A six-minute episode of the animated Star Wars show Star Wars Detours has been leaked online. The CG-animated series from Lucasfilm Animation was announced in mid-2012 but postponed the next year to focus on a sequel trilogy, and has never made it to air.
Made in collaboration with Robot Chicken creators Seth Green and Matthew Senreich, Star Wars Detours was intended as a parodic comedy, focusing on the lives of ordinary citizens living in the Star Wars universe between the events of Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. While executives hoped at the time to capitalize on the popularity of Star Wars parodies on shows like Family Guy and attract a new generation of fans, the sale of Lucasfilm to Disney meant a new trilogy was on the way, and the powers that be decided the strategy no longer made sense. They shelved the series despite having at least 39 finished episodes, according to Green, and many considered the project officially cancelled. Lucasfilm did file a new trademark for it in 2018, but no plans to revive or release the show were announced.
Now, Star Wars fans can get their first glimpse at the content kept locked away for almost a decade - episodes are divided into three six-minute segments, and a full segment called "Dog Day Afternoon" has been leaked to features cameos from Lando Calrissian (voiced by original actor Billy Dee Williams) and Boba Fett, a diner waitress with the voice of The Last Airbender's Azula (Grey Griffin), and, for better or worse, a sizeable dose of Jar Jar Binks. Yankovic took to Twitter to share his excitement at the episode seeing the light of day, regardless of how it surfaced.
A small slice of what was fully created but left unaired, "Dog Day Afternoon" is enough to get a feel for the tone of Star Wars Detours, though it only scratches the surface of the creative talent involved. Past credits in the writers' room included The Simpsons, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Family Guy, and Battlestar Galactica. Elsewhere in the series, Anthony Daniels returns as C-3PO, while Obi-Wan, Leia, and Palpatine receive voices from Green, Catherine Taber of The Clone Wars, and Seth McFarlane. After speculation that the show might be released to Disney+ at some point, Green expressed his doubts in a 2019 interview, acknowledging that Detours doesn't really fit into Disney's current plan for the franchise.
In that same interview, Green did it the only way he saw the show being released was if enough fans wanted it, and a leak like this is exactly the kind of thing that could create demand. With its mix of characters and settings, Star Wars Detours clearly caters to lovers of both the original and prequel trilogies, ittedly in a very different way to, say, The Mandalorian. However, it's unclear if the new generation of fans built around the latest movies would be interested, and their voices might be needed for a successful call to release the series. Of course, that's all assuming this leaked segment is enough to create that demand, which isn't necessarily a given - Green is right when he says the Star Wars franchise has not embraced parodic comedy alongside its sincere characterizations, and the tone of "Dog Day Afternoon" could be too jarring for many. Only time will tell if audiences liked what they saw enough to want more.
Source: Reddit