The Vader Show. (cue Happy Days theme)

So TFN is reporting that maybe there'll be a TV series about Vader between Episodes III and IV.

I, for one, am game. But, really, they'd have to make it good. When dealing with Vader, you gotta have the best of the best! (For one thing, the voice. They must sign James Earl Jones, not an imitator... there is no substitute.)

Anyway. Discuss.



Rick McCallum loves you!

 

Without JEJ, it would be crap. But if they do make the show I am sure that Vader will not appear in every episode. Likely it will follow the adventures of one or a group of Jedi on the run from the Empire, with plenty of crazy planets and kooky aliens along the way.

 

Well, I am all for Vader. But I would be afraid it would be dumbed down.

If this is true, then do all the Jedi die in EpIII?

I personally think it would hurt the movie itself (EpIII) if we didnt see the Jedi ("hypothetically") all die aside from the ones we know of in the OT.

And voice casting? Who would Vader fight?

While I would love it, I cant see it happening.

 

I like the idea of of a series set in that era, but I'm not too enthusiastic about one that follows Vader as the central character.

Likely it will follow the adventures of one or a group of Jedi on the run from the Empire, with plenty of crazy planets and kooky aliens along the way.

That was my hope for future small screen SW. I think following one Jedi would be interesting... having to evade capture while adapting to life without the Jedi Order. If he found a cave and a spandex suit he could become Mynockman.

Or they could remake the '70s Superfriends series with Jedi.

 

Hey it is inevitable that a Rogue Squadron show will be made?? I do like the idea of a show bridging the gap between 3 and 4. You could even have the lad who plays Mon Mothma make an appearance as well as Jimmy Smits.

 

The timing for this is so weird because we actually did our last radio show (sunday) about "SW on TV" and the idea of a Vader show was actually sent to us. See my sig for more details.

I'm 100% for a Vader show. Its my favorite Era.

 

Maybe this is gonna be like those 80s anthology shows. I can see it now: "Star Wars: Tales From The Dark Side"

 

I love the idea. The more Star Wars the better IMHO. I thin for some reason it will just be a movie like the Ewok films were.

 

I would be stoked if they made a Rogue Squadron or Vader series but *only* if its done properly. The Clone Wars manga style series looks like crap to me. I'd much prefer the CGI style they used on Starship Troopers. Come on it's ILM FFS.

 

My prayers have been answered. I brought up this idea last year. I'm SOOOOO happy. Hopefully it follows Vader. Hopefully it's a really dark, gritty show. Hopefully it's animated. The style of the Clone Wars Cartoon doesn't really bug me, but I think the style of the Jutice League is more appropriate, or perhaps of the Spawn cartoon. (Though the animation itself would have to be cleaned up.)

 

I think they would run out of ideas pretty fast, I'd prefer more Clone Wars episodes....

 

No Vader-centric show. It'd get stale way too fast. HE would get stale. It's not like they can give him a wacky sidekick as a comic foil now, is it?

Methinks it would be MUCH better, a lot less self-limiting, if a Star Wars tv show materialized, but were an anthology series. Stories could be set all over the SW timeline, from the classic era to prequel times, to the KOTOR period to what happens 10,000 years after the fall of the Empire. Would "flesh out" SW extra-movie canon thing once and for all, we'd get to see SW with a greater sense of historic fullness, a lot more actors and production crew would get a chance to work on the saga, and what I'd really look forward to is how many writers would LOVE to add something to SW for the screen.

If that last one didn't entice ya enough, how's this sound then: letting Harlan Ellison or J. Michael Straczynski pen a Star Wars episode

 

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I think they would run out of ideas pretty fast, I'd prefer more Clone Wars episodes....[/b][hr][/blockquote]As nice and as fuzzy as seeing more of those might be, I think that that particular era will be seen as in need of temporary "retirement" in another few years, with folks ready for more Empire- and Vader-centric action that a potential series like this one could afford.

And whomever just mentioned bringing onboard Jimmy Smits...we're both simpatico. Show us the events from those years -- hell, one could even work in stories and/or references to other storylines, such as the [i]Eye of Palpatine[/i] affair -- and maybe even show us where the [i]Droids[/i] series picks up.

Live-action is out the window as far as I'm concerned: the hardcore audience would never fully buy alternate actors playing the film characters' roles this soon after the completion of the movies themselves, versus recasting the roles from the [b]original[/b] trilogy today. With animation, however, you're almost certainly guaranteed to snag at least [b]some[/b] of the progenitor thesps for the parts; which would give to it that needed legitimacy.

I don't for one second think that even Anthony Daniels would be willing to don the C-3PO codpiece on a weekly basis.

 

As an addendum to what Chris just said above...absolutely.

An animated anthology series -- with Lucas perhaps onboard in at least a storyline-advisory capacity -- would be marvelous, and this time, certainly "non-Infinities."

 

A title for such a tv series could simply be Empire or Star Wars: Empire

The most imporatant thing to me will be the casting. Jimmy Smits has starred on my tv series so geting him to appear wouldn't be real hard.

Ian McDiarmid. Don't know if he would be interested in tv.

Hayden Christensen doesn't have to appear. They can just put a big guy in the Vader costume and let James Earl Jones do the talking. James Earl Jones doesn't have to do the voice either. The actors LucasArts has used are quite good.

If the series was about a lone Jedi on the run from Vader everybody would know that Vader will eventually kill him. Any Jedi characters should be supporting actors only.

I would like to see Jimmy Smits have the starring role of the series. He would be the best character to center a show around.

Whould the series last a full season of 24 1 hour episodes or should it follow the HBO and USA approach of 12 to 13 episodes season?

I say go for the shorter seasons so that years story arc can be set in place.

 

I think a live-action TV show is a terrible idea. There is absolutely no chance it would live up to the movies in terms of action and spectacle. I mean, think Voyager, Enterprise, Farscape, etc. - boring! A Rogue Squadron series would suck as even the comics series was lame.

A Vader series is a bizarre idea - the movie series is supposed to be Anakin's story, so to add to his story arc as a live-action show would be odd.

Animation, on the other hand - yeah, that could be good.

 

This sounds like a horrible idea.

 

There is only one way this could work. Animated show.

 

This would only work if ILM took the care to produce each episode as perfectly as they make the movies.

This would only work if GL directed and wrote it.

This would only work if James Earl Jones, Jimmy Smitts and Ian McDiarmid were cast.

This have to be on network TV (because I don't have cable)

If they do all that it will be fine.
But I doubt they will do it all.

 

This would only work if ILM took the care to produce each episode as perfectly as they make the movies.

Perhaps.

This would only work if GL directed and wrote it.

Tell it to Irvin Kershner.

This would only work if James Earl Jones, Jimmy Smitts and Ian McDiarmid were cast.

I agree that stand-in actors would be unacceptable.

This have to be on network TV (because I don't have cable)

I do.

 

I have a horrible vision of something with the Star Wars name appearing on TV featuring a bunch of people - some with funny masks, some not - standing around the same sets every week spouting technobabble.

Look at the amount of time it takes to make a Star Wars movie - does anyone think we would get the same quality and excitement with a TV show? Look at Young Indy. The Indiana Jones films are among the greatest ever made, but although Young Indy was a quality show, it was far from the best TV show ever.

If there is to be more live-action Star Wars after Episode III, it should be on the big screen, with or without Lucas being heavily involved.

 

As touched on earlier, 25 or so years have passed since JEJ voiced Vader in the movies. Over that time people's voices change (heard Carrie Fisher lately?).

It is entirely possible that JEJ doesn't actually sound like he did a quarter of a century ago, and if that's the case, hiring non-JEJ voice talent that sounds like the OT Vader would not be the terrible / blashphemous option people are going on about here.