TV Discussion "Star Wars: Underworld" test footage

I have to say, not a big fan of unused scripts, beyond the novelty factor. Without production design, directing, acting, etc., it really doesn't reveal much, just a what-if or a window into their thought processes at the time. For that reason I would love to see them, mainly to see how George was "feeling" that series.

 

I hope we get to see Imperial Coruscant, what Mas Amedda does as Grand Vizier, learn all the lore that Lucas had in mind, etc., whether on Disney+, in a movie, or both.

 

I also wonder if Underworld would have covered how the Empire treated aliens.

 

Luceno's Darth Plagueis had already explored Palpatine's mindset where he was a human being, just a very bad one shaped by an even badder one Darth Plagueis. That is kinda the cycle of the Sith of Bane's legacy in particular. One of the reasons he enjoyed killing Plaguis was cause his master ordered him into committing murder of his family ect and turned him into the monster that he is, and so revenge.

 

Furthermore, I wonder if Underworld would have revealed whether or not the Stormtroopers are clones, how much surveillance people on Coruscant were subject to, how people viewed the Jedi and Palpatine’s “scars and deformations”, etc.

 

The stormtroopers aren't clones though, the clones were phased out. Chances are the series would have simply have that premise from the get go as opposed to make a revelation out of it.

Palpatine explains his scars and deformation to the public in ROTS. Nobody is left guessing how he got to look the way he does.

 

Probably a good bet many of those scripts may of never got produced anyway.

Many Stormtroopers were clones, and not all clones were of Jango especially later towards/into the OT. That is was true even in Neo-Canon.

 

As far as Lucas's works are concerned (which is what this TV series was), the clones were phased out and the stormtroopers are just regular people drafted into the Imperial army. And all the clones were Jango Fett clones.

 

Vanity Fair has recently done a piece talking about the show in-depth, as well as the test footage originally posted here at the start of the thread. Link and excerpts below.

Star Wars: Underworld — The Galactic TV Show That Almost Was

On the ambition of the show and its cost-related demise:

On the test footage:

On realizing the dream of a digital TV production set, as well as George's reaction:

About Lucas trying to get parts of Underworld into The Clone Wars once he realized Underworld was hitting the rocks:

On the story of the show:

Finally, the influence and legacy of Underworld still:

 

That's probably in reference to the 1927 German science fiction silent film Metropolis.

 

Interesting to hear that the Pykes were going to be a big part of Underworld. I guess they kind of integrated stuff like TCW and TBoBF. I wonder what other concepts for Underworld might influence upcoming Star Wars media.

 

The Pykes coming out of Underworld is old news, it was revealed back when they were introduced in TCW.

TCW had a bunch of stuff from Underworld, starting with the Underworld itself and its levels, the Pykes, Saw Gerrera, the clone bar 79's, Kessel, Underworld police, police gunships, etc...

 

Daiyu in the Kenobi series reminded me a bit of the Underworld footage.

 

I thought about the same thing when I was watching that episode. It seems that Lucas' vision about certain settings in Star Wars was explored. And it's not random. I have seen in interviews some of the people responsible for the planning of these new shows we are getting (can't remember if it was Deborah Chow or Filoni or both) that all the concepts and ideas that had been conceived for Underworld are still there, they are the property of LFL, and obviously they will be drawing material from those for years to come. I wouldn't be surprised if some of that showed up in Andor as well.

 

I wonder if both Bad Batch and Andor might touch on some of this with a return to Corucant and the senate chambers and we see how the empire transforms. We seen in Bad Batch season 1 of the Empire on both Raxus ans Ryloth being subjected.

 

I imagine that Star Wars Underworld would have look similar to this Fan Film

 

I wonder if Lucasfilm internally views the Underworld scripts as Canon like some of the unmade Clone Wars arcs.

 

Today I posted a little interview excerpt with Steve Sansweet, taken from an interview he did in 2009 with Fictional Frontiers, about Underworld from when the show was in production. It gives a little glimpse into the atmosphere of the time and how Lucasfilm was feeling about it then. You can hear that here below; underneath that, I wrote up a little overview of Underworld's demise, and its connection to the sale of Lucasfilm, with the falling apart of the Grady Ranch plan. That might also be of interest to some.

Underworld was an immense undertaking by Lucasfilm and was intended to launch a new era for the company in television. First announced in 2005, the more adult-oriented show was to cover different stories set in the Dark Times era, during the rise of the Empire, after Revenge of the Sith but before A New Hope. George Lucas was personally involved in the project and worked with several accomplished writers from around the industry on the series, including the likes of Ronald D. Moore (Deep Space Nine, Battlestar Galactica), who was brought onto the series to write a two-part episode which involved Darth Vader descending to the depths of the Coruscant underworld to crush a rebellion.

If successful, Lucasfilm was prepared to replicate the live-action approach with other television shows, including one focused on the Rebel Alliance and another on the Empire. Lucasfilm even considered doing a show set in the distant past of the Old Republic if successful, which George Lucas himself confirmed at Celebration III.

Negotiations with several television studios began, with test footage for the series being produced in partnership with Stargate Studios, as Lucasfilm talked with ABC, HBO, and Sci-Fi Channel. Sci-Fi elected not to pursue the series, while HBO wanted creative control, which Lucasfilm was unwilling to give. Eventually a strategy was put forth to create the shows in-house and distribute them through either a Star Wars TV channel or streaming service, but the revenue model for Netflix was not yet profitable enough to yield a return. Lucas himself had talked of streaming since the 90s -- he had even speculated at the time that video games would be downloadable and streamed in the future -- but the model was not yet ready while Underworld was being produced.

Still, Lucas had a solution up his sleeve. Eventually, to get budgets under control, Lucas wanted to build a new ranch where they could film the entire show on-site. It was to be a state-of-the-art facility, called Grady Ranch, built not far from Skywalker Ranch. Lucas was optimistic about the plan -- he had tried to build it for decades but had experienced pushback from neighbors. Unfortunately, after much effort to get it enacted, the new plan was rejected by Lucas' neighbors. It was a crushing blow.

In the aftermath, a bitter statement from Lucasfilm read: "We love working and living in Marin, but the residents of Lucas Valley have fought this project for 25 years, and enough is enough. We have several opportunities to build the production stages in communities that see us as a creative asset, not as an evil empire. [...] The level of bitterness and anger expressed by the homeowners in Lucas Valley has convinced us that, even if we were to spend more time and acquire the necessary approvals, we would not be able to maintain a constructive relationship with our neighbors." Lucas would eventually try to build low-cost housing instead, and when that was rejected in turn by his wealthy neighbors, he turned to legal action, which to my knowledge is still ongoing. Kathleen Kennedy and Jon Favreau would later discuss Lucas' failed dream of building Grady Ranch in their discussion of The Volume in 2020.

This Marin County drama ultimately spelled the end of Underworld, as well as Lucas' dreams of turning Lucasfilm into a TV production studio for the future of Star Wars. With his vision for the future of the company in jeopardy, and less than a year after the dream of Grady Ranch disintegrated, Lucas signed the deal with Bob Iger to sell Lucasfilm over to Disney. In this tale, Underworld's demise lay at the heart of the end of Lucasfilm's days as a privately-operated company, a dream that ultimately could not be fulfilled.​

 

There was a Poster/Photo that says that in 2009 a Star Wars Live Action Show was going to come out the most likely thing is that Show was Underworld in Wookieepedia it says that Underworld would have had at least 100 or 200 Episodes and that many Characters were going to appear like a Young Han Solo, Quinlan Vos even Darth Vader i think it would have been difficult to work with TCW at the same time with a Live Action Show of that magnitude now is possible but in the 2000s or Early 2010s it was different it seems that this Show was going to be Very Long and that it would have no End

 

It is true that they expected the show would go on for quite some time -- both Lucas and McCallum made statements to the effect of it possibly outlasting their time at Lucasfilm.

 

There's nothing that would make the production of TCW and Underworld impossible. They are completely different beasts. And George did work on both at the same time for years.

 

But Underworld was nowhere near complete there were only a Few Recordings, some Scripts and ideas i think that if Underworld had happened Lucas would have paid more attention to Underworld than to TCW

 

Nobody said it was complete, I said that George had been working and developing both shows at the same time, Underworld simply wasn't materialized for reasons beyond his control. And he would have payed attention to both. Like I said, they are not mutually exclusive. Like in TCW, he would have other people (trained by him) in charge of the day to day production, and he would be involved at key stages of development, giving directions and approval.