At Star Wars Celebration Orlando in 2012, Lucasfilm announced that the animated series Star Wars Detours was on its way. Nearly six years later, the series has yet to see the light of day, with Disney’s purchase of the studio resulting in a change of direction for the franchise. While it may only be an obligatory legal move, Lucasfilm recently filed trademarks for the show’s title.
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The series was created by the minds behind Robot Chicken, with Detours being a humorous entry into the Star Wars saga that wasn’t afraid to poke fun at itself. The trailer for the series debuted at Celebration to a receptive crowd.
At the time of the series’ announcement, no new films were on the horizon, which allowed for the series to lean more heavily into the comedic side of the galaxy far, far away. Once Disney announced new films, the comedic series was postponed indefinitely so that younger viewers’ first exposure to the saga wouldn’t be humorous.
What makes the shelving of Detours even more frustrating is that more than 30 episodes were completed while dozens more scripts were ready to move forward, with George Lucas himself giving the series his stamp of approval.
While the dismissal of the series might be frustrating, it’s not unexpected. Lucasfilm has a history of sharing with audiences only what they currently approve of, from TV specials to revised versions of the original trilogy.
In 1978, the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special debuted to offer audiences a variety program featuring the cast of the original film. The special was largely panned and, despite fans’ awareness of the event, it was never re-broadcast nor given a home video release. The only way to witness the special is through widely-circulated bootlegs.
In 1997, Lucas updated the visual and sound effects of the original trilogy, while also inserting new and extended scenes. In the two decades since, various other updates have been made with the film’s DVD and Blu-ray releases, leaving fans pining for an HD release of the original, unaltered trilogy. Fans will have to keep waiting, as executives at Lucasfilm regularly reiterate that the versions of the film that are released are the closest to Lucas’ vision and they won’t be regressing to previous versions of the film merely to earn a profit.
Star Wars Detours might be coming back to life at some point, but in the meantime, fans can look forward to Star Wars Resistance debuting on Disney XD this fall.
Do you think Detours could eventually see the light of day? Let us know in the comments below or hit up @TheWolfman on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!
[H/T Reddit]
