Last month, during ABC’s TCA summer tour presentation, ABC Entertainment President Channing Dungey revealed that the network has had “conversations” with LucasFilm about a live-action Star Wars TV series. Nothing is set yet, though there have been discussions and rumors about a live-action show for more than a decade. Today, we news that fans will have to wait even longer for this highly-anticipated series, whatever it ends up being. When asked point-blank if ABC is planning a live-action Star Wars TV show, ABC TV president Ben Sherwood says the decision is not up to him. He did, howevre, hint that a new Star Wars animated series may be coming soon.
“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.”
We first heard about plans for a live-action Star Wars series back in 2005, when producer Rick McCallum claimed George Lucas had 50 one-hour episode scripts comissioned by a stable of writers that were ready to go. Since George Lucas is no longer involved in the franchise, we don’t know what the show will eventually entail. Last year, a rumor surfaced that this TV series would happen after the new movie trilogy, which means it will premiere sometime in either 2019 or 2020, but that has never been confirmed.
Another rumor surfaced last year that the streaming giant Netflix is developing three new live-action shows set in the Star Wars universe, but that hasn’t been confirmed either. As of now, Lucasfilm has the animated series Star Wars Rebels, which returns with its Season 3 premiere September 24 on Disney XD. There have also been animated shows like LEGO Star Wars: The Yoda Chronicles and LEGO Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures that have aired recently, but these new comments from Ben Sherwood in his interview with The Hollywood Reporter make it clear that an ABC series is a long ways off.
On the big screen, LucasFilm will unveil the first stand alone movie Rogue One: A Star Wars Story on December 16, followed by Star Wars: Episode VIII (December 15, 2017), Han Solo: A Star Wars Story (May 25, 2018) and Star Wars: Episode IX (2019), along with an untitled stand alone movie that is rumored to center on the bounty hunter Boba Fett. The Star Wars universe keeps getting bigger and bigger, so it’s possible this show may happen, but it won’t be anytime soon.