Ten years ago, the Star Wars franchise was very far away from the position it’s in now. With five more movies in the bank and a whole range of new shows coming to Disney+, fans have never had more to watch from that galaxy far, far away. However, despite the abundance of content, there will always be one show missing: an animated show called Star Wars Detours.
Star Wars Detours was announced as far back as 2012’s Star Wars Celebration, and was a partnership between Lucasfilm Animation and Robot Chicken‘s Matt Senreich and Seth Green. George Lucas himself was set to be involved. They even produced 39 six-minute episodes featuring the voice talent of Billy Dee Williams (Lando Calrissian), Anthony Daniels (C3PO) and Ahmed Best (JarJar Binks). But obviously, the show never materialized.
Green told Entertainment Weekly earlier this year that Disney is unlikely to give Detours a release despite George Lucas being involved with the project. “We finished 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,” he said. “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 and that there isn’t any interest in releasing this content on Disney+ from Lucasfilm.”
Sixty-two more episodes of the show were planned, with guest stars including “Weird Al” Yankovic, Seth McFarlane, Felicia Day and Donald Faison. However, before the show started airing, Disney bought Lucasfilm and canceled the series, preferring to produce their own animated series.
“I don’t really have an emotional position because I got to spend four straight years making something with George Lucas,” Green said. “My partner and I, and all of the people that got to work on it — the artists and actors and directors and animators — we all got to make something Star Wars with the guy who created it.”
Despite Detours poking fun at his creation, Green said that Lucas “was having fun” with the series. The Robot Chicken creator said he “got a priceless experience with one of my truest heroes, and got to see him laugh and enjoy all of the things that he had created, in a time before he agreed to sell them to somebody else.”
In November of 2020, one of the episodes of Star Wars Detours was finally leaked to the internet. “Dog Day Afternoon” featured characters named Zuckuss and 4-LOM (Andy Richter and “Weird Al” Yankovic) attempting to rob a diner. Boba Fett and Jabba the Hutt appeared.
Green says that while he hopes the show may one day be officially released, he doesn’t dwell on it. “It’s not that I don’t care if people never see it; it’s just that it ultimately doesn’t matter if nobody ever sees it because nobody can take any of that from any of us. And that kind of thing would never happen again, and I recognize that.”
What do you think? Is there a place for Star Wars Detours amongst the ever-expanding Star Wars catalog on Disney+?
To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our exclusive newsletter.
Get HBO, Starz, Showtime and MORE for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels