In the world in continuous expansion of Star Warsfew unrealized projects have aroused the same curiosity like Star Wars: Underworld. It was the ambitious attempt by George Lucas to bring a series of live actions on television, immersing himself in depth in the gritty criminal belly of Coruscant.
The show was in development long before Disney takes over Star WarsBut he never exceeded the planning phase. Now, producer of Lucasfilm Rick McCallum It shed light on how huge and expensive this project was.
Speaking of the young Podcast by Indy Chronicles, McCallum confirmed that he had over 60 third drawing scripts ready to leave. And if you thought The Mandalorian pushed Star Wars narration in bold new directions, Underworld He would have gone further.
“These were dark. They were sexy, they were violent, they were absolutely wonderful. Wonderful, complicated, demanding. I want to say, he would have made everything skipped Star Wars Universe and Disney surely never offered George to buy it [laughs]. But it is one of the great disappointments of our life. “
The series was to be set between Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith AND Star Wars: episode IV – a new hope. It would have been a drama of gangster to which he was compared Dead wood AND The godfather in space. It was also described how to be The Empire is hit on steroids.
A Godfather-style Star Wars The drama of crime seems that it would have been fantastic, but the reality of production costs killed him before he could take off.
McCallum estimated that each episode would cost to produce $ 40 million, which is an unprecedented number at the moment.
“The problem was that each episode was bigger than the films, so the lowest I could make it with the technology that existed was about 40 million dollars in episode.”
For some perspective, Underworld It was imagined as a series of 400 episodes. Even with only 60 episodes planned, this is a dollar of $ 2.4 billion. In comparison, the modern series of large budgets such as game of Thrones OR The Mandalorian Cost everywhere between $ 10 million and $ 20 million per episode.
Even the most expensive shows today, such as Power ringsThat according to what was now cost $ 60 million per episode, only these types of numbers are approaching.
It is easy to understand why Underworld He never came to production. The technology was not there to make Lucas’ vision financially feasible. But how Star Wars continues to expand on Disney+and with visual effects pipes that become more efficient, it looks like a project like Underworld It may be possible to do today.
When previously there is talk of the project Kathleen Kennedy He said: “It is interesting to note that it is an area that we spent a lot of time, reading the material that developed is something we would like to explore.
“And there was 1313 the game, where there was … Incredible. So our attitude is that we don’t want to throw any of things away. It is gold. And it’s something that we are spending a lot of time looking, pouring, discussing and we could very well develop more things. We certainly want. “
For now, Star Wars: Underworld It remains one of the greatest “What IFS” in the history of the franchise, and I would like if Lucasfilm actually decided to produce it, but most likely it will not happen.
By Joey Gour
Source: Geek Tyrant
Lloyd Grunewald is an author at “The Fashion Vibes”. He is a talented writer who focuses on bringing the latest entertainment-related news to his readers. With a deep understanding of the entertainment industry and a passion for writing, Lloyd delivers engaging articles that keep his readers informed and entertained.
