Live-Action ‘Star Wars’ TV Series Won’t Happen Until After Movies, Says ABC
Eventually, the cycle of rumors and deflation around a possible live-action Star Wars TV series will resemble the wait for new movies a few years back, but isn’t ending anytime soon. Networks like ABC have had discussions of a possible live-action TV series, though Disney and ABC boss Ben Sherwood doesn’t believe it would happen until after all the planned movies.
A wide ranging conversation with The Hollywood Reporter saw Sherwood touching on the long-discussed prospect of a Star Wars series, which follows ABC president Channing Dungey’s earlier assertion that talks with Lucasfilm remain “ongoing.” Sherwood certainly hopes for a live-action series one day (more actively developing new animated series to follow Rebels in the meantime), but says “they have a lot of movies to make” before Lucasfilm actively considers any TV series:
The live-action Star Wars plan rests in the hands of [Walt Disney Studios chairman] Alan Horn, [Lucasfilm president] Kathy Kennedy and the great folks at Lucasfilm. Somewhere we hope in a galaxy not too far away there will be a television show that will air on one of our networks. But I wouldn’t get anybody’s hopes up too high. They have a lot of movies to make between now and then. We are deep into a very productive relationship with Lucasfilm making [Disney XD's] Star Wars Rebels. And we are in ongoing conversations with them on what is the next Star Wars animated show.
Past reports of a live-action Star Wars TV series (most commonly titled Star Wars: Underworld) were seemingly set on Coruscant between trilogies, while another recent report suggested the project might have humanized Emperor Palpatine in some manner.
Fans have certainly hoped that Star Wars might follow Marvel in branching off portions of its universe to TV, but would the interest be as high, by the time the current slate of movies have all made their way to theaters?
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