Heading off to that galaxy far, far away, fans of George Lucas’ Star Wars have some 40 years of history to paw over. From the eight main movies and Rogue One to the novels, games and the sweet merch, the Star Wars universe is going from big to bigger. The Last Jedi may currently be dividing fandom on its worth in the Skywalker saga, but it hasn’t stopped rumors of Episode X- XII and Rian Johnson’s non-Luke-related spin-off trilogy. However, while the big-budget blockbusters have always had the might of Lucas or the House of Mouse behind them, some projects have struggled to get off the ground. These days everything fits neatly under one umbrella, but there were the days where exciting Star Wars outings were flying around like a rogue squadron of X-Wings.
While the episodic formula of Star Wars has been a pretty smooth ride, what about those forgotten projects which were left dumped in the empty deserts of Tatooine. Across the impressive Star Wars lore, there have been abandoned sequel trilogies, whole divisions of games and lost TV shows. Whether it be Disney’s overtaking of Lucas’ world or simple circumstances out of our control, here are 15 Star Wars projects Disney will never let you see.
15 STAR WARS: UNDERWORLD
Lucas announced his ideas for a live-action series set between the events of Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope back in 2005, and Star Wars: Underworld was an ambitious TV series following in the footsteps of Farscape and Firefly. Attack of the Clones briefly glimpsed the crime-riddled Coruscant underbelly, and Underworld would focus on the corrupt criminals of the galaxy. Lucas wanted to craft his own version of The Godfather across around 100 hours of TV.
The original trilogy barely scratched the surface of Hutts and bounty hunters, while Underworld also wanted to focus on aspects like Lando losing the Falcon to Han and the smuggler's first meeting with Chewie. Major characters from the main series would cameo, but it is thought that the likes of Quinlan Vos and Boba Fett would lead Underworld. Sadly, the acquisition of the Lucasverse by Disney left Underworld to slip back into the shadows which it came from.
14 A WOOKIE MOVIE
Seeing the marketability of that furry fuzzball Chewie, Lucas had wanted to give the Wookiees their own time to shine. Back in a 1980 interview, Lucas outlined where the world of Star Wars could go beyond the Skywalker saga. Effectively already planning an anthology series, Lucas wanted to move away from just Jedi battling Sith.
Chewie is still one of the best-loved characters in the franchise, but could he really hold up a movie all on his own? Interestingly, while we have heard of ideas for Obi-Wan and Boba Fett solo movies, Chewie doesn't even get a look in these days. As for a Wookiee movie, some of the ideas were reportedly recycled into the 1985 Ewok TV series, which was effectively just miniature versions of our furry friends. Also, this one technically came true thanks to that abysmal Holiday Special, so maybe it is best we didn't get a full Wookiee movie. RIP Lumpawaroo, we hardly knew ye.
13 VADER TV SHOW
One of the newer ideas was a possible Darth Vader TV show. In 2013, those who attended the riveting Brand Licensing Europe show were handed a brochure which hinted at a bright future for the Dark Darth. Also teasing that Anakin Skywalker was about to get another outing of his own, D23 the same year had already set up a whole stand on the history of Vader,
What was presumably a prequel series set between the original and prequel trilogies, maybe the Vader show would've revealed how Darth got his impressive Mustafar castle. However, nothing more came of the news and Rogue One eventually attempted to fill some of those lost Vader years. These days, it would be more likely for Kylo Ren's grandfather to carry his own anthology movie rather than a TV show.
12 STAR WARS DETOURS
So close, and yet so far, Star Wars: Detours was canned so that Lucasfilm could focus on The Force Awakens. Think what Adult Swim did Robot Chicken's various Star Wars parodies, but then hand it over to the studio that actually created the characters. Ironically, Todd Grimes, Matthew Senreich and Seth Green were all involved in the big announcement at Star Wars Celebration VI. Detours wanted to look at the everyday lives of those in the Lucasverse with comedic timing.
There was also impressive talent like Anthony Daniels and Billy Dee Williams signed on to reprise their roles from the movies. Set between Coruscant, the Death Star and Tatooine, each episode would be split into three six-minute segments, but the show was put on indefinite hold and hasn't been heard of since. 62 episodes were scripted and 39 were produced before the powers that be pulled the plug.
11 STAR WARS: IMPERIAL COMMANDO
A proposed sequel to 2005's Star Wars: Republic Commando, Imperial Commando would see players continue as part of Delta Squad as Order 66 is carried out. The game would see the evolution of Clone troopers into stormtroopers and was also set to follow the birth of the Rebellion. However, after being planned before Republic Commando even went into production, Imperial never got past the planning stages.
The movies seemed to glaze over the fall of the Jedi pretty quickly in Revenge of the Sith, so losing the chance to explore that further seems like a missed opportunity. Ironically a lost corner of Reddit suggested that Imperial Commando would find a new home in 2017, but it turned out to be nothing more than a rumor. Nowadays, playing as the villains has already been done thanks to The Force Unleashed.
10 STAR WARS: 1313
This projects charted an unknown bounty hunter (later revealed to be Boba Fett) on his underhanded mission through the subterranean metropolis of Coruscant's level 1313. Unlike most previous Star War games, it wouldn't focus on the use of Force powers at all. However, the real unique selling point was that 1313 would be a direct tie-in to Underworld.
There was a vast array of weaponry for gamers to handle as they worked through the various assassination missions and overarching plot and imaginative characters. Disney buying Star Wars meant that all LucasArts games were halted, but despite never making it to the shelves, Geek.com still named 1313 its Game of the Year in 2016. Kathleen Kennedy has since said that Disney will go back and look at old projects, but there is still no word on if 1313 will be resurrected from obscurity.
9 STAR WARS: KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC 3
The Knights of the Old Republic games are held as some of the best RPGs out there, so why wouldn't LucasArts have wanted to keep the model rolling. Hoping to tie off a trilogy after Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: Sith Lords, a third game was due for release in the early noughties. Again following Revan after the ambiguous ending of its predecessor, it was thought that part three would discover the very edges of the Sith Empire.
New worlds had been created, along with a storyline and wholly new characters; however, when LucasArts hit a difficult period, the game was canned. In 2008, the book Rogue Leaders: The Story of LucasArts revealed a Mandalorian city and that one of the characters would be a female called Naresha. Unfortunately, nothing else about the plot was ever revealed.
8 ROBOTS ONLY MOVIE
Those beeping, booping droids have become something of a staple of Star Wars history. With R2-D2 and C-3PO featuring in every Star Wars movie — and an even bigger role in the expanded universe — it just wouldn't feel right to discard those clanking sidekicks. In the same interview as his Wookiee talks, Lucas once envisioned a movie that had no humans at all, instead looking at their mechanical counterparts.
He didn't go further to explain who would feature, but it would make sense to star the galaxy's two best-known robots. As Disney has moved into its new trilogy, there is no denying that the old guard like 3PO and R2 have slipped into the background, however, just imagine them with their own feature. Sure, we did have the animated Star Wars: Droids TV series in the '80s, but the idea of a completely mechanical movie is certainly an interesting one.
7 STAR WARS: FIRST ASSAULT
Yet another casualty of the Disney takeover, Star Wars: First Assault was supposed to be a Call of Duty-style multiplayer. With 8v8 gameplay and visiting familiar locations like Bespin's Cloud City, First Assault would be followed a year later by a project known as Wingman. First Assault and Wingman were then intended to be prequels to a fully-functioning Star Wars: Battlefront 3 in 2015.
Gripping third-person action and exotic blasters seemed to be the order of the day, but just months away from release in 2012, First Assault became part of a media blackout and took a lightsaber to the back. Xbox users did get a brief glimpse of what could've been when an early version of the game leaked online. Showing off a sun-scorched Tatooine, the beta version was played through the eyes of a battered stormtrooper.
6 ALIEN EXODUS
Canadian sci-fi writer Robert J. Sawyer had intended to write his own expanded universe trilogy, with the first book tentatively titled Alien Exodus. Exploring how humans made it to that galaxy far, far, away, Sawyer wanted to touch on the origins of the Force, the Hutt underworld and the birth of the name Skywalker. Alien Exodus would focus on a hero known as Cosmo Hender who fought to free slaves from the insectoid Varlian overlords. Hender would posthumously be referred to as "the Skywalker," linking the whole world together.
However, Lucas decided that Sawyer couldn't use ANY of the alien species featured in his original trilogy, which forced the author to drop out. The novels eventually moved over to author Deborah Chester and were released under the Alien Chronicles title. As for Sawyer's world, he later published his entire outline and the first few chapters freely online.
5 RAGTAG
Dubbed Star Wars' take on Uncharted, Visceral's game was presumably going to fill in some of those Han Solo years between the original and prequel trilogies. Known as the company behind the Dead Space games, Visceral announced that it was shutting its doors in October 2017.
Just before the studio closed, developers revealed that they had been working on demos for a project known only as Ragtag. A bunch of heroes would be chased across Tatooine by some stomping AT-ST walkers and then undertake a daring rescue from Jabba's Palace. However, some of the staff claimed that the game had been in trouble for a long time. Plagued with dwindling resources and a premise that was too ambitious for its budget, it sounds like Ragtag was destined to live up to its name.
4 BOBA FETT
It's always a mystery how the stoic Mandalorian Boba Fett became such a popular character from the original movies, but he did. Although Fett survives his death as the Great Pit of Carkoon in the expanded universe, it was thought that his anthology spin-off movie would've charted his earlier days and rise to being one of the most formidable bounty hunters in the galaxy.
Daniel Logan played a young Boba Fett in Attack of the Clones, but it always felt like there was more of a story to tell than Boba's brief appearances on screen has given us. Fant4stic's Josh Trank was attached to direct, but that movie's abysmal performance and Trank's loudmouth comments led to a whole load of trouble for Fett. Literally moments away from Fett being announced as the third Star Wars anthology movie, Kathleen Kennedy pulled the plug.
3 DARTH MAUL GAME
Similar to Boba Fett, something just clicked with audiences when it came to background character Darth Maul. Around 2010, Red Fly Studio was touting a Sith solo for the horned horror for the XBox 360, PlayStation 3 and even possibly the Wii U. If you thought The Force Unleashed was dark enough, you haven't seen anything yet.
The red Zabrak managed to survive through to the Clone Wars TV show, and Star Wars: Maul was set to introduce a whole host of sinister sith and villainous characters for players to battle with. The story was rumored to pit Maul (or his clone/descendent) teaming up with Darth Talon in a timeline beyond Return of the Jedi. However, the timing of Maul was sadly just a little off. A year into development, the Disney takeover set Maul hurling back down the shaft on Naboo.
2 FINAL EPISODES OF THE CLONE WARS
Always bogged down in its own convoluted continuity, CGI favorite Star Wars: The Clone Wars has a particularly troubled past. Obviously, the show does exist, however, it never managed to reach its full potential. Already lasting for an impressive five seasons, The Clone Wars was eventually bumped to Netflix for a sixth (and final) season. While the rest had all run for 20 episodes, Season 6 wrapped at only 13, leading fans to question, "Where is the rest?"
The Clone Wars linked Attack of the Clones to Revenge of Sith, but it clearly wasn't a top priority for Disney when it took over. The last episodes were supposed to include arcs on Son Of Dathomir, Crystal Crisis on Utapau and Dark Disciple, and although none of the episodes will ever be seen, all the storylines were eventually made in various comics and novels through The Clone Wars Legacy.
1 GEORGE LUCAS EPISODE VII - IX
Speaking in 1980, Lucas revealed that he has always planned his Star Wars saga as nine movies set across around 60 years. A New Hope - Return of the Jedi was obviously the middle, while everyone knows the prequel trilogy, but what about his concluding chapter? Lucas had imagined a love interest for Luke, some Skywalker kids to start their own legacy and Leia to develop her Force powers.
While most of these ideas eventually made it into the Disney world, the current Episode VII-IX are worlds away from what Lucas ultimately planned. Ultimately, Lucas lost his passion for the project and eventually retracted his comments about a sequel trilogy. He said that his movies were about Anakin and Luke, so when Vader dies and Luke saves the galaxy, the story had come to a natural end. Obviously, this wasn't the case, and fans are still gripped in the midst of Star Wars fever.