The Star Wars Projects That Never Were
Even with the huge catalog we have, there are many Star Wars projects that were simply never made. Some live on in other ways, but others…
When it comes to Star Wars, between movies, TV shows, books, comics, and video games, there is a lot of content. Perhaps too much content for most people to get through completely. But even with that almost endless catalog of canon (and no longer canon) history, there are still many, many projects that never got to see the light of Tatooine‘s twin suns. While other projects did manage to live on… Sort of.
Zach Snyder’s Rebel Moon
via Netflix
Rebel Moon is a decidedly not-Star–Wars movie that’s expected to be released by Netflix in December 2023. I can’t stress enough that despite being a space opera about a small community on the edge of space finding itself threatened by a tyrannical regime, this is not a Star Wars project. But it almost was.
Turns out that Zach Snyder was in talks with Lucasfilm and Disney back in 2012 with his pitch for the Star Wars galaxy inspired by the works of Akira Kurosawa. In the end, this particular project wasn’t picked up by the Lucasfilm and Disney teams. It was going to be a hard-hitting and more mature take on Star Wars… And that’s likely why it was passed on. This didn’t stop Snyder from getting his movie made though, and Netflix will be bringing some version of this project to the streaming platform in December as Rebel Moon. Just remember though, that was almost slash-sort-of-is Star Wars.
Detours
There were two seasons and 39 episodes made, and we will still (probably) never see Star Wars Detours. In the same spirit as the Robot Chicken and Lego specials, Detours was a GCI animated comedy series that would parody the Star Wars universe. Despite having completed episodes, a trailer, more episodes planned, and Weird Al writing original songs with an entire musical episode planned for season three, the show has been on permeant hiatus since 2013.
Was this because the content was too silly? Because of the Disney-Lucasfilm acquisition? A secret third thing? We may never know for sure, but I’m sad about it. Also, the voice cast was awesome with Dee Bradley Baker, Ahmed Best, Anthony Daniels, Felicia Day, Seth Green, Zachary Levi, Joel McHale, Andy Richter, Catherine Taber, Billy Dee Williams, Seth MacFarlane, and, just to remind you, Weird Al.
Rangers of the New Republic
I’m sure we all remember this one, but let’s talk about it again. Rangers of the New Republic was going to be a show released to Disney+ that followed the Rangers…. of the New Republic. The name says it all for this one. Personally, I was looking forward to this one. We get a lot of Jedi content, and it’s always fun to see a different part of the galaxy.
But it was also going to star Cara Dune who was sent away off-screen, never to be seen again after the actress got herself canned. The new shows do so much work to introduce interesting and engaging members of the New Republic like Paul Sun-Hyung Lee’s pilot, Carson Teva. So I was hoping for a Cara recast or a pivot to another character. But instead, it seems that this one is shelved permanently.
In a similar boat was Patty Jenkins’ Rogue Squadron. Once again something I was excited for, once again on the shelf collecting dust, possibly forever.
Underworld
The galaxy far far away has a seedy underbelly that we only get to see in hints and glimpses. But way back before Disney bought Lucasfilm, there was almost Star Wars Underworld to focus on all of the scum and villainy. This was going to be a live-action Star Wars show before Star Wars did live-action shows. But unfortunately, it was also very expensive before Star Wars did shows that were very expensive. Lucas scrapped it, but the concept footage leaked and fans wanted more. So Kathleen Kennedy tried to revive the project later and couldn’t get it off of the ground. Instead, we ended up with The Book of Boba Fett years later… Which is fine.
What is your favorite Star Wars thing that never ended up being made? If you could revive one long-lost Star Wars project, what would it be? Are there any projects that you think should have stayed on the shelf? Let us know in the comments!
May the Force be with you, adventurers!
