Geoff Boucher at the Los Angeles Times is reporting that George Lucas has begun work on a live-action Star Wars television series. The Times says it is “rooted in the Star Wars universe… but it doesn’t have anyone named Luke or Anakin in it, a story path that Lucas concedes is ‘taking chances’ as far as connecting with an audience expecting the familiar mythology.”
“The Skywalkers aren’t in it, and it’s about minor characters,” Lucas said. “It has nothing to do with Luke Skywalker or Darth Vader or any of those people. It’s completely different. But it’s a good idea, and it’s going to be a lot of fun to do.”
Lucas wouldn’t give any details about the series, other than to joke that it would be about “the life of robots.”
In addition to this new venture, Lucas Animation has been working on Star Wars: The Clone Wars, a computer-animated series Lucas hopes “will introduce a new era of visuals to weekly episodic television. Lucas plans to produce it through his own companies before shopping the finished product to networks,” said the Times.
The same home-grown model may be used for the live-action show, although producer Rick McCallum said nothing is final yet. McCallum is interviewing writers for the live-action series.
Lucas concedes that his new series doesn’t fit the standard model, but he’s hopeful. Television executives “are having a hard time,” Lucas said. “They’re saying, ‘This doesn’t fit into our little square boxes,’ and I say, ‘Well, yeah, but it’s Star Wars. And Star Wars doesn’t fit into that box.'”