George Lucas was quick to realise the cultural phenomenon that Star Wars was and this meant that the trilogy was going to be so much more than that.
As the announcement of Star Wars: A New Hope concert just took place, the live-to-picture performance of Oscar-winning composer John Williams’ iconic musical score will take place in the Walt Disney Theatre Dr Phillips Center for the Performing Arts later this year, we take a look at the Star Wars projects that never saw the light of day.
There have been plenty of planned TV shows, films and more over the years, and whilst disappointingly some of them never got the green light, in some instances we’re quite happy they never.
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Star Wars: Underworld
There are said to be 50 episodes planned with scripts too of the live-action TV series, but this was before Disney bought Lucasfilm.
Ther series was said to explore the rise of the Empire, with the addition of characters we've never seen before as well as old favourites.
George Lucas Tinseltown/Shutterstock.com
Who knows if we’ll ever get to see this show, we’d like to think so considering how much has already been written for it.
George Lucas’ Sequel Trilogy
You’re probably thinking that we’re in the middle of this, but apparently not. It seems that plans for two other different sequel trilogies were planned for Star Wars.
There have been hints from Lucas about what they could have been about, but it's nothing confirmed. This included the rumour that Luke has a sister we don't know.
Thankfully, it's not impossible that we'll one day get a hint of what was planned for these trilogies.
Star Wars 1313
Star Wars 1313 was so far in development that a trailer was shown at E3 in 2012, but due to the Disney buyout, it never went ahead.
The idea was to be dark and more suited for adults, so it's no wonder that Disney shelved it.
Who knows if it will ever be revived.
A robot film with no humans
George Lucas once had a film focusing on droids, he even spoken about it in 1980. Admitting he had plans for another twelve films, including three trilogies.
A year later he was no longer talking about this robot-only film.
There was a kids’ TV spin-off in the late 80s, Droids, and this is probably the closest we’re ever going to get to a Droids-only outing.
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 3
The video game captured the imagination of Star Wars fans thanks to an excellent storyline, it was set thousands of years before the original movies too. There was a sequel to the game, but the third never materialised. There's still a chance, but it's still to be confirmed.
Wookiees, and nothing else
Another character-centric film was in the works, Lucas wanted to focus on the Wookiees. In the same interview where he talked about the Droid movie he spoke about the Wookie movie.
Unfortunately, the idea stopped being mentioned, who knows if we’ll see a development of the Wookie characters in the Hans Solo spin-off movie that’s due to hit cinemas next year.
The Final Episodes of Star Wars: The Clone Wars
The series was broadcase on Cartoon Network, but was forgotten after the Disney purchase. Meaning fans only got a shortened final season that ended up on Netflix.
Fans still stay the series was unfinished, despite the fact some of the episodes were released in different formats. There were a comic book and a novel, and animatics were also revealed.
3D re-releases of Attack Of The Clones and Revenge Of The Sith
When 3D cinema releases were introduced, of course, Star Wars joined the lineup, The Phantom Menace happened, but Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith didn't. It's not sure what because the former made $43 million in the US.
It was the production of The Force Awakens that stopped the other two being re-released. The idea hasn't been completely cancelled, but we imagine it's not at their forefront with the release of so many films planned.
Star Wars Detours
The comedy series teamed up stars from the original trilogy and the prequel and there is said to be 39 episodes completed. But Disney bought Lucasfilm and it was shelved because they wanted all focus to be on the new trilogy.
There's still every chance that we could see these episodes one day, let's keep our fingers crossed.