Seth Green has revealed that animated series Star Wars Detours is unlikely to ever be released. Green had already partnered with Lucasfilm Animation for three Star Wars-themed specials of adult swim series Robot Chicken from 2007 to 2010. Green has also stayed in the Star Wars universe, voicing Cad Bane’s service droid Todo 360 in Disney+’s The Bad Batch, which began releasing episodes earlier this year.
Star Wars Detours was announced by Lucasfilm Animation at Star Wars Celebration VI in 2012 alongside a trailer. The series was to follow a similarly comic style as the Robot Chicken specials Green had previously worked on. Thirty-nine installments of Detours were completed, approximately six minutes each, with an additional sixty-two episodes written and ready to be made. The announcement came shortly before Disney bought Lucasfilm, including its animation department, for $4.05 billion, with focus moving toward the new trilogy of movies and away from other productions.
Talking to Entertainment Weekly, Seth Green said that Disney+ is not planning to release the completed episodes of Detours. Since the series was produced over ten years ago, Green says that heavy edits and updates would need to be made to the episodes to make them relevant today. Star Wars Detours had a considerable amount of stars amongst its voice cast, with Green revealing that Billy Dee Williams, Anthony Daniels, and Ahmed Best recorded episodes, as well as other Star Wars-newbies like Zachary Levi, “Weird Al” Yankovic, Andy Richter, Seth McFarlane, Donald Faison, Felicia Day, and Joel McHale. Read Green’s full comments below:
The most recent conversations I’ve had with anybody who would be in a position to say so say that it’s not soon … there are thirty-nine episodes that were finished for broadcast. But we finished them 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. 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 an interest in releasing this content on Disney+ from Lucasfilm …
I don’t really have an emotional position because I got to spend four straight years making something with George Lucas. And 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. And so I know over those four years that he was having fun, and that’s really all I care about. I 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 …
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 … I like to think that we did the assignment well. It’s just whether or not the assignment jibes with the current intent.
![Why Star Wars Detours Show Will Likely Never Be Released](https://static1.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/star-wars-detours-never-released-han-solo-1.jpg)
This decision seems surprising given the number of Star Wars spin-offs and TV series due for release on Disney+. The streaming service has also recently released older content, including the Ewoks TV show and two movies as part of their Star Wars Vintage strand. Green’s description of the production of Detours suggests that it was one of the last Star Wars properties that George Lucas was personally involved with, increasing its appeal for fans. Still, the fact that the series is so old makes it difficult to reconcile with the current direction of the franchise, which has changed drastically since Disney’s acquisition of LucasFilm.
Green’s description of the comedy series, especially the details about who was involved in its production, suggests that it would be an entertaining addition to the Star Wars canon. A completed Star Wars Detours episode was leaked to Reddit in 2020, giving a glimpse of what was missed out on and suggesting that it would be better for Disney to release it themselves than risk further leaks. While Green says that it is unlikely that Detours will make its way on to the service any time soon, the series may see the light of day at some point if audiences’ desire is high enough.