Why a Live-Action STAR WARS TV Show Doesn’t Seem Likely

A live-action STAR WARS television show has been both rumored and in development for a long time now. Back in the mid-2000s, George Lucas himself was working to bring STAR WARS: UNDERWORLD to the small screen. It’s a project that never came to fruition, though that didn’t stop animated fare like STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS and STAR WARS REBELS from coming out. All the same, we’d be lying if we said we weren’t intrigued by the idea of a live-action STAR WARS show.

Some time ago, there was talk of Disney re-using the sets for their feature films for the TV series, but given how infrequently the STAR WARS universe seems to revisit locations, it seemed unlikely to work out in the long run. Plus, after the acquisition of the property, Disney decided to divert its resources on one thing.

“They are focused on their movies,” network president Paul Lee told TVLine, “so we don’t have any plans at the moment.” And regarding the TV front, a Lucasfilm rep said their “current focus for TV is on animation [STAR WARS REBELS, etc.].”

Nothing against animation, but wouldn’t a live-action STAR WARS series be the next logical step for the franchise? And what about Netflix? Marvel is having great success with their Netflix series DAREDEVIL and JESSICA JONES, and if the same careful attention was given to a galaxy far, far away, couldn’t it work?

Perhaps. But an anonymous industry insider seems to thinks it’s “smart brand management” not to do a live-action TV show. The anonymous insider went on to speculate behind the reasoning behind this move.

“I imagine they’re looking to avoid the Marvel-ization of the franchise,” they told TVLine.

That part of the statement has me scratching my head a bit. Marvel is currently one of the most lucrative brands out there, and given that Disney is the owner of both Marvel and Lucasfilm, it seems like a no-brainer to develop a TV show. Maybe Disney doesn’t want to be lazy in the way it handles its properties. I can certainly appreciate a company trying to change up their strategies for fear of oversaturating the market. I say that…and yet I don’t think that can be it. STAR WARS is a property that spans movies, comics, books, video games, and animated TV shows. Why would they be that precious about this one aspect?

It’s possible that in limiting the live-action fare, they’ve ultimately limited the number of people who will get tired of the films. The plan going forward is to release a film every year, and if in addition to this, they have an ongoing STAR WARS TV series, there could potentially be a large portion of moviegoers who would skip the movie experience since they’ve already had their live-action STAR WARS fix on the small screen.

In addition to this, as successful as the Marvel TV front has been, there has been an increasing disconnect between Marvel Studios and Marvel TV. By not creating a live-action TV show to begin with, Disney is eliminating that problem at the root.

What do you think? Is it a smart move on Disney and Lucasfilm’s part to avoid a TV show? Let us know your thoughts in the comments down below!

SOURCE: TVLine

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