However, if his original plan was to be followed, we would have witnessed another giant-scaled project under the banner before he left. Lucas had always been ambitious about Star Wars, looking for ways to further venture into the universe, but one idea was so outrageous it would have put big-budget movies to shame.
In the late 2000s, the filmmaker teamed up with producer Rick McCallum for a TV show named Star Wars: Underworld (per Pop Culture News). And if his original proposal was to be followed, it would have exploded the Star Wars universe wide open, louder than a Death Star.
His checklist for the TV show was as bewildering as the concept itself—a darker and grittier story exploring the criminal underbelly of Coruscant, 60 scripts that required a massive $40 million an episode to be translated onto the screen, and a score by John Williams.
Combine that with the course spanning 100 episodes needing a budget of roughly around $4 billion, and you are looking at the most expensive TV show ever (at least at the time). Unfortunately for Lucas and fortunately for Disney, the script was scraped off for understandable reasons.
The underlying theme of Star Wars has always been the eventual victory of good over evil. The black-and-white areas of belief are clearly demarcated, as it was largely aimed at a younger audience. George Lucas’ Star Wars: Underworld would’ve ditched that persona and donned a cape darker than most kids could’ve handled.
Now that details about the show are out, fans are taking to X, astonished at how wild the idea sounds:
40 mil an episode is absolutely ridiculous for something that has a 78% chance to flop 😭
— edward (@onBrandVibes) March 8, 2025
40 mil an episode is absolutely ridiculous for something that has a 78% chance to flop 😭
— edward (@onBrandVibes) March 8, 2025
$40 Mil an episode is insane no wonder it didn't happen
— ＺＡＣＨ (@ZachBowders) March 8, 2025
Don’t believe that last line for a second. Find the cost of $40 million an episode hard to believe as well.
— JumboSnIpEzz (@JumboSnIpEzz) March 8, 2025
Sounds like a pipe dream
— Freedom Nexxus (@InfirmaPeribit) March 8, 2025
While the proposed astronomical budget of Star Wars: Underworld is making everyone’s mouth gape, the idea itself is too enticing to ignore. As Rick McCallum rightly chronicled in his interview with The Young Indy Chronicles podcast:
These were dark. They were sexy, they were violent, they were just absolutely wonderful. Wonderful, complicated … challenging. I mean, it would have blown up the whole Star Wars universe … And Disney definitely would’ve never offered to buy Star Wars from George. It’s one of the great disappointments of our life.
The disappointment hits even harder when you realize how far ahead the show was in development, as test footage of Star Wars: Underworld already exists. Star Wars still lives and prospers under the Disney banner, but George Lucas’ most ambitious dream remains engulfed in the could’ve been/should’ve been a shroud of Hollywood history.
