Doctor Who Alumni Worked on Scrapped Live Action Star Wars Series

Chris Chibnall and Matthew Graham worked on the writing staff for a live action Star Wars television series, now scrapped.

Worlds often collide when it comes to science fiction.

Immediately after the news was released that Tom Baker has been added to the voice acting cast of the animated series Star Wars Rebels, another Star Wars story related to Doctor Who hit the internet. In an interview with Simon Brew of Den of Geek, Matthew Graham — a creator of and writer for Life On Mars (starring John Simm) and Ashes to Ashes (starring Keeley Hawes) — talked about his involvement with a currently abandoned live action Star Wars television series.

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Graham — who also wrote the episodes ‘Fear Her,’ ‘The Rebel Flesh,’ and ‘The Almost People’ for Doctor Who — was on the writing team while the Star Wars series was in development. He also confirmed that incoming Doctor Who showrunner Chris Chibnall was part of that team. Others core writing staff members include Ronald D Moore — a producer of many shows such as Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, Battlestar Galactica, Caprica, Helix, and Outlander — also wrote for the Star Wars series, as was Terry Cafolla, writer for Camelot. The team was assembled by George Lucas “around 2007.”

Approximately fifty scripts were written at Skywalker Ranch over the course of two years. Work was done with Lucas from 9 AM to 5 PM, in two week blocks, “every two or three months or so.” The project was scrapped after Disney purchased Lucasfilm.

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Next: Doctor Who Actors Tease of What May and Will Be

From the writing staff, it sounds as if this live action Star Wars series could have been great. If it had gotten off the ground, however, Chris Chibnall may have never been hired to take on the role of showrunner for Doctor Who starting with Series Eleven. What one franchise lost, another gained.