Although it began its life as a weird little space movie written and directed by George Lucas that 20th Century Fox attempted to bury, Star Wars has grown into one of the most profitable media franchises in the world. Over the years, the franchise has spawned trilogies of movies, TV shows, video games, novels, and comic books.
Unfortunately, for every Star Wars project that has come to fruition, a couple of others that fans were really excited about have fallen by the wayside. This became particularly prominent when Disney bought Lucasfilm and gutted anything in development that didn’t suit the Mouse House’s monolithic family-friendly brand. So, here are 10 canceled Star Wars projects that seemed really promising.
10 James Mangold’s Boba Fett Spin-Off
When Disney and Lucasfilm started working on “Anthology” movies to supplement the Star Wars franchise, one of the first items on the agenda was a Boba Fett-centered spin-off. Josh Trank was originally hired to direct it, but he left the project and James Mangold was in talks to take over.
In the original trilogy, Jeremy Bulloch based his performance as Fett on Clint Eastwood’s performance as the Man with No Name in Sergio Leone’s Dollars trilogy. Mangold has proven himself to be a great director of westerns with his remake of 3:10 to Yuma and his Shane-inspired Wolverine finale, Logan. A Mangold-helmed Boba Fett movie could’ve been awesome.
9 Rian Johnson’s Trilogy
Rian Johnson has a bad reputation among Star Wars fans who were disappointed with the turns he took in The Last Jedi. But honestly, the worst things about The Last Jedi were due to the limited toolkit that J.J. Abrams left Johnson with after The Force Awakens.
Based on Looper and Knives Out, Johnson is clearly a talented filmmaker. His Star Wars trilogy appears to be canceled – or, at least, simmering on the backburner – but it could’ve been really interesting.
8 Star Wars Detours
Lucasfilm hired the team behind Robot Chicken to write an animated comedy series about regular people in the galaxy whose lives are comically affected by the events of the Star Wars saga. Production on the series, which was titled Star Wars Detours, began in 2012, right before Disney bought Lucasfilm.
39 episodes were finished and ready to air, with another 62 scripts already written. However, the Mouse House postponed the series indefinitely in 2013, because it wasn’t in line with their brand.
7 George Lucas’ Wookiee Spin-Off
In the ‘80s, George Lucas had a concept for a spin-off movie focused entirely on Wookiees. He said, “When I got to working on the Wookiee, I thought of a film just about Wookiees, nothing else.”
Lucas eventually took us to the Wookie homeworld of Kashyyyk in Revenge of the Sith, but an entire movie about Wookiees – whose language is incomprehensible – sounds like a unique filmgoing experience.
6 Star Wars: 1313
Star Wars: 1313 was a video game being developed by LucasArts for eighth-gen consoles. The team behind the game was aiming for a “Mature” rating, and it would’ve acted as an antidote to all the Star Wars media produced for child audiences.
A leaked screenshot from the canceled game surfaced recently that confirmed rumors that players would’ve been able to play as Boba Fett. It would’ve been set in the criminal underworld of Coruscant, the city-planet featured heavily in the prequel trilogy.
5 Obi-Wan Kenobi Spin-Off
The Hours’ Stephen Daldry was reportedly hired to direct and co-write a spin-off starring Ewan McGregor about Obi-Wan Kenobi’s time in exile on Tatooine. However, the movie was canceled.
In its place, we’re getting a Disney+ series set between the prequel and original trilogies in which McGregor will reprise his role as Obi-Wan, so it’s not all bad.
4 Benioff & Weiss’ Trilogy
Before Solo: A Star Wars Story’s box office failure forced Disney to be a little less cavalier with how many Star Wars movies they were cramming down the moviegoing public’s throats, Lucasfilm was developing a trilogy of Star Wars movies with Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss.
Such a prospect was more exciting before GoT’s rushed final season disappointed fans across the world, but if that final season proved anything, it’s that Benioff and Weiss are great adapters of source material. They’re great at adapting full novels, but not at fleshing out a collection of notes that will one day be turned into a full novel. They could’ve adapted Star Wars novels by writers like Timothy Zahn or Alan Dean Foster.
3 Knights Of The Old Republic III
The Knights of the Old Republic games are favorites among the Star Wars fan base. The second game, The Sith Lords, didn’t quite live up to the greatness of the first one, and a third was planned to get the stories of Darth Revan and the Exile back on track.
A lightsaber-wielding female character named Naresha was created to be the protagonist, and environments were designed. However, development on the game eventually fizzled out and it was never finished.
2 Star Wars: Underworld
Described as a dark, gritty hour-long drama, Star Wars: Underworld would’ve been set during the Empire’s rise, focusing on power struggles in the galaxy’s criminal underbelly. Such iconic characters as Han Solo, Chewbacca, C-3PO, Lando Calrissian, Boba Fett, and Emperor Palpatine were due to make appearances.
Battlestar Galactica’s Ronald D. Moore was on the writing team, and George Lucas himself was heavily involved in the development of the show. 50 scripts were written, some of them already on a second draft, and another 50 episodes were planned on top of that.
1 George Lucas’ Sequel Trilogy
George Lucas always planned Star Wars as a nine-part saga (or a 12-part saga, depending on the reports you read), but the sour reception to the prequel trilogy put him off making the sequel trilogy. Still, he had a vision for where the sequels would go. In order to increase the value of his company before selling it to Disney, Lucas polished up his old treatments for Episodes VII, VIII, and IX.
Unfortunately, Disney executives decided they had more authority over the Star Wars canon than its creator, threw these treatments out the window, and hired J.J. Abrams to remake A New Hope with no roadmap whatsoever for the trilogy that would follow.
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