Long before The Mandalorian became a reality, George Lucas already had plans to release the first live-action series for Star Wars.
In 2005, during one of the first Celebration editions, Lucas revealed that he was working on a television project that would explore the establishment of the Empire in the period between the prequels and the original trilogy.
But the production called Star Wars: Underworld never materialized and despite the fact that fifty scripts were written for the series, it never managed to reach the small screen. Approval was not granted even though it was already planned to have 100 episodes, each 42 minutes long.
And although it would be easy to dismiss Underworld as another idea for Star Wars that ended up in a galaxy far far far far away, there are those who have not forgotten the project like the YouTube channel Holonet, who recovered a video about the production from the failed series.
The video is not very extensive, but it shows us two fundamental aspects from Underworld’s development: some test scenes and the behind-the-scenes of the production team that was also in charge of Stargate Studios (Doctor Who) and Lucasfilm.
First of all the test scenes from Star Wars: Underworld shown in the video are set in Coruscant and while they follow a character that seems to be a rebel spy, they show us the nastiest side of a city seized by the Empire. All while displaying an aesthetic very much in line with Blade Runner.
Now, in the behind the scenes, they reveal that the series was planning to mix practical elements with a vast world generated with computer graphics. In that sense, it is not difficult to understand why economics was one of the main drawbacks of the project.
Undoubtedly Underworld seems an ambitious series for the time it was being developed, it is not surprising that no one took a chance on it. Maybe if streaming platforms had existed back then, they would have jumped on the series.
