At D23 Star Wars unveiled several new trailers to heighten the anticipation for the Andor and Jedi Animated. While it's great that the saga continues to expand, along the way many spin-offs, games, and films have also failed to come to fruition.
Since Disney's takeover, and even before when LucasFilm held the reins, they pulled the plug on many projects, to the consternation of some fans. But it's never too late to bring some of these ideas back to life, especially with the former EA game Ragtag back in development at Skydance Interactive.
Clone Wars Spinoff
The four episode arc of the Younglings in the fifth season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars was actually a backdoor pilot for a planned spinoff series. The series would have followed the younglings established from the story arc and also would have seen the return of David Tennant as Huyang, the Jedi instructor droid.
This project was the last to be worked on by George Lucas before the Lucasfilm-Disney merger. Lucasfilm Story Group Head Pablo Hidalgo later revealed, per CinemaBlend, that the project was scrapped to focus on further seasons of Clone Wars.
Star Wars: Battlefront III
After Pandemic Studios worked on the first two attlefront games, which were wildly popular. LucasArts went in a different direction for the third installment, instead opting to work with developer Free Radical Design instead.
The game would have introduced seemless ground-to-space combat through the use of ships and large, open maps. Battlefront III also had an original campaign following two force-sensitive clones named X1 and X2. Following the game's cancellation, all that was left over was used to create the portable game Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron.
Wookiee Film
After the unprecedented success of A New Hope in 1977, George Lucas envisioned a major expansion of the Star Wars saga with four trilogies and spinoff films. One of which was a project completely centered on Wookiees.
The project would have been released in 1980. Speaking about the project, via Den of Geek, Lucas said "When I got to working on the Wookiee, I thought of a film just about Wookiees, nothing else." The film would have taken place entirely on Kashyyyk. Following the project's cancellation, many of the ideas were loosely folded into The Star Wars Holiday Special.
Star Wars: Detours
The brain-child of George Lucas and the creative team behind Robot Chicken, Seth Green and Matthew Senreich, Star Wars: Detours was somewhat of an off-shoot of the Robot Chicken: Star Wars specials as the series would have featured sketches with much of the same voice actors from the former series.
With 39 fully animated and finished episodes, it's a shame Disney still refuses to release them. As a studio that loves to have a consistent flow of content on Disney+, Detours would be perfect as it's fuly completed and there is a large audience waiting to see new Star Wars projects.
Star Wars: Episode VII - Shadows of the Sith
Perhaps the most interesting project on this list, Shadows of the Sith was a video game that was meant to serve as a continuation of the Star Wars saga. The game would have had the player playing as Ben Skywalker, the son of Luke as he faces off against Darth Caedus, the son of Han Solo and Princess Leia.
The game was headlined by Haden Blackman, who would become known for his work directing The Force Unleashed games. Mara Jade also would have appeared with much of the game taking place in the same continuity of the Expanded Universe. The game had been in development for a number of years but was sadly scrapped following Blackman's exit from LucasArts in 2010.
Zack Snyder's Star Wars Project
Following the conclusion of the prequel trilogy in 2005, there would not be another Star Wars film until 2015 with The Force Awakens. During the period before the Disney purchase, Zack Snyder pitched a project to Lucasfilm that would have brought the series back to its basics with a heavy Kurosawa influence.
Regarding the film, Snyder noted "At that time, there was no Star Wars. Star Wars wasn't really... it was the middle time. It was right after they had done the prequels and before the sale [to Disney]. I just was like, 'You know what? I could fix that" (via DigitalSpy). He also stated he'd still love to make a Star Wars film, mentioning "11-year-old me still wants to make that, now I just know how to, so maybe we'll see that someday."
R2-D2 & C-3PO Film
George Lucas confirmed in 1980 that he was working on a Droids-based film, remarking "as I was writing, I came up with some ideas for a film about robots, with no humans in it" (via Den of Geek). Following no interest from 20th Century Fox, Lucas no longer mentioned the prospect of this film happening after 1981.
While a solo film adventure with R2 and 3PO never happened, the animated series Star Wars: Droids was released in 1985 but now over 40 years later, the Disney+ film A Droid Story will follow a new adventure featuring the two iconic droids.
Fourth Trilogy
For the longest time, George Lucas always envisioned the Star Wars saga as 12 movies in four trilogies. From the beginning, Lucas always wanted to create the prequel trilogy to explain the state of the galaxy by the time of the original trilogy. But for a time, there were plans to not even feature Luke facing off Emperor Palpatine until Episode IX.
Mark Hamill recalled, via StarWars.com, "You know, when I first did this, it was four trilogies. Twelve movies! Out on the desert, any time between setups… lots of free time. And George was talking about this whole thing… ‘Um, how’d you like to be in Episode IX?’ ‘When is that going to be?’ ‘2011.’ […] I said, ‘Well, what do you want me to do?’ He said, ‘You’ll just be like a cameo. You’ll be like Obi-Wan handing the lightsaber down to the next new hope.'" While fans will never be able to see what a fourth trilogy from Lucas could be like, it would have been interesting if the original plan moved forward instead.
Star Wars: Underworld
Easily the most unfortunate project to be shelved, Underworld would have offered a new style of storytelling for Star Wars, in the form of an anthology series. During development of the series, George Lucas envisioned movie-level budget for the television series. Due to the hefty price the show required, many networks ed on, leaving the series in limbo for a while. Despite this, work continued.
With over 100 episodes planned, 50 scripts were completely finished. Following the Disney merger, the project was officially scrapped but Kathleen Kennedy later remarked "it's something we're spending a lot of time looking at, poring through, discussing, and we may very well develop those things further. We definitely want to" (via SlashFilm)
Knights of the Old Republic III
The Old Republic remains a fan-favorite era of the Star Wars saga with many clamoring for Lucasfilm to create more projects set in the era. With the release of the Knights of the Old Republic Remake, there's a lot of excitement over these characters potentially returning to canon. Following two games, a sequel was planned and began development.
The game was sadly cancelled due to budget cuts. The game would have featured new planets such as Rodia, Mandalore and Coruscant. According to designer John Stafford "the team wrote a story, designed most of the environments/worlds, and many of the quests, characters, and items" (Rogue Leaders, 202).
