- This is The Mandalorian.
It's the first ever live-action Star Wars TV series,
but it nearly wasn't.
Back in 2005 George Lucas had a very different vision
of Star Wars televised future.
And this is the hidden history of Star Wars Underworld.
(ominous electronica music)
Welcome to Explainiac.
I'm Dan Casey.
On today's show we're exploring the history
behind the epic Star Wars TV show
that almost happened but didn't.
Star Wars Underworld.
Now chances are you've it's name in hushed whispers
on the outer-rim of Star Wars fandom,
or maybe watched an ancient episode
of a show called The Dan Cave
where I mentioned it briefly that one time.
Now, no Bothan spies need to die
to bring you this information.
Just takes some digging through the archives
to uncover the story
of the not so little Star Wars show that couldn't.
Described as "Deadwood in space."
and "Empire on steroids."
Star Wars Underworld as it came to be known
was first announce by George Lucas
at Celebration III back in 2005.
It was prestige TV show trying to exist
in a time before studios were really willing
to shell out the big bucks for the small-screen.
After making The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles of the '90s,
Lucas became enamored once more
with the process of making television.
Producer Rick McCallum teased
that Lucas envisioned this project being
"somewhere like 100 hours between
"Episode III and Episode IV."
Placing it in the 19 year period
between the prequel trilogy and the original trilogy,
in which films like Rogue One
and the upcoming series like Cassian of Andor
on Disney+ will take place.
In a 2008 interview with Star Wars Insider
McCallum described Underworld as
"a much darker, much more character-based thing.
"It's not as plot-driven as the movies."
McCallum added that
"The series would be about brand new characters,
"a group of people we haven't seen yet, except Boba Fett,
"who will be an instrumental part of it."
And that "The series will also
"showcase other bounty hunters."
Sounds familiar, right?
Except this wasn't gonna be a story about Boba Fett
learning the trials and travails of fatherhood
as he looked after a sweet Baby Yoda of his very own.
It was set in the seedy underbelly of Coruscant.
Giving us insight into a world
of criminals, outlaws, and operatives
making their ill-gotten against a backdrop
of a galaxy under the Imperial boot.
And to bring this grinding galaxy far, far away to life,
Lucas and McCallum enlisted
a murderer's row of genre writers.
They interviewed hundreds of writers
from around the world for settling on a group
that included Battlestar Galactica's Ronald D. Moore,
Life on Mars' Matthew Graham,
Doctor Who's Chris Chibnall,
as well as Fiona Seres, Tony McNamara,
Terry Cafolla, Louise Fox, and Stephen Scaia.
Lucas and McCallum had grand plans
to make 100 episodes with the potential to expand
up to 400 when all was said and done.
To do so their Rebel Alliance of writing talent
would, according to Ronald D. Moore,
"gather at Skywalker Ranch periodically,
"every couple of months,
"and break stories and write scripts"
along side Lucas.
In classic George Lucas fashion though,
these 25 scripts he originally wanted
soon ballooned into 50.
"George wanted to create twenty-five scripts for a season"
Matthew Graham told Den of Geek back in 2016.
"and then he was enjoying the process so much
"that he wanted to carry on
"and do two seasons' worth of scripts."
Now not all of these scripts were camera ready.
"Some of them were at first draft, some at third draft."
Graham continued.
"Some needed a lot more work,
"some were in a really good shape."
that was, perhaps, in part due to the fact
that Lucas wanted an insane scope for this series.
According to Moore
"Lucas' mandate on the scripts were:
"'Think big.
"'Don't have any worries.
"'We'll make it.
"'Budget is no object.'
"So we wrote these gigantic pieces."
Now unfortunately at the end of the day,
roadblocks like the writers' strike
and ballooning episode budgets made actually making
Underworld an impossibility.
In 2010 Lucas told IGN that
"We have a movie of the week and 50 hours written
"all done, ready to go.
"It's just that we can't figure out of doing it
"for less than $50 million per episode."
Yeah, $50 million per episode.
That is a significantly beyond The Mandalorian's
reported budget of 12.5 to 15 million per episode.
I mean, what were you gonna spend it on?!
Although the show purportedly focused on new characters,
scripts also included familiar faces like
Emperor Palpatine, Darth Vader, Boba Fett,
Han Solo, Chewbacca and many more
in unused concepts and stories from Underworld,
like how Han met Chewie
and how Lando lost the Millennium Falcon
made their way into future Star Wars stories like Solo.
I mean hell, Rogue One actually began
as a pastiche of ideas from Underworld
before becoming the movie we know and love today.
Other ideas also found their way into
the ultimately canceled video game Star Wars: 1313 which,
look, just put an 'F' in the chat for that one,
because, God damn, I saw that presentation in E3
and I don't think I've ever been sadder
about a canceled video game than that.
Ugh, RIP.
But perhaps the wildest example
of how elements from Underworld survived to live another day
is how they made their way
into 2018's excellent God of War.
In 2016 director Cory Barlog told VentureBeat
"I was allowed to go up to ranch and read scripts
"for the canceled live-action Star Wars TV show.
"It was the most mind-blowing thing I'd ever experienced.
"I cared about the Emperor.
"They made the Emperor a sympathetic figure
"who was wronged by this (beep) heartless woman.
"She's this hardcore gangster,
"and she just totally destroyed him as a person.
"I almost cried while reading this."
So while we may never get Star Wars Underworld
as George Lucas originally envisioned it,
thanks in no small part
to Disney acquiring Lucasfilm back in 2012,
its ideas live on not only in the galaxy far, far away,
but with a whole generation of creatives
across a variety of disciplines.
And if nothing else
at least we've got that sweet Baby Yoda.
Look at that little guy!
Aw, if anything happens to him I'm
just gonna keep living my life.
I'll just be bummed.
And that is a brief history of how George Lucas
almost made The Mandalorian nearly a decade before
The Mandalorian actually came out.
But tell me,
what do you think?
What kind of live-action Star Wars
series do you most want to see?
Let me know in the comments below
and give me 'thumbs-up' while you're there.
Thank you so much for watching.
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And remember not everything in life can be explained,
but for everything else there's this show.
(intense electronica music)