Star Wars: Underworld

The intended setting for Star Wars: Underworld was primarily within the Coruscant Underworld, briefly depicted in Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones, during the period bridging Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope. This era marks the Galactic Empire's ascent to dominance across the galaxy. During his presentation at Celebration III in 2005, George Lucas informed attendees that the show's focus would not be on characters featured in the films, although some appearances were possible. He stated, "Many of the issues from the films are connected, but you won't necessarily see a lot of the people that are connected." Later, he characterized the show as "bare-bones" and "action-heavy," indicating its portrayal of the entertainment enjoyed by inhabitants of the Star Wars galaxy.

Rick McCallum, a producer, offered insights into the series' plot, stating, "[Lucas] envisions somewhere like 100 hours between Episode III and Episode IV with a lot of characters that we haven't met that have been developed in some of the novels and other things. We are really excited about that. Finally, we could have the opportunity to answer everybody's questions once and for all by the time we finish the series."; "It is going to be much darker, grittier. It's much more character-based"; "Think about bounty hunter, that's all I can tell you." He further described it as "Deadwood in space" and "Empire on steroids," drawing a comparison to The Godfather. Stephen J. Sansweet of Lucasfilm also characterized the series as revealing the "greasy, seamy underbelly of Star Wars." According to writer Ronald D. Moore, the series would have generally adhered to a single overarching narrative, featuring "...lots of action, lots of sets, and huge set pieces. Just much bigger than what you would normally do in a television show."

According to Dan Wasson, who led the Wii version of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, the TV series might have incorporated elements from the broader Star Wars: The Force Unleashed multimedia project. In 2014, Stephen Scaia disclosed in his Kickstarter campaign that he had been a writer for the series, contributing to various story elements, including Lando Calrissian's loss of the Millennium Falcon to Han Solo, the initial meeting between Solo and Chewbacca, and an action sequence involving Boba Fett.

The series anticipated the inclusion of supporting characters from both the films and the Expanded Universe, with the potential for cameos by some principal characters. Lucas stated: "The Emperor and Darth Vader are heard about—people talk about them—but you never see them because it doesn't take place where they actually are. There are stormtroopers and all that, but there are no Jedis." However, as the writing process progressed, certain characters made their way into the scripts. Cory Barlog, a former developer at LucasArts, recounted reading Underworld scripts at Skywalker Ranch for episodes featuring Palpatine, where "They made the Emperor a sympathetic figure who was wronged by this […] heartless woman. She's this hardcore gangster, and she just totally destroyed him as a person. I almost cried while reading this. This is the Emperor, the lightning out of the fingers Emperor. That's something magical". Writer Ronald D. Moore mentioned that Vader "was going to show up for a big two-part episode where there was this big uprising happening, and there was a crack-down on things that were happening on Coruscant. Vader shows up and is kind of like, 'We're gonna stop all this shit right now.'"

Initially, Lucas had written a scene for Revenge of the Sith that included Quinlan Vos, a character from the Expanded Universe, but the character was only mentioned in the final cut. Lucas later directed the writers of the Star Wars: Republic comic book series to refrain from killing off Vos. This led to speculation among fans that Vos might have a role in the series, although Randy Stradley, a writer for Republic, later clarified that he was unsure if the character would have appeared and had heard that a different character to Vos might have appeared. In a November 2005 interview in the UK magazine Total Film, McCallum addressed the question, "How can Leia claim to remember her mother when Padmé dies in childbirth in Sith?," responding with, "I think that could only be answered in the television series." Following her acclaimed work on The Han Solo Trilogy, A. C. Crispin was approached by Lucasfilm for potential book ideas. She proposed a series focusing on Leia between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, but "Lucasfilm didn't approve the idea of a Leia backstory because they want to keep that era of the SW continuity untouched for the television series they're considering." Karen Traviss was slated to write a novel involving Boba Fett, but the project was reportedly canceled due to potential conflicts with the TV series. John Jackson Miller had been developing a graphic novel for Dark Horse Comics starring Obi-Wan Kenobi in a Western-like story, but had struggled pitching the project to his Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic editor Jeremy Barlow and the two eventually agreed to shelve the project after hearing rumors in April or May 2007 about the show moving forward, not wishing to potentially conflict with any Kenobi-centric ideas Lucas could have been developing for the show. Miller's story was eventually released as the novel Kenobi in 2013.

Several actors from the films had expressed interest in reprising their roles, including Jeremy Bulloch (Boba Fett), Jay Laga'aia (Gregar Typho), Daniel Logan (young Boba Fett), Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca), and Ian McDiarmid (The Emperor). Logan even underwent physical training with Ray Park (Darth Maul) in anticipation of reprising his role as Boba Fett, while Bulloch expressed interest in playing an alter ego of Boba Fett, anticipating Logan's portrayal of the character due to his age. The Phantom Menace actors Andrew Secombe, Lewis MacLeod and Christian Simpson had also expressed interest in reprising their roles as Watto, Sebulba and Gavyn Sykes, respectively, for the series. Conversely, Billy Dee Williams declined to reprise his role as Lando Calrissian or portray the character's uncle, although he hinted in 2005 that he could return to play Lando as an older man, as he presumably didn't know in which place of the timeline the series would be set. In 2006, Toby Philpott, a co-puppeteer for Jabba the Hutt in Return of the Jedi, expressed doubt about reprising his role, assuming the series would be produced in the USA. However, that same year, other actors from Jedi showed interest in reprising their roles for the series: Tim Dry (J'Quille), Mercedes Ngoh (Rystáll Sant, in the film's 1997 DVD release), Mike Quinn (Nien Nunb, Ten Numb, Wokling, Ree-Yees, Wol Cabasshite and Sy Snootles), and Simon Williamson (Max Rebo and Jubnuk). In January 2010, Paul Blake expressed his strong desire to reprise his role as Greedo in the series during an interview, noting that he had not yet been contacted for the role.

Actors not directly involved in the films, or those with minor roles, also expressed interest in appearing in the series. Sam Witwer, who acted in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, expressed a desire to appear (possibly as Galen Marek, Vader's secret apprentice) and hinted at his potential involvement in an interview. Similarly, Adrienne Wilkinson expressed interest in seeing her character, Maris Brood, featured in the series. In 2007, Shannon McRandle, who modeled as Mara Jade Skywalker for the Star Wars card games, expressed her desire to audition to play the role of Jade in the series in order to develop her between Episodes III and IV. On March 9, 2009, actress Rose Byrne, who appeared in Attack of the Clones, told MTV that casting for the series was underway, and that some of her friends had auditioned for roles. However, Star Wars Insider 109 claimed that scripts had yet to be written at that point, and would precede any earnest casting efforts, contradicting Byrne's claims.

Prior to the debut of the original Star Wars film in 1977, rumors emerged about a potential TV series based on the movie. While this specific project never materialized, George Lucas played a role in three live-action Star Wars television productions to varying degrees: The Star Wars Holiday Special, Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure, and Ewoks: The Battle for Endor. Despite the Holiday Special receiving negative reviews, the Ewok films garnered Emmy awards and positive critical feedback. In each instance, the networks viewed these productions as backdoor pilots for possible TV series, although Lucas was not interested. From 1992 to 1996, Lucas produced The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, a television series that fostered his passion for TV production.

In late 2004, rumors resurfaced concerning a live-action Star Wars series in development. Lucas formally announced his plans for the series at Celebration III, stating, "We probably won't start that until sometime next year." He also mentioned plans for a new animated television series set during the Clone Wars, which he anticipated would be produced first. At the same event, Rick McCallum elaborated, stating, "He [George] envisions somewhere like 100 hours between Episode III and Episode IV." However, at Celebration Europe in 2007, McCallum claimed that the plan was to produce "up to 400 episodes". He also revealed that "I've had three conceptual artists working on it now for about seven months." The initial strategy was to fully write and produce the first season before presenting the series to broadcast networks; once a network committed, work would commence on subsequent seasons.

Lucas and McCallum (along with Steve Irwin, the show's associate producer, according to writer Matthew Graham) conducted interviews with over 200 potential "writers of real significance" from various locations, including England, the United States, Paris, Prague, Budapest and Australia. McCallum commented, "It's about who's talented, who's got the strength to challenge George and also, much more importantly, what's the dynamics of the five or six people. If they can let go of their ego and work toward a specific goal. Sometimes you think 'I'm sick of writing alone.' Everyone has their ebb and flow. We're trying to get everyone in their peak." Writers from Battlestar Galactica, Heroes, and Lost, as well as those from the Star Wars books and comics, were considered as part of the final interview process in late 2007. Ultimately, six writers were selected, including Terry Cafolla, Chris Chibnall, Louise Fox, Tony McNamara, Fiona Seres, Matthew Graham, Ronald D. Moore, and Stephen Scaia, with an expected start date in November 2007. Russell T Davies, a writer for Doctor Who, was approached to contribute to the show but declined due to his desire to pursue his own projects in a distinct style from both franchises; however, he expressed envy towards those who were ultimately hired.

Following the hiring of the writers, story outlines began to materialize over the subsequent three months. McCallum anticipated the first writing conference to take place in late 2007, with sessions commencing by August 2008. The writers collaborated closely with the art department, including concept artist Erik Tiemens, which had been designing sets, environments, vehicles, and aliens since 2007. Ronald D. Moore commented on the writing process: "The scripts were written as if money was no object. George was like, 'Don't worry about it.' [Producer Rick McCallum] would groan and put his head in his hands periodically. So for us it was like, 'Okay, f–k it, let's write whatever we want.'" … "His 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." Initially, Lucas sought a season comprising 25 scripts, but this was later expanded to 50 (equivalent to two seasons with 25 episodes each). Writer Matthew Graham described the writers as two teams that Lucas played off of each other: Those who were big Star Wars fans, and those who weren't as familiar with the franchise. Moore later told collider.com: "And what happened was, you know, we wrote the scripts and then George said 'OK, this is enough for now, and then I'll get back to you. I want to look into all the production things.' And then time went by and like a year or something after that is when he sold Lucasfilm to Disney." In the end, fifty hours' worth of episodes, along with a "movie-of-the-week," were written, each at various stages of development. In a January 2012 interview with IGN, McCallum revealed the working title to be Underworld, which had originally served as the working title for an early concept for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. McCallum denied this the next day, though he later told Entertainment Weekly that it was indeed the working title.

McCallum anticipated that he and Lucas would approach the series in a similar manner as they had The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. Similar to that earlier series, they aimed to give each episode the appearance of a feature film, with feature-level production values and visual effects within a television budget. Lucas also discussed using the show as a template for how he would approach "more personal films" that he hoped to create. In 2005, Lucas expressed his intention to shoot the series using consumer-level cameras, which McCallum clarified would be high-definition cameras. In late 2009, Lucas and McCallum invited filmmaker Phillip Bloom to Skywalker Ranch to advise on using different types of cameras for pick-up photography on Red Tails, and for the live-action series. Lucas anticipated that, in producing the show, he would "do what would typically cost $20 million, for $1 million." According to IESB, McCallum has said that each episode will have a budget of 2-4 million dollars.

Principal photography was planned to take place all around the world, with a likely base in Sydney, Australia. Regarding stunts, prequel trilogy stunt coordinators Nick Gillard and Kyle Rowling expressed interest in 2006 in working on the series as fighting directors. On the other hand, prequel trilogy special effects technician Matt Sloan hinted the possibility to return in order to do the series' visual effects. McCallum originally expected production to begin in either 2008 or 2009. He anticipated the first season to consist of thirteen-to-sixteen episodes, shot over a one-to-two-year time period. In March 2009, preliminary casting was still underway; a Lucasfilm representative claimed at the time that official casting would begin once the scripts were complete and that the series would not go into production until 2010. In a June 2011 interview, McCallum said that the show would most likely be filmed in the Czech Republic, a location used multiple times by LucasFilm for various productions. Reportedly, Jim Marquand, the son of Richard Marquand, director of Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi, was hired as one of the directors. McCallum expected that each episode of the series would have its own original score, and hoped that John Williams would return as composer.

At a 2010 screening of The Empire Strikes Back in Chicago, Illinois, Lucas announced that the series was "on hold" due to budget concerns. Lucas and McCallum later elaborated that the scripts were prohibitively expensive for television, and that the show was put on hold in order to wait on technology to develop to the point that costs could be kept relatively low. Lucas had long planned to build an expansion to his Lucas Valley property called Grady Ranch, which would have been "a digital media production facility for movies and television." However, in early 2012, Marin County rejected the project due to concerns over traffic and noise. According to Pablo Hidalgo, this marked the end of the show as a viable project. In June 2012, McCallum also credited the logistics of the television market as one of the reasons for shelving Underworld.

On October 30, 2012, The Walt Disney Company announced an agreement to acquire Lucasfilm, including the rights to the Star Wars franchise. In a conference call following the press release, Disney expressed interest in the potential of a Star Wars television series, but did not go into details. Soon after, it was announced that McCallum had retired from Lucasfilm. In January 2013, ABC president Paul Lee told Entertainment Weekly that the live-action Star Wars series was being reevaluated for production. This was confirmed by Bob Iger that March. That August, Lee again visited the topic of a Star Wars live-action series; "We've started conversations. I'd love to go there. I'm a particular fan of Lucasfilm. It's an amazing world". Other ABC executives, however, later reiterated this in 2016 and 2017. In December 2015, Kathleen Kennedy told Slashfilm that Lucasfilm had been looking at the material for both Underworld and the canceled video game Star Wars: 1313, and that those projects may still be developed. In August 2017, Disney announced that it was removing its Star Wars and Marvel content from Netflix, in favor of its own new streaming service that would also include new content created exclusively for the service. On November 9, 2017, Variety reported that Disney chairman and CEO Bob Iger revealed during the company's quarterly earnings call that Disney was planning a live-action Star Wars TV series entitled The Mandalorian, which debuted at the end of 2019 on its streaming service Disney+. This series, together with additional Star Wars series that followed it such as The Book of Boba Fett, was produced with a new technology called Stagecraft (informally known as "The Volume"). Variety observed that Stagecraft fulfilled Lucas' desire for a cost-effective technology to produce a Star Wars TV show.

In a 2006 interview, Steve Sansweet indicated his anticipation for the series' debut, projecting it would materialize "toward the end of the decade." He specified a timeframe of "about 3 years" until its release. A promotional image for the series made an appearance at the Toy Fair in 2007, promoting the subsequent three years of Star Wars: the saga's 30th anniversary and the launch of The Force Unleashed in 2007 (later delayed to 2008), the fresh Clone Wars animated series in 2008, and the live-action series in 2009. Rick McCallum envisioned a simultaneous global release for the series, with broadcasting occurring on cable networks. Rumors circulated that both Disney and News Corp expressed interest in securing broadcast rights for the program, with Disney proposing ABC and ABC Family, and News Corp suggesting FOX and FX. Furthermore, Lucas conveyed his desire to distribute the series via the Internet, particularly through StarWars.com.

During Celebration III in 2005, Lucas informed attendees that the triumph of the live-action series (alongside the new Clone Wars animated series) could pave the way for additional series. At Celebration Europe in 2007, McCallum elaborated, stating, "One of the ideas is that we'll have multiple series going on in about two or three years' time." McCallum voiced his hope that a character might headline their own spin-off series after the second or third year of the main series, and by the fourth or fifth year, the production team could manage a minimum of five distinct series concurrently. Lucas characterized the series as "one show that will split into four shows, focusing on different characters."

Hints from Lucasfilm personnel, including Sue Rostoni and Jim Ward, suggested intentions for tie-in products like spin-off books and video games. The ultimately canceled video game Star Wars: 1313 was initially conceived as a direct companion to Underworld. Following Underworld's postponement in 2010 due to budgetary issues, 1313 underwent revisions to become a standalone project. Nevertheless, at George Lucas's request, the final game was still intended to draw inspiration from Underworld elements. The Clone Wars introduced Level 1313, as well as the character Saw Gerrera, both initially developed for Underworld. According to James Luceno, Lucas reportedly conceived Palpatine's first name, "Sheev" (revealed in Luceno's 2014 novel Tarkin), for the show.

Ideas Lucas formulated for Underworld influenced the animated series Star Wars Rebels. Lucas created the Church of the Force—a background detail connected to Lor San Tekka from Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens—for Underworld. John Knoll originally conceived the concept for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story during the mid-2000s, concurrent with the production of the prequel trilogy, with the aspiration of it becoming an episode of the live-action series. Following the prequel releases, Zack Snyder also collaborated with Lucasfilm on a Star Wars story; after Disney's acquisition, Snyder transformed the project into the film Rebel Moon (2023). The film Solo: A Star Wars Story depicted the initial encounter between Han Solo and Chewbacca, along with Lando Calrissian's loss of the Millennium Falcon to Solo, both storylines initially planned for Underworld. The character arc of Kratos from the 2018 God of War video game drew inspiration from the unproduced Underworld scripts. Cory Barlog, a former developer at LucasArts, disclosed that he had read scripts at Skywalker Ranch penned by writers from 24 and The Shield. According to Barlog, "They made the Emperor a sympathetic figure who was wronged by this [...] heartless woman. She's this hardcore gangster, and she just totally destroyed him as a person. I almost cried while reading this. This is the Emperor, the lightning out of the fingers Emperor. That's something magical." Test footage for Underworld, created by Stargate Studios in 2010 as a proof of concept, surfaced on Stargate Studios' Vimeo page in January 2020. It portrays a female Rebel agent pilfering blueprints for an Imperial Star Destroyer and initiating an electrical assault on Imperial stormtroopers.

• Star Wars: Underworld at the Internet Movie Database