A "Star Wars" TV series may still be possible as an ABC executive said they are in talks with Lucasfilm regarding the project.
"As a fan I would absolutely love to say yes," said ABC entertainment president Channing Dungey, according to Entertainment Weekly. "We have had conversations with [Lucasfilm] and we will continue to have conversations with them. I think it would be wonderful if we could find a way to extend that brand onto our programming."
Dungey was speaking in Beverly Hills on Thursday, Aug. 4, during her executive session at the Television Critics Association's semi-annual press tour. She did not reveal whether the proposed project would be a live-action series, but that idea has reportedly been going around for quite some time. The executive would not disclose anything more other than talks are currently ongoing.
"It's all a little bit hush-hush. That company exists under a big shroud of secrecy. If you feel Marvel's secretive, [Lucasfilm] takes it to a whole other level," she said. "[Talks] are ongoing. We don't have an official timeline yet."
Years ago, an attempt was made to have a live-action "Star Wars" TV series. That project reportedly had scripts for 50 episodes already, according to Lucasfilm producer Rick McCallum in an interview with Den of Geek in 2012, but the stories were not meant for kids. Moreover, the budget for each episode was expected to be huge.
"The situation we have is that each episode - or if you put two hour long episodes together - is bigger than any film we've ever done," McCallum said. "It's on the Avatar level and we'll only have about $5-6 million we can spend on each episode."
Given that "Star Wars" fans are likely to expect the same cinematic effects that they see in the movies, it would definitely not be easy nor cheap to make a TV series. One can expect that it would be a real challenge for ABC if the project pushes through.
