DOCTOR WHO Showrunner Russell T Davies Turned Down Meeting With George Lucas For STAR WARS: UNDERWORLD

DOCTOR WHO Showrunner Russell T Davies Turned Down Meeting With George Lucas For STAR WARS: UNDERWORLD

In the late 2000s, Star Wars creator George Lucas was developing a TV series exploring the franchise's underworld. Resurfaced comments from Russell T Davies reveal the role he nearly played in that...

By JoshWilding - Jan 09, 2024 05:01 AM EST
Filed Under: Doctor Who
Source: SFFGazette.com

Shortly after the release of George Lucas' Star Wars prequels, the filmmaker planned to bring the franchise to the small screen with the Star Wars: Underworld TV series.

Intended to explore the criminal elements of the Star Wars Galaxy and delve into darker, more gritty aspects of the universe, the idea was for the story to take place between the events of Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, bridging the gap between the prequel and original trilogies.

Fans were positively thrilled to hear Star Wars might be coming to television, but the project faced numerous challenges, including high production costs which led to it being put on hold. No episodes were produced, though it's widely believed that as many as 50 scripts were written. 

Lucasfilm has since been acquired by Disney and those are buried somewhere deep within the studio's headquarters. 

In Russell T Davies and Benjamin Cook's book, Doctor Who - The Writer's Tale: The Final Chapter (a must-read for any Whovian), Davies - who was in charge of the BBC series between 2005 to 2010 and again from 2023 - revealed he'd been contacted by Lucas about Star Wars: Underworld in 2007.

"The other day (I didn't tell you this), my agent got a call from George Lucas' people," he said in an email to Cook (via SFFGazette.com). "Apparently, Lucas is in London and he wants to meet me about writing for his new Star Wars TV series! But I said no. Well, I can't go to London, I haven't the time, and Lucas didn't exactly beat a path to Cardiff, so he can't be that interested."

"Mind you, they really want a UK writer, apparently. When I find out who it is, I won't be so snooty; I'll just be jealous."

In a later exchange, Davies added, "I do wonder - to be sort of snotty about it, I suppose - whether I'm coarsening myself, when I go back to regular drama, it'll be like starting again from scratch. That's why I turned down the opportunity to meet George Lucas the other day."

"The thought of more years typing 'INT. SPACESHIP' and playing with other people's toys...I mean, no matter how much I love Doctor Who, it's not mine. I didn't create this show. Ah well. Lucas might not have liked me anyway. And I can always tell people that I turned him down."

Lucas wanted top-tier talent for Star Wars: Underworld and clearly felt Russell was a good fit for telling stories in a Galaxy Far, Far Away after his critically acclaimed work on Doctor Who. It was around the time of these emails the writer was preparing to bid farewell to the Time Lord, though, and that fear of forever being tied to sci-fi is what led to him declining Lucas' invitation. 

Star Wars: Underworld never got made, anyway, and the first series based on the franchise ended up being The Mandalorian in 2019. Last year, Davies revealed that he'd also turned down a Marvel Studios TV show set in the UK. 

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Twenty23Three
Twenty23Three - 1/9/2024, 7:26 AM
If they actually did a gritty, underworld in the Star Wars universe show. With no Jedi, or recognised characters popping up every couple episodes, I’d maybe watch some Star Wars again. With that said, RTD is the completely wrong choice for anything like that.
Apophis71
Apophis71 - 1/9/2024, 8:22 AM
@Twenty23Three - I mean I guess you are basing that entirely on Dr Who but he was also behind the launch of Torchwood and outside of that wrote the script for the RL based political drama 'A very English Scandal', a TV movie adaption of a Midsummer nights dream, the Casanova TV series, the modern day set 'The second coming' religion based drama, the crime series 'Touching Evil' and of course 'Queer as folk' all of which gained a lot of praise and awards just to name a few.

As such for an episode or two of a Star Wars based show with his full portfolio there are potentialy great things he could do in regard to a gritty underworld thing. As a show runner maybe not but pitching a couple first draft scripts to the pile don't see a problem. However this is kind of a non-story as he was fully commited to his dream job from childhood as lead for Dr Who so understandable why he wouldn't want to take time out if busy to potentialy be enticed to walk away from that before he was at a place of already considering moving on from it.
Twenty23Three
Twenty23Three - 1/9/2024, 8:45 AM
@Apophis71 - I didn’t mean for my comment to be a knock on his abilities as a writer at all but I've always felt that RTD always does the human side of Doctor Who better than the space fantasy side, which is why his other dramas are so good. I’m just not entirely sure if he’d do as good a job with a different a fantasy series like Star Wars
Apophis71
Apophis71 - 1/9/2024, 10:04 AM
@Twenty23Three - Which is why, being even handed, if talking as a Star Wars show runner I can see your view of being the wrong choice but if talking a couple episodes where potentialy the focus is more on the human side of stuff whilst others delve more into the space fantasy side he could bring a lot to the table. No expert but from what I've seen in the past there is more oft than not multiple writers involved when it gets to final draft for American TV episodes.
Nightwing1015
Nightwing1015 - 1/9/2024, 7:59 AM
I honestly wish they would make this show now using those untouched Lucas-approved scripts. Seems like such a waste not to
ObserverIO
ObserverIO - 1/9/2024, 10:00 AM
Let Lucas Do Star Wars.
Se4M4NSt4ine
Se4M4NSt4ine - 1/9/2024, 12:28 PM
Thank god.
marvel72
marvel72 - 1/9/2024, 1:03 PM
Could have made LGBTQ a number of a droid.

NinnesMBC
NinnesMBC - 1/9/2024, 11:33 PM
Sounds like he is intimidated by the scope of Star Wars. Or maybe he just didn't want to deal with the toxic fanbase, which I think it'd be a reasonable excuse.

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