Written By: Ken HulseySource: CVG
It seems that the live-action "Star Wars" television series has been in 'development hell' from the moment it was first announced way back in 2005. Depending on who you talk to, there are either scripts ready to go, or still being written, casting has already begun, or is set to begin sometime soon. In other words, news on the series is sketchy at best.
The last words to come out of the mouth of George Lucas on the subject stated that the project was on hold while the producers tried to figure out how to produce a "Star Wars" quality series on a limited budget, well, a limited budget in the Lucasfilm universe anyway.
Everyone involved has been very tight-lipped about any proposed ideas for either characters or stories for these new "Star Wars" based episodes. The only thing known for sure is that the series will take place in the time between the events seen in "Revenge of the Sith" and "A New Hope", and will involve characters on the fringe of the SW universe.
A new hint on what we may be able to expect from the series has come from LucasArts executive producer Haden Blackman, who believes elements from the popular video game, "The Force Unleashed" will have a lot to do with storyline development, "I hope so, we're already seeing it reach out into publishing with comic books and novels that are taking into account stories we've created and characters we've created," he told Andy Robinson of the CVG website. "Hopefully some day we see these characters on big or little screen."
We're dealing in a period of time that has largely been unexplored by anything," he said. "Force Unleashed was the first major story we set in that time period. I think we surprised a lot of fans with that story because we showed the formation of the Rebel Alliance and introduce the concept of the dark secret apprentice".
Since it has been said over-and-over-again by the folks at Lucasfilm, that no mainstream characters will make it into the proposed television series, it can only be assumed that like Darth Vader and the Jedi, any "Force Unleashed" inspired references will probably come in the form of being mentioned in conversation or somehow the events from the game will effect the lives of the characters involved in some way.
In other words, don't expect to see Vader and his apprentice, "Starkiller", showing up in any episodes to make a fashion statement.
Though it has been stated that the "Star Wars" TV series may make it to the small screen as early as 2011, I would estimate that it will actually be 2012 or 2013 before this one gets rolling.
Oh, and as far as "The Force Unleashed" making it into any new "Star Wars" movies, I haven't heard any plans for "Episode 3.25", ".50" or ".75" so I don't see that ever happening.
The again, if there's money to be made........who knows?
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