I’m not gonna lie: this one stings. Star Wars prequels producer Rick McCallum recently revealed that the legendary cancelled series Star Wars: Underworld would’ve cost a whopping $40 million per episode to make — effectively dooming it to be axed for budget reasons.
In an interview on the Young Indy Chronicles podcast, McCallum explained, “The problem was that each episode was bigger than the films. So the lowest I could get it down to with the tech that existed then was $40 million an episode.” He added that the inability to successfully realize the project over the years continues to be “one of the great disappointments of our lives.”
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With 60 “third draft” scripts written that showcased the Star Wars universe in “sexy, violent, dark, challenging, complicated, and wonderful” ways from “the most wonderful writers in the world,” it's clear that the budget was the true killer in the crib for this project. At 60 scripts times $40 million per episode, the total cost would have soared well into the $1 billion mark — a sum that even George Lucas himself couldn’t scrounge up back in the early 2000s.
“[It] would’ve blown up the whole Star Wars universe and Disney would’ve definitely never offered George to buy the franchise,” McCallum added. The series was truly axed once Disney took control of Lucasfilm and Lucas stepped aside.
Though McCallum did not confirm any plot details during this interview, fans have long believed that the series would cover the events between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. The producer previously revealed that the series would feature a whole new cast of characters, greatly expand the Star Wars universe, and target an adult — rather than teen and child — audience.
Star Wars: Underworld was first revealed at Star Wars Celebration back in 2005, and test footage from the series was leaked in 2020. Since then, however, that’s all she wrote. Sadly, it looks as though it may just stay that way.
