Television network ABC is clearly interested in fully exploiting the potential corporate synergy it enjoys as part of the larger Walt Disney Company family. Not only does it have one of the most eagerly anticipated shows of the fall in Marvel's Agents of SHIELD, but now it turns out that conversations are taking place to bring live action Star Wars to the small screen on a regular basis as well.
Talking with reporters during an appearance at the Television Critics Association press tour this weekend, ABC Entertainment Group president Paul Lee said that ABC has "started conversations" with Lucasfilm over a potential Star Wars television series, adding "I have an inkling in my mind, but they have a lot on their plate."
The idea of a live action Star Wars TV show isn't a new one -- In fact, it's one that dates back almost a decade, with rumors of a show emerging in late 2004 before an official announcement in April 2005. At the time, George Lucas said that he wanted to have the first season of the show written before production started, and suggested that the show wouldn't be seen for at least a year.
That estimate proved to be a tad optimistic. Development on the series -- which was later titled Star Wars: Underworld, and took between the prequel trilogy and the original movie -- continued on-and-off for a number of years, with a team of writers creating scripts for an estimated 50 hours of television (One of the writers, Stephen Scaia, has since talked about his experience during this time).
The reason these scripts went nowhere, it turns out, is because the scripts turned out to be too expensive for their own good. "We are looking for a different technology that we can use, that will make it economically feasible to shoot the show," Lucas explained in 2011. "Right now, it looks like the Star Wars features, but we have to figure out how to make it at about a tenth of the cost of the features."
It's unclear whether or not the Underworld material might be used for the potential ABC series, but the announcement of Episode VII could mean that a series set in the distant past of the central mythology would be of less interest to the network than one set in the same time period as the upcoming film.
All of this remains entirely theoretical until ABC and Lucasfilm officially announce any potential partnership officially, of course. Still, given how quickly ABC and Disney sibling Marvel moved to get Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on the roster, it's not entirely impossible that there could be a Star Wars show to follow Episode VII by the time it's released in 2015.
