New Star Wars TV Series Confirmed

merauder writes to tell us BBC News is reporting that the new Star Wars TV series is set to run at least 100 episodes. From the article: "The series will be set between episodes three and four of the film saga. It would cover the 20 years in the life of Luke Skywalker growing up that remains a mystery to most film-goers. McCallum said there would be 'a whole bunch of new characters' and the series would be 'much more dramatic and darker.'"

Comments

A New Hope

[eldavojohn]

In my youth (prior to eighth grade), I read every Star Wars book out there. I think it was half way through the Young Jedi Academy series when I lost interest (Episode One was the final nail on the coffin of my fondness for Star Wars).

Now breathe and get everything out of your system about me being a nerd without a life. I was, in fact, a farmboy without a permit or vehicle ... although I'm prepared for some colorful replies in response to this post.

Kevin J. Anderson & Timothy Zahn could write a story. In their books, they expanded on what Lucas first saw. I read everything and loved the rich histories and futures laid out in the books for characters in the Star Wars universe. Sadly, none of these characters were in the new movies. None of the Jedi were cloned. Everything alluded to in the Thrawn (Zahn) Trilogy was omitted from episodes one through three. There was no talk of Spaarti cloning cylinders or Joruus C'Boath being cloned from Jorus C'Boath.

Why? Because although these books were licensed by Lucas, they were not official parts of the story. These works became known as the Star Wars Expanded Universe meaning characters not in the movies. This material expands and continues the stories told in the films, taking place anywhere from 4,968 years before The Phantom Menace to about 130 years after Return of the Jedi. In fact, some of the works (like the Dark Empire comics and Zahn's Trilogy) conflict directly with other works.

Don't be deceived, some of these works (like Children of the Jedi by Barbara Hambly) sucked. But I heavily suggest the Thrawn and Jedi Academy Trilogy if you want to read some of the better stories from the Expanded Universe.

I would like to say that I remain optimistic about what Lucas can still do with the Star Wars Universe. I believe that he has made mistakes in giving himself supreme veto power over what is shown or added in the movies and I think this attitude has ruined Star Wars for me somewhat. I wish that Lucas would open his mind to other ideas as some of these books have proven that there are other people out there capable of helping Lucas create story lines. I shudder to think that he might attempt to write all 100 episodes without the help of coauthors. It has been my experience that television shows with multiple authors are less likely to grow old. I also hope that Lucas has finally realized that his fans don't want hilarious/annoying Jar Jar Binks but instead want the drama and emotion of Episodes Three and Five.

Episode One left me disinterested. Star Wars Galaxies left me angry. Hopefully this series will win me back although I think a lot of us will have a hard time adapting to the new actors in old parts. I hope a large part of Luke's Youth is omitted as I cannot think of one young child actor I have liked.

Re:A New Hope

[Venyce]

Timothy Zahn wrote some excellent Star Wars, I agree. I'm a little amazed that anyone could read something like the Jedi Academy series and find them to be anything better than grade D trash. They had to have Michael Stackpole (of X-Wing / Rouge Squadron books) come in and basically re-write it so it was partially believeable.

The Dark Empire comics where relativly OK, as comics go. However they were trash compared to the good books. Most of the writers had to spend a lot of time ignoring the "Reborn Emperor, and Luke goes to the dark side blah blah. It was shit, but it had to be considered 'canon' for the sake of expanded universe books.

Now we have the New Jedi Order books. I read 2 or 3 and that was the end. Just too cheesey. Other than Zahn, Stackpole, and a couple of others (whoever adaped Episode 3 and the guy who wrote Shadows of the Empire) I ignore Star Wars books now.

Stackpole was right when he wrote his main character telling Luke that you can't take a guy who blows up a whole star system and say he's a great Jedi Knight. Good ole Kevin J. invented the super-weapon of the week club. The Deathstar 3, the Sun blaster who whatever that little twit jedi character he wrote used to blow up a star. It was just lame.

And don't even get me started on the "Wonder Twins" saving the day through any number of books before they were even 12 years old. All of our main characters from the 1st triligy are standing around like assholes, so the kids can do it all.

No thanks. Star Wars has become questionable. I approach anything writen or done for the screen with skepticism.

On a good note, look around on the internet and see if you can find "Stuff". A piece of Star Wars fan fiction that was written to try and fix all the dumb shit various authers had done to the story after Zahn's books. It's very well written and pretty funny to boot.

Re:Could've picked a better setting

[mcc]

That said, if he hated his life enough to consider signing up for the Imperial military, why would it be of any interest at all to us?

The answer is obvious and, unfortunately, terrible. They're almost certainly going to pack luke's early life with exciting star-flung adventures, cameos of star wars characters, and a constant use of the force powers he supposedly didn't know he had. By the time the series ends, whatever suspension of disbelief the once-powerful opening scenes of A New Hope originally conjured will have been totally destroyed by the knowlege that Luke Skywalker is in fact just as experienced and battle-hardened as any character from Sailor Moon.

An alternate possibility is that when they say "the 20 years luke skywalker was growing up", they don't mean luke will be the focus of the series-- they just mean that is the period over which the series will take place. That is, perhaps the action will all follow Bail Organa, Mon Mothma et al, who have exciting and dangerous space adventures while Luke Skywalker is repainting the grain silo. This would make for an interesting and believable series-- and putting Leia through complex and traumatic adventures (while Luke sits at home and watches the news dispatches depicting the Empire's party line propaganda version of those same adventures) would be totally consistent with what we see in the movies. But I do not consider this likely to happen. Over 100 episodes, the temptation of somehow dragging Luke in every other plot will be too great to resist.

Oh-- and expect a long and drawn-out plot arc in which Obi-Wan takes increasingly dangerous journeys into the underworld in a desperate attempt to make the last three clumsy minutes of dialogue in Return of the Sith seem dramatic and important instead of just being a hastily composed plot band-aid. Expect Luke to feature in these semifrequently, although he supposedly had never met Old Ben before the beginning of A New Hope.

It's simple

[sterno]

If Lucas mostly keeps his hands off of this it will be good. Lucas is really good when it comes to the big picture view of the Star Wars universe. He did a fantastic job of creating this rich world with all kinds of potential. But if you look at the output from his work, the more involved he is with the movie, the more it sucks, generally speaking.

What is the best Star Wars movie of all time? Empire Strikes Back, the one he had the least involvement in. Lucas is bad at writing and directing. He really struggles to bring any sense of emotion to the characters. Whenever you see emotion it feels like Soap Opera camp. You look at the stilted dialogue of Padme and Anakin in Episode 2 and 3 and it's just painful.

So I believe that if Lucas is willing to keep his hands mostly off of this project and let it become it's own thing it stands a chance of not sucking. But it does fascinate me how things have come full circle. Star Wars set a bar and Battlestar Galactica came out shortly after trying to meet that bar and failing quite specatcularly. Now Star Wars comes to television and we have a very high bar set by Battlestar Galactica for what a sci-fi television show can be. Can Star Wars hold up? Probably not, but there's always hope I guess :)

Follow Han, not Luke

[Pfhorrest]

That's something I'd be far more interested to see. The history of Han Solo leading up to ANH. Luke, as has been said everywhere, was a boring farm boy on a backwater planet. Han Solo was a riotous space cowboy smuggling for the Fetts. His story would be far more interesting.

Besides, Han is about the only character from the original trilogy whose ancestry/history/whatever aren't talked about in the prequels already...