Jun
11
No movie franchise has had a more mixed venture into TV than Star Wars – even Highlander has a greater consistency than the most successful movie saga of all time, which has always either floundered (the Holiday Special, Droids), struggled initially (The Clone Wars) or gained widespread acclaim (Clone Wars).
Basically, it’s rarely been a perfect fit for television. The problem, to me, has always been Lucasfilm’s drive to force what is a very cinematic franchise into archaic TV templates – as much as Clone Wars is revered by animation fans, we’ve still never had a breakthrough TV series emerging from the movie saga, one that has become a runaway hit in and of itself.
So, what does a Star Wars TV series need to be, in order to please everyone and be commercially successful? I believe the following four elements are key to the franchise’s TV future, whether we’re talking about the long-in-production live-action TV series, or indeed something else much further down the line:
1) A sense of adventure
Star Wars’ wider universe is something that has always captured my imagination. A great Star Wars TV show would cut its ties to the Darth Vader story, show us a different side of the galaxy than that portrayed in the movies, and further the mythology of the franchise overall. The show should stand independently of the movies.
2) Modern TV storytelling
A Star Wars TV show should be a serialised drama. A bounty hunter-of-the-week procedural sounds like a nightmare, to me, and an anthology series that switches between different characters would also be a misfire. A good Star Wars TV show would be a high-concept character drama with ongoing mysteries and storylines.
3) Elaborate special effects
This is more about crowd-pleasing, than anything else, but laser effects, space battles and lightsabers would also need to find their way into a decent Star Wars TV show. Let’s not pretend this is Blade Runner – Star Wars is as much about high-budget battles as it is about family drama and of course, gay robots.
4) Not just for kids
I appreciate that children are an important part of Star Wars’ core audience, but a more mature TV series (in tone, no nudity or swearing) would lend the franchise some real critical credibility. Also, I think The Force Unleashed showed that a Star Wars story targeted at grown-ups can have a strong impact, plus it doesn’t necessarily preclude children from appreciating it.
Who knows? Maybe the live action TV show, whenever it turns up, will tick all of these boxes, and maybe a few besides.
Nah.
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Bit contradicting at the end there – and there a four reasons here not three :). Great points there and I am looking forward to the live action TV show! We still have to have some references to the original Star Wars films though – maybe have another Darth and another Skywalker later on. But no more Ewoks. :)
Ah yes. Consider it corrected!
You pointed out starwars thé force unleashed as a possible idea of tv show and i must agrée. Definitly. As thé latest Game trailer shows, its a really grown ups audience dedicated game and vidéo which could lead to a new era in this universe. In fact its not hard to imagine a full Motion picture in cg rendering, and im sûre many would feel thé same for its quality is undeniable. For many, prime réaction to this 4 mn length trailer is: lucasarts should make a movie ! They havé thé technology, and also this filler between well known épisodes is far more interesting than the clone wars’ thus answering lots of questions about the decimation of the jedi knights and their heirs to raise. Starkiller may be just an excuse to bring more commercial value to thé legacy but definitly is a new way to explore and dig deeper inside a controversial highly powerful rogue sith apprentice who learned what love is about. In this trailer we discover that hé is betrayed by vador for the last time as he feels so, ans he finds himself a new motivation: his beloved blond girl ( whose i forgot thé name). In thé last few seconds, we discover why hé is so expendable. Hes been cloned a lot. Lets hope this will be genuinely explained in thé Game to come.