- "George said it best: it's a little young for the older people and a little old for the younger people."
- ―Seth Green
Star Wars Detours is a canceled animated television series that features a comedic look at the Star Wars universe. On March 11, 2013, Lucasfilm announced that it had postponed the series in order to concentrate on Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens.[6]
Premise[]
Star Wars Detours is an animated comedy that explores what daily life is like in a galaxy far, far away. There are no Empires striking back or attacking clones here. Instead, Star Wars Detours focuses on the universe's regular folks and their everyday problems... which, to be fair, do frequently involve famous bounty hunters, crazed Ewoks, and even a Dark Lord of the Sith. Welcome to Star Wars: Detours: the other side of the stars, between the wars.[7]
The series takes place between the events of Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope, and is set in three general locations: Coruscant, the Death Star and Tatooine. Episodes are divided into three six-minute segments.[8]
Development[]
- "I've had a lot of parents approach me in the last few years where they showed their children Robot Chicken or Family Guy Star Wars before they showed them regular Star Wars. The writers on Robot Chicken and I are seeing this a lot. The same way we were introduced to classic music through Bugs Bunny or Tom & Jerry, kids are taking our ironic interpretations of He-Man or other pop culture icons and never having the opportunity to meet them sincerely. It's a really bizarre thing to wrap your head around, and because I've witnessed it firsthand, it made me more thoughtful about what we were putting it out."
- ―Seth Green
George Lucas revealed in June 2009 that a new Star Wars animated series was in development.[10] On April 5, 2010, StarWars.com officially revealed that the series was in production by Lucasfilm Animation, and that it would be a comedy.[11] Writers were hired from various TV series, including The Simpsons, Family Guy, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Battlestar Galactica, SpongeBob SquarePants and The Daily Show.[2] Some of the animated work on the series was done by The Monk Studio, a visual effects and animation studio located in Thailand, which also worked on the film Strange Magic for Lucasfilm.[12]
Release[]
- "I don't really have an emotional position because I got to spend four straight years making something with George Lucas. And my partner and I, and all of the people that got to work on it — the artists and actors and directors and animators — we all got to make something Star Wars with the guy who created it. And so I know over those four years that he was having fun, and that's really all I care about. I got a priceless experience with one of my truest heroes, and got to see him laugh and enjoy all of the things that he had created, in a time before he agreed to sell them to somebody else."
- ―Seth Green
On December 21, 2012, The Walt Disney Company completed its acquisition of Lucasfilm Ltd..[14] On March 11, 2013, Lucasfilm announced that the series had been postponed in light of the upcoming release of the sequel trilogy.[6] At MegaCon 2014, the Robot Chicken creators reaffirmed that Star Wars Detours would be released at some point, with more than thirty planned episodes.[15] In April of the same year, Seth Green and Matthew Senreich revealed that Lucasfilm felt it would have been counterproductive to spend three years introducing children to a comedic, deconstructionist view of characters whom they would then be expected to take seriously upon the release of Episode VII. Believing that Detours was timeless, the two were confident that their presentation of characters like Darth Vader as beleaguered middle-managers could wait until after the sequel trilogy's sincere presentation of Star Wars had concluded.[16]
In October 2015, voice actress Felicia Day mentioned during a livestream on her YouTube channel that as far she knew, the show had been cancelled.[17] In June 2018, however, Lucasfilm filed a new trademark for the series.[18] In October 2019, Seth Green expressed his doubts regarding a possible release, as he was under the impression that, after the 2012 acquisition by Disney, Lucasfilm wasn't interested anymore in "this kind of deconstructive comedy coexisting with these sincere interpretations of the characters," unless strong demand arose from the fan community.[19]
In November 2020, one six-minute episode, titled "Dog Day Afternoon," leaked on Reddit.[20] In a June 2021 interview with Entertainment Weekly, Green said that he no longer expected the series to get a release, citing a lack of interest from Disney/Lucasfilm executives. He also speculated that the finished episodes would have to be reworked to be appropriate for Disney+.[13]
Continuity[]
Before the 2014 canon reboot, Holocron continuity database administrator Leland Chee said the series was classified as D canon.[21]
Credits[]
| Cast | Uncredited cast | Crew | Uncredited crew | Special thanks |
Cast
|
Crew
|
Appearances[]
| Characters | Organisms | Droid models | Events | Locations |
| Organizations and titles | Sentient species | Vehicles and vessels | Weapons and technology | Miscellanea |
Characters
Droid models
Locations
|
Organizations and titles
Sentient species
Vehicles and vessels
Miscellanea
|
Sources[]
Notes and references[]
External links[]
Star Wars Detours on StarWars.com (content now obsolete; backup link)- Star Wars: Detours at the Internet Movie Database
- Official Facebook page (now defunct)
- The Sad Saga of the Star Wars TV Show No One's Ever Seen by Matt Singer on screencrush.com (December 14, 2015) (archived from the original on June 23, 2020)
- Star Wars: Detours - Trailer on the Star Wars HoloNet YouTube channel (backup link)
- Star Wars: Detours - Extrait #1 on the Star Wars HoloNet YouTube channel (backup link)
- Star Wars: Detours - Extrait #2 on the Star Wars HoloNet YouTube channel (backup link)
- Star Wars: Detours - Extrait #3 on the Star Wars HoloNet YouTube channel (backup link)
- Star Wars: Detours - Extrait #4 on the Star Wars HoloNet YouTube channel (backup link)
- Star Wars: Detours - Extrait #5 on the Star Wars HoloNet YouTube channel (backup link)
- Star Wars: Detours - Extrait #6 on the Star Wars HoloNet YouTube channel (backup link)
