As Star Wars fans are well aware, we’re currently in the most exciting time for the franchise since the early 1980s – I mean, unless you liked that second trilogy – and it’s almost assuredly only going to get better. Three more Episodes and several film spinoffs have been confirmed, and there have been rumors floating around about a live-action Star Wars TV show. Now there is talk that there are actually THREE different shows that Disney is developing, with Netflix as the planned destination. So you know what that means: it’s time for another installment of “News to Take with a Grain of Oh-So-Exciting Salt.”
A lot of the more radical entertainment rumors that span the Internet on a daily basis can usually be shrugged off without much thought, but there’s definitely some merit to the idea of Disney working with Netflix on a Star Wars project, especially since the streaming service is where the final season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars was released. The two companies are already teamed up on a handful of Marvel series, including Daredevil and Jessica Jones, so it makes perfect sense that the next step would be partnering on an even more epic property like Star Wars.
One might have thought that Disney would push a Star Wars show onto ABC, which it owns, as it did with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Agent Carter, but releasing things on Netflix offers up a far bigger toy box in terms of finances and how the stories can be approached. (Just look at the gorgeous Sense8, the only other major sci-fi-tinged series in Netflix’s library.) The thought of watching a live-action Star Wars series interrupted by commercials is kind of sickening, so I’m all for the franchise embracing streaming.
We’re not greedy, either, so just one series would be enough. But if there are three different Star Wars series coming, there isn’t a planet big enough to hold all the anticipation. (The news comes from Cinelinx, the site that first reported on a Star Wars series earlier this year.) What would they be about? We know we’re getting a young Han Solo movie from Phil Lord and Chris Miller, and there’s supposedly a Boba Fett spinoff coming, so maybe something dedicated to Yoda or Obi-Wan Kenobi? Could Ewan McGregor return to this universe AND lead his first TV series? That’s an idea that would make me Force in my pants.
Star Wars TV shows are nothing new, as Star Wars Rebels has been a huge hit for Disney XD, and Clone Wars is beloved by fans all over the world. But we’re ready to see non-animated actors and actresses populating this far-reaching universe. Are Netflix and Disney ready to give that to us?
