Darth Vader Televised Specials to Screen in Spring (Cancelled)

You know, this sounds like a great idea! If they indeed make this Vader televised special an animated miniseries/micro-series, then I'm hoping it could potentially wrap up any TCW loose ends not closed by the bonus content, and show the fates of certain characters that may not appear in Rebels...i.e. finish off Darth Maul once and for all, since it seems weird to me if he's still alive in 5 BBY; perhaps show us the fate of Captain Rex, and even Ahsoka Tano if she isn't slated to appear in Rebels (not likely, since Filoni is one of the producers of the show). But if they do these things, no need for too much TCW character shoehorning into Rebels. Of course, this is probably all a pipe-dream. But if we get to see a dark-in-tone miniseries with Vader as a protagonist, I'd be totally down to see it, and await it with more excitement perhaps than even Rebels. Powers that be, if you are listening, I beseech you!

 

It not just going to be a commercial. This is going to be marketed and have toys and stuff.

 

I could see it going like this.

Spring 2014:
TCW Bonus Content via DvD/Blu-Ray/Digital Formats
Summer 2014:
Vader mini-series
Fall 2014:
Rebels Premier
Winter 2014:
P&F Crossover Special

It looks like we ma not have a content drought after all.

 

Yeah you'll be able to get your very own Disney show inspired Darth Vader merchandise. I fear it will be appearances on Disney channel shows leading up to the release of Rebels. Remember, Vader is dead by the time of Ep. VII. His only appearances post Disney acquisition will have to be in Rebels or spin off films. Disney will milk the character for the next 12 months.

 

"Hi, I'm Darth Vader. You may remember me from such films as the Star Wars Holiday Special and Caravan of Courage. Would you like to make more money? Of course - we all do..."

 

Interesting... nice find.

 

*Thread merge*

 

"Being marketed" isn't synonymous with having toys, though. I doubt there will be toys of the Phineas & Ferb thing, or whatever the "Choose Your Side cross-platform something-or-other" is. Sometimes marketing tools have other marketing within them; these are all simply things which Disney is selling ad space around.

Sorry guys, but I it seems like a massive stretch to think this is somehow a narrative special. Seeing as we've already heard about Rebels, and this is coming before that, we definitely would have heard about it by now if it were going to be truly new narrative content. This will most likely be documentary special on the legacy of Vader as a pop-culture icon. Mark my words.

 

Yeah, I also tend to think this will probably be some sort of documentary-style thing... could still be cool, though.

 

Darth Vader: E! True Hollywood Story

 

You may be joking, but then again...

 

But Vader wasn't in Caravan of Courage...

 

Posted this in another thread, but since we are talking Dart Vader Special... I'd like to see something like this:



"A young boy separated from his mother; reunited years later. But tragedy strikes when she is brutally murdered. Will young Anakin Sywalker ever recover from his pain, or will he succumb to the dark forces at work around him? A very special episode of The ABC Afterschool Special. Little Orphan Ani, starring Hayden Christensen, Natalie Portman and very special guest star, Ewan McGregor."


Yancy

 

Episode 1 Darth and his son Luke have to square off against champs Jango and Boba in the father/son dance off

 

Fett4, I think you're on to something, but Disney has a budget for real actors.

 

If Disney brings him back to life I'm done.

 

I despise Dark Empire. I'm also of the opinion that if they bring back Vader or the Emperor, then I'm probably done. Original ideas, please!

Still skeptical that this'll be anything canonical. Surely we'd have heard something about this before now if it was something live-action, and I don't see them having this as an animated prelude to Rebels. They're airing the first two episodes on the main Disney channel - surely that serves the role an animated Vader special would?

 

A lot of "original ideas" that I've come across are even less "original" than resurrecting dead characters.

 

My best guess is small animated episodes, with Vader, linking TCW to Rebels. Disney is probably using Vader as a means to hype the hell out of Rebels (only to rarely use him in the new series). And make billions of dollars off marketing Vader, as well.

 

Could be a TV special ABOUT Vader. Not in the SW universe, but a documentary charting the character's journey and focusing on the ANH era to promote Rebels and potentially Episode VII and whatever part Vader plays (likely his impact on Luke).

 

What does a Darth Vader TV special could be like?!

 

And this is exactly what I was worried about with Disney at the helm. They will over saturate the market with Star Wars and eventually cut out their own legs from under them (which I suspect will happen with Marvel in the next 3-4 years or so). I find it a bit ironic that Disney/Lucasfilm shelved Seth Green's Detours based on statements he recently made:

"I was introduced to Star Wars as a child and it was without any ironic or comedic lens, so I saw Darth Vader as scary, and I saw all of those messages very very clearly," Green said. "We didn’t think it made any sense, in anticipation of these new movies coming out, to spend the next 3 years with an animated sitcom as 3 generations of kids first introduction to the Star Wars universe."

Yet this same company has no problems using Vader to hock products like crazy now, including Verizon and the Disney Parks. NEWSFLASH Disney... Vader is no longer menacing, he's a corporate shill now, and the more you loan out Vader and other classic characters to sell your brand through commercial appearances and guest stints on show like Phineas and Ferb, the more you dilute the Star Wars brand and turn those characters into punchlines... and frankly once Lucasfilm made the decision to allow the characters to be used in shows like Family Guy and Robot Chicken that genie was forever let out of the bottle. It's one of the reasons I hope JJ and company stop trying to cater to OT fans and instead focus on making the ST for a new generation of fans using new heroes and new villains.

 

Yancy, I generally agree with you, and definitely agree about the ST direction--honestly, I kinda wished it wouldn't even be about the Skywalker/Solo kids and it would start fresh--but I don't actually think that dilution was Lucasfilm's fault. To me, that started with the very first pop-cultural references to Star Wars, stuff like Bill Murray singing to the theme on SNL. That's not so much a syndrome of its own, but a symptom of its success. I mean, every time a sitcom has to somehow reference nerds, where they would've used Star Wars before, now that reference is usually Battlestar Galactica or something. So many people like Star Wars that being a huge fan is no longer considered a yardstick for nerd cred. I think that would've happened whether the brand kowtowed or not.

But I think the dilution can be handled; it just takes a skillful hand. Peoples' perceptions of it might be way out of whack, but frankly, maybe it's good that it's diluted... because it was certainly over-inflated in peoples' imaginations as far back as 1997, when the Special Edition came out, and gradual deflation occurred over the next decade. It's the biggest pop-cultural thing in history, so nobody truly knows how to handle it from experience, but I think referential dilution might be the only way to keep people's perceptions of it down-to-earth. If not, hopefully, with a little willpower, those who pay attention and don't just let it wash over them can gain the proper perspective to see through that clutter.