The upcoming Disney+ original series Obi-Wan Kenobi can finally fulfill George Lucas’ dreams for Star Wars Underworld. Back in 2005, George Lucas announced his intention of making the first of its kind live-action Star Wars television series, entitled Star Wars Underworld. Scripts were commissioned, but the production sadly proved too expensive, and after several years it was finally shelved.
Leaked test footage from Star Wars Underworld revealed it would have been the spiritual successor to the prequel trilogy. Set during the Dark Times of the Empire’s reign, it would explore the lower levels of Coruscant, noted for its poverty and lawlessness. There’s some evidence suggesting Quinlan Vos—a Jedi Lucas had intended to appear in Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith—would also have appeared, presumably hiding from Darth Vader and hunted by the Empire.
Lucasfilm’s recently-released trailer for the Obi-Wan Kenobi Disney+ TV show features some strikingly similar concepts. While it won’t be based on Coruscant’s lower levels, it does feature a new world called Daiyu, and it seems to be a similar crime-ridden, seedy location. Daiyu “sort of has a Hong Kong feel to it,” writer Joby Harold explained to Entertainment Weekly. “It’s got a graffiti-ridden nightlife, and is kind of edgy. It’s just got a different lane and a different feeling.” The Obi-Wan Kenobi trailer suggests the Jedi Master is flushed out of hiding on Tatooine and is forced to head to Daiyu, either in an attempt to shake off the Inquisitors or to hatch a plan convincing them that he’s been killed. It all sounds very similar to what’s known of the Quinlan Vos arc in Star Wars Underworld.
There is, of course, one major difference: Lucas didn’t intend to focus on characters from the prequel trilogy. Several of them were supposed to appear—there was a Darth Vader story, and another that explored Palpatine’s lover, for instance—but his goal was to move away from the main Star Wars saga by focusing on background characters, ordinary men, women and aliens who lived in the galaxy and had to find a way to survive the Empire’s tyranny. In contrast, Obi-Wan Kenobi is deliberately centered upon the relationship between Ewan McGregor’s Obi-Wan and Hayden Christensen’s Darth Vader, featuring no less than two duels between the characters. While it will no doubt bring the horrors of the Dark Times to life, it will do so through very familiar eyes rather than through original characters.
For all that’s the case, though, the Obi-Wan Kenobi Disney+ TV show still promises to bring an element of closure to George Lucas’ vision. It is, after all, a live-action exploration of the Dark Times, a tale of a Jedi on the run in the galaxy’s underworld, and a chance for Lucasfilm to show how the galaxy really suffered under the Empire’s reign. It’s great to see Obi-Wan Kenobi draw these threads together.
Key Release Dates
Rogue Squadron
Release Date:2023-12-22
