Today I learned that when Disney bought Lucasfilm, they canceled an upcoming animated Star Wars series featuring, among others, Weird Al Yankovic. The show, Star Wars Detours, had already completed 39 episodes across two seasons.
It’s wild to think that an entire Star Wars comedy series, created by George Lucas and the team behind Robot Chicken, is just sitting on a shelf somewhere, unseen by fans.
What exactly happened to this show, and why doesn’t Disney want us to see it?
Star Wars Detours was an animated comedy series created by George Lucas in collaboration with Robot Chicken creators Seth Green and Matthew Senreich.
Announced at Star Wars Celebration VI in 2012, the series was designed to highlight the lighter, everyday moments of the Star Wars universe. Thirty-nine episodes were completed, with another 62 scripts ready for production, but the show never saw the light of day.
When Disney acquired Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion later that year, the company shifted its focus toward the sequel trilogy and other serious Star Wars projects, shelving Detours indefinitely.
Since then, it has become a topic of curiosity and frustration for fans who are eager to see this hidden piece of Star Wars history.
Seth Green, reflecting on the experience, explained why the series remains unreleased:
“Well, there are 39 episodes that were finished for broadcast. But we finished them almost 10 years ago, and so there would have to be a bit of reconfiguring of the existing stuff to make it something that Disney+ would release as a Lucasfilm offering. And the way it’s been explained to me is that there hasn’t been enough interest high enough up to go through what it would take to put it out.”
Despite the shelving, Green holds no bitterness about the situation, cherishing the time he spent creating the series alongside George Lucas:
“I don’t really have an emotional position because I got to spend four straight years making something with George Lucas… I know over those four years that he was having fun, and that’s really all I care about. I got a priceless experience with one of my truest heroes.”
The voice cast for Detours boasted a star-studded lineup, including Billy Dee Williams, Anthony Daniels, Ahmed Best, Seth MacFarlane, and even “Weird Al” Yankovic. Green teased that the talent behind the project was truly unbelievable:
“You literally wouldn’t believe the people that worked on this project in all categories.”
While the future of Star Wars Detours remains unclear, Green remains proud of the work, saying, “I like to think that we did the assignment well. It’s just whether or not the assignment jibes with the current intent.”
For now, Star Wars Detours exists as a curious footnote in Star Wars history—an ambitious project that, for one reason or another, has yet to make its way to fans.