Star Wars’best TV show,Andor, is more closely aligned withStar Warscreator George Lucas’ vision than I ever realized. When Lucas created the concept forStar Wars, he famously wanted the story to be child-friendly.It can still be enjoyed by all age groups, of course, but at its core,Star Warsstarted as a fairy tale– a fairy tale that happened to be set in space. This kid-friendly ethos can be seen in most of Lucas’ (and Disney’s)Star Warsproductions.
AtStar WarsCelebration 2017,Lucas himself proclaimedthatStar Warswas primarily aimed at“12-year-olds”and that it was about“friendships, honesty, trust, doing the right thing, living on the right side and avoiding the dark side,”all lessons that kids can safely and powerfully learn through fiction. That doesn’t mean, however, that Lucas never intended to exploreStar Warsfrom a more mature point of view, and the recently renamedAndor: A Star Wars Storygives us a glimpse at what could have been.
Quick Links
George Lucas Planned To Evolve Star Wars Into Something For Adults
Lucas may have originally intendedStar Warsto be for kids – the creation of Jar Jar Binks is, for better or worse, a true testament to Lucas’s child-friendly vision – but that never stopped him from wanting to explore a more complex, sinister side of theStar Warsgalaxy, too. Recently, a producer who worked closely with George Lucas in the late 2000s revealed more details about Lucas’s unrealizedStar WarsTV project,Star Wars: Underworld.
As the name suggests,Underworldwould have largely been set in the lower levels of Coruscant and followed bigStar Warscharacterslike Palpatine, Lando Calrissian, Boba Fett, Vader, Han Solo, and more between the events ofStar Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sithand the originalStar Warsmovie, later retitledA New Hope. Reportedly,60 out of 100 planned scripts were already written, and the stories would have been“sexy,” “violent,” “wonderful,” “complicated,” “challenging”and would have“blown up the whole Star Wars universe.”
Upcoming Star Wars Shows: Story, Casts & Everything We Know
Several exciting Star Wars TV shows are set to be released on Disney+ in the coming years from the realm of both live-action and animation.
Now,Andormay not“blow up the whole Star Wars universe”– primarily because we already know how Cassian Andor’s story ends – but it is undeniably providing a new, more mature perspective on theStar Warsgalaxy and the most major conflict within theStar Warsfranchise.Underworld, likeAndor, would have focused on the earliest iteration of the Rebellion.
When dealing with a story world as vast and creative as theStar Warsgalaxy, there’s no point in limiting your range of storytelling. Yes, keeping things accessible for all ages has allowedStar Warsto become the powerhouse franchise it is today. That success and popularity also provide the necessary space to explore a different, less fantastical, more realistically grounded corner of the galaxy.
When dealing with a story world as vast and creative as the Star Wars galaxy, there’s no point in limiting your range of storytelling.
ThoughUnderworld’s scope may have been much more expansive,Andorhas, to an extent, taken on its role in theStar Warsuniverse, creating a story solely intended for more mature audiences.Darker themes aren’t presented through an innocent, child-friendly lens inAndor, and they wouldn’t have been inUnderworld, either. You can’t viewAndoras a fairy tale because it is the farthest thing from being one, and withStar Wars: Underworld, George Lucas realizedStar Warscould be more, too.
2025
