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George Lucas’ Cancelled Star Wars TV Series: Underworld

George Lucas’ Cancelled Star Wars TV Series: Underworld

Before we got hooked on The Mandalorian or Andor on Disney+, did you know George Lucas once had an idea for a Star Wars TV series that could’ve been groundbreaking? 

He wanted to bring us Star Wars: Underworld—a live-action show exploring the galaxy’s darker side, from smugglers to bounty hunters and everything in between.

But as incredible as it sounded, the show never made it past the planning stages.

Here’s why this ambitious project remained unrealized.

Star Wars: Underworld’s Budget Was Too Much for TV

George Lucas’ Lost Star Wars TV Series: Underworld

When I first heard about Underworld, I was blown away by how different it was from what we usually get in Star Wars. Instead of another Jedi vs. Sith story, George Lucas wanted to take us deep into the criminal underworld—a side of the galaxy we barely got to explore.

We were supposed to follow smugglers, bounty hunters, and crime syndicates, seeing how they operated in the shadows while the Empire ruled the galaxy. And Lucas wasn’t cutting corners—he had over 100 scripts written by top Hollywood talent, making sure the show felt just as cinematic as the movies.

But here’s the problem—cost.

Lucas estimated that Underworld would cost $4–5 million per episode, which was an insane budget for TV at the time.  To put it into perspective, even high-budget shows like Game of Thrones were only spending around $6 million per episode during their early seasons—and that was years later, in a much more evolved streaming landscape.

At the time, streaming services like Netflix and Disney+ didn’t have the infrastructure or market dominance they do today. 

But Lucas still tried to make it work. He experimented with virtual sets and cutting-edge technology to get movie-quality visuals on a TV budget. He even worked with Stargate Studios to create test footage of Coruscant’s underworld in real-time. It looked incredible, proving that the tech was there.

And yet, money wasn’t the only issue. Lucas insisted on keeping full ownership of the show and all related merchandise—something that made studios even more hesitant to back the project.

To make things cheaper, Lucas planned to build a massive production facility called Grady Ranch to help cut costs. But local opposition shut it down, making things even worse. In the end, the Underworld never happened. 

The Technology Delayed Star Wars: Underworld

George Lucas had an ambitious vision for Star Wars: Underworld—he wanted it to look and feel as cinematic as the films. 

The plan was to blend CGI with practical effects on a level that rivaled what audiences had seen on the big screen. 

Lucas wanted to push the boundaries of what television could achieve.

However, the technology of the mid-2000s wasn’t ready to match Lucas’s ambition within a television budget. 

Lucas himself admitted that the scope of the series was “beyond what could be accomplished economically.” 

He wasn’t willing to compromise on quality, but at the same time, producing high-quality Star Wars visuals on a TV scale wasn’t financially feasible.

Lucasfilm producer Rick McCallum also highlighted the immense technical challenges when he said, “If we get the series right, if we get the right tone on it and it’s exciting, we’re able to deal with the technology and really push what you’re able to see on television an extra leap forward, I think it can be absolutely fantastic.”