasn't the battle in which they got the DS plans their first victory? But still I guess it would be centred around Vader and his hunting down the rest of the Jedi. Throw in Boba, Chewie, Jabba and you'd have to have a very young Leia and it should be a good series. No young Han Solo or Lando please!

 

The Ewok movies were good for their time...

I would like to see a live action series

Maybe that would convince GL to write some more for the big screen and let others direct them like he did with ESB and ROTJ.


As far as it being animated, well Droids sucked, and Ewoks sucked, and some people didn't like the Clone Wars shorts...

 

You're right, Techno Union, the battle that happens just before the beginning of Episode IV (I think the Rebels called it "Operation Skyhook" in EU sources - or is that just the actual stealing of the plans?), was the Alliance's first victory. Maybe the series could span about twenty years and be made up of the initial defeats that the Rebels endured, and perhaps then, at the end of the series, they could show the "Death Star plans" battle? An Alliance victory right at the end could be a sort of happy ending for the series, even though the Rebels still have a long way to go.

Maybe the droids could be in it too. I'd certainly watch a show that had Artoo and Threepio in it.

 

The droids would to have be there for sure. Artoo's always saving the day!

 

I like Maximus and -techo-'s idea about the Rebels the best

 

Today, on the starwars.com Q&A feature, Sansweet said there were no concrete plans for a series.

 

I think a Star Wars series would be excessively cheesy, but heck! so are the movies

I think the best idea would be to do a series about the entire NJO time period. That series involves all the old characters, but plenty of new ones. It also involves land battles, space battles, politics, and everything else that is crucial to the Star Wars galaxy.

Ok, sure live action is great, but I would never wanna see anyone play luke, leia, and han besides mark hammill, carrie fisher, and harrison ford. (and theres no way they would agree to do it lol) But cartoons would also be a bad idea because it brings on a kind of kiddy feeling. The best way to do these shows, in my opinion, would to do animation similar to the movie Final Fantasy: The Spirit Within or Max Steel (a flop on saturday morning cartoons a while back). That animation looks more realistic than cartoons, and they could make characters that look exactly like all the ppl in the movies.

Thats just my opinion but i would love to see it happen that way.

 

That sounds good, 2nd Quest. They could have Lord Tion (from the radio version) as a sort of henchman/lackey to Moff Tarkin, too.

And SuperShmi06's idea about a CGI show like the "Final Fantasy" movie would certainly get around the problem of not being able to have the same actors in the show (Carrie Fisher, Peter Cushing, etc).

 

I realy like the "documentry" style idea.

For me the main thing is it not involve, except for the occasional camio, any of the movie charecters. Different actors, recycled footage, or movie story lines would kill it in concept. I think something like the "tales from..." or "x-wing" serieses (or is it seriesi) would be the best. That way they can focus on making a good show instead of worrying about established charecter portail, or established continuity.

One thing I think would help is alternating stories. Does anyone remember "the saturday action pack" from about 8 years ago. It had team knightrider, the watcher, lost son, and another on or two. anyway they were seperate stories happening in the same "world" They had different writers, actors, crews, locations, everything. Aside from the occasional refference or camio the story lines didn't cross. So we could have a weekly SW show but each subshow would have an entire month to put together a good episode. We could show the adventures of an Old Republic group, a Rebel cell, a Clone Army platun, a family during the Vong Invasion, whatever. It could be cool, exciting, well writen, and well cast. Just avoid already established or "major" plots from the movie. They can establish their own stories.

 

From Executive Producer George Lucas, Pat Proft, producer of ?Twilight Theater? and Leonard Ripps, producer of ?The Lot,? comes the all-new Star Wars epic television series:

?Star Wars: Empire?

It is a time of desolation, yet a time of rebuilding. The Jedi have all but been vanquished and the Empire has been born. This is the story of what happens between the Star Wars trilogies. With new characters and places to be seen and discovered, the Star Wars galaxy continues to grow. Follow the exploits of amazing new heroes and villains alike, in this all-new, live action series based on the Star Wars movies.

In a seedy sector of Coruscant, Ackmena runs a tavern frequented by the lowest of the low. But passing through her doors is a small band of rebels who use her business to organize the seeds of resistance that she supports. With the help of Chief Gormaanda, Ackmena provides the galactic hub for a network to connect the growing Rebel Alliance and turn it into a force the Empire will have to reckon with.

 

sounds good.

Is that official or something that you wrote?

 

It's official. Unfortunately, it refers to the "Star Wars Holiday Special." The characters mentioned were played by Bea Arthur and Art Carney. Pat Proft did produce it (along with the Police Academy, Naked Gun and Hot Shots! movies.)

 

we should get some new info today or sunday

 

whether its animated or live action, i hope its longer than 3 minutes per episiode!