Canceled 'Star Wars: Underworld' Series Test Footage Released

Norrin Radd

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Test footage from George Lucas' cancelled live-action Star Wars TV show, Underworld, makes its way online. While the franchise finally made the leap to live-action television this past fall with The Mandalorian, longtime fans know Lucas was looking to make that jump as far back as 2005. Underworld, which was to be set between the prequel and original trilogies as the Empire rose to power, spent a number of years in development. Fifty scripts were written, and the initial plan called for 100 42-minute episodes. Unfortunately, due to cost concerns, the episodes were never produced.

Underworld was still on the table when Disney bought Lucasfilm, but obviously the series never saw the light of day. Even with The Mandalorian receiving praise from fans and setting the stage for the franchise's exciting future on Disney+ (there are additional shows coming through the pipeline), some viewers can't help but wonder what Underworld could have been if it was made. Now, they can get a taste with a test footage reel.

Set in the seedy underbelly of Coruscant, the sequence depicts a Rebel spy using a device to steal Imperial plans that seem to be related to a Star Destroyer. Stormtroopers and surveillance droids patrol the streets, illustrating the might and power of the Empire at this stage in the Star Wars timeline. Lucas' penchant for pushing the technological envelope is on fully display here, as the Underworld footage is a nice blend of practical and digital techniques. Actors are wearing actual stormtrooper costumes (as opposed to the fully digital clone troopers of the prequels), but they're primarily filming on a green screen and the Coruscant environments are added in post. One can see why Underworld might have been too expensive of a proposition when it was initially being considered. It likely would have had a greater chance of being made today, especially in an age where streaming services are prevalent. There are similarities between Underworld and how The Mandalorian is made.

Coincidentally, there were Underworld episodes focusing on events like the Rebels stealing the Death Star plans and Han Solo winning the Millennium Falcon, which of course were later depicted in Star Wars spinoff films. It'll be interesting to see if any other Underworld concepts are revisited for one of Disney's future projects. In particular, it might make sense to mine from the Underworld scripts for the Cassian Andor Disney+ show, since that's an espionage thriller set during the height of the Imperial era. Underworld as originally constructed is defunct, but that doesn't mean it has to be scrapped entirely.
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Someone who worked on this elaborated on some BTS things:
The top cuck said:
This was really a passion project, both for GL and us at Stargate studios. Used to work for them back in 2009 and from what I saw behind the scenes, this was going to be a massive project. So many sets and costumes and new vehicles were already designed and Lucas really wanted this to be the Star wars story he would be remembered for. He would often talk about how dissapointed he was for what happened with the prequels. This was going to be his redemptio so to speak. But the since there was no way in hell we could get the costs of shooting this epic down to a affordable budget it had to be scrapped. It was part of the reason why he sold Star wars to Disney. With that money he would be able to fund the entire show himself, as long as Disney and Kennedy would get onboard as producers. But they of course let him go shortly after acquiring Star wars, and now he has no stake left in SW and the show will probably never happen. Really sad.
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I do like the Cyberpunk feel and you can tell this was the blueprint to The Mandalorian. It was good seeing Coruscant post ROTS.That's one of my favorite planets in the SW lore.
 
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