With Star Wars: The Force Awakens a worldwide hit with a handful of Academy Award nominations, multiple Star Wars film on the way, and Star Wars Rebels still going strong on the small screen, Star Wars fever is going strong. Even though there are multiple ways to get a Jedi fix right now, fans are still clamoring for more. Unfortunately for those fans, of all the options for more Star Wars adventures, a live-action television series is not going to be one of them. According to a report by TVLine, although there has been a series in this style, Underworld, in the works for more than a decade, it is not bound to happen in the near future. As Michael Ausiello tells it,
Once Disney purchased Lucasfilm, jump-starting the film franchise became the priority. So, although Disney-owned ABC — the likeliest home for Underworld — would obviously love to have a live-action Star Wars series on its lineup, “they are focused on their movies,” network president Paul Lee tells TVLine, “so we don’t have any plans at the moment.”
That might be a blow to fans, who are so zealous about new stories set in a galaxy far, far away that some are still defending the prequel movies. All is not lost though as Netflix, television’s new savior for lost causes, might be swooping in and offering up another option as a home for the series:
Last month, rumors began to circulate that Netflix was in negotiations with Disney to develop a live-action Star Wars series to debut as early as 2017. And Lucasfilm head Kathleen Kennedy told Slashfilm that Underworld was “something we would very much like to explore.”
Whether it ends up happening or not, there would be much to consider now that The Force Awakens has brought some much-needed quality back to the series. Would the television series still have the same concept as it was supposed to have in 2005? Could any of the big-screen actors make cheeky cameos? It’s probably better in the long run that Disney doesn’t overload the market with more than a few TV series at a time, and the animated fare is good enough that they don’t have to worry about fan satisfaction in that department. Perhaps they should hold that off for a few more years until we’re out of movies again and need another jolt of Jedi heroism in our lives.
(Via TVLine)