Summary
- Despite cancelations, unmade Star Wars projects showcase the franchise's potential for deeper storytelling and exploration of key characters.
- Various canceled projects like Splinter of the Mind's Eye and the Original Star Wars Prequels reveal the alternate paths the franchise might have taken.
- Star Wars' future remains bright, with new TV shows, books, comics, and movies expanding the universe beyond the Skywalker Saga's conclusion in 2019.
The Star Wars movies.
However, with the expansion of a franchise being spearheaded by a studio as large as Disney comes many ideas of how Star Wars should move forward. Many concepts over the years have not made it past the early stages of development for one reason or another. Whether a change in writers and directors, lack of interest from the audience, or the studio changing its mind, many unmade and canceled Star Wars projects exist across both TV and film. 14 Star Wars projects never saw the light of day or were reworked into newly-announced movies and Star Wars TV shows.
Star Wars: 10 Canceled Projects That Could Have Been Great
The Star Wars Saga is one of the biggest franchises in the world but it could have been bigger had any of these projects came to fruition.
14) Splinter Of The Mind’s Eye
Canceled by 1978
At one point, George Lucas wasn’t sure of how audiences would react to Star Wars, so he had a backup plan if the film turned out to be a major flop. Author Alan Dean Foster was brought in to write the novelization of the first Star Wars movie and a second book titled Splinter of the Mind’s Eye. This was done so that Lucas could adapt this story as a low-budget sequel should the initial Star Wars fail to spawn a franchise.
Ultimately, Star Wars was a massive hit, the franchise exploded, and Splinter of the Mind’s Eye stayed as a novel. The story centered on Luke and Leia on a planet called Mimban as they search for the Kaiburr crystal. This was a relic that supposedly enhanced the Force powers of the Jedi. Eventually, Star Wars transitioned this to the kyber crystal, the substance responsible for weaponry like the Jedi lightsabers and the Death Star.
13) The Original Star Wars Prequels
Canceled by 1981
Producer Gary Kurtz has shared that Lucas had plans for a prequel trilogy before the original trilogy was completed. Speaking to IGN in 2002, Kurtz shared the basic idea Lucas had for the prequels. Apparently, Lucas intended for the three Star Wars prequel films to deal “...with the Clone Wars and the formation of the Jedi Knights”. In the end, Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace revealed that the Jedi Order was an already established, centuries-old organization.
Similar to Lucas’ original sequel plans, these ideas for the prequels also changed for several reasons. One of these was the difficulty and stress that came with finalizing the original trilogy, which initially put an end to all prequel plans. Likewise, the technical advances in CGI filmmaking in the early 1990s allowed Lucas to bring something much bigger to the big screen, calling for revisions to the initial plans Star Wars’ creator had for any prior prequel ideas.
12) Star Wars: Underworld
Canceled in 2010
At Star Wars Celebration in 2005, plans for a TV series set between the original and prequel Star Wars trilogy were announced. After many years of development, the series received the working title of Star Wars: Underworld and focused on the seedy, grittier aspects of the Star Wars franchise. The series was set to center around the criminal and political struggles of the galaxy in the period as the Empire was attempting to grasp control of the galaxy, with characters like Han Solo, Palpatine, Boba Fett, and Lando Calrissian to name a few set to appear.
As late as 2012, over 100 episodes of Star Wars: Underworld had been planned out before the realization that the series was far too expensive to produce. After Disney took control of the Star Wars franchise, Kathleen Kennedy stated that the scripts that had been written were always under review by Lucasfilm, with some elements making it into future Disney stories. The concept for Rogue One was one of the planned episodes of Star Wars: Underworld, as was the story of Han winning the Falcon from Lando seen in Solo.
11) George Lucas’ Episodes VII, VIII, & IX
Canceled by 2012
Even before the original trilogy was completed, George Lucas had plans for multiple Star Wars trilogies. By the time The Empire Strikes Back was released in 1980, he already had the story treatments for nine episodes. As per many rumors, Episode VII would have continued Luke’s journey as a Jedi, Episode VIII would have introduced his sister (who was not Leia at that point), and the final episode would have introduced the Emperor and featured Luke’s final battle against him. It would also have dealt with the rebuilding of the Republic and would have given Luke a romantic partner.
However, as was made clear by the events of Return of the Jedi, many of these elements were ultimately scrapped or incorporated into 1983’s final film in the Star Wars original trilogy. From Luke becoming a Jedi Knight to the presence of his sister Leia and the Emperor’s final confrontation with Luke, Return of the Jedi was used as a finale for Lucas’ original story outline. While Lucas insisted during the prequels' production that there was no intention of creating a Star Wars sequel trilogy, this changed once he left the franchise in Disney’s hands.
Luke would have worked with 50 to 100 Jedi survivors to rebuild the Order, while Leia would have become the leader of the New Republic.
Lucas later revealed his sequel trilogy plans he had developed before Disney bought the franchise. His trilogy would have been about the galaxy descending into chaos following the collapse of the Empire, with a resurrected Darth Maul leading a crime syndicate. Luke would have worked with 50 to 100 Jedi survivors to rebuild the Order, while Leia would have become the leader of the New Republic. Lucas also planned to build off midi-chlorians from the prequel trilogy by diving into the microbiotic world of the Force and finally explaining what the Whills were.
Some other plans Lucas had over the years were Leia being elected “Queen of her people”, Han Solo’s death, Luke living alone after what happened between him and Darth Vader, Luke training Leia in the ways of the Force, and Luke’s death. It is interesting that many of these elements still made it into Disney’s eventual sequel trilogy; Han Solo died in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Luke lived in exile after what transpired with Kylo Ren and was also killed in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker had Leia briefly train as a Jedi.
10) Colin Trevorrow’s Episode IX - Star Wars: Duel Of The Fates
Canceled in 2017
In August 2015, Disney announced that Colin Trevorrow had ed Star Wars: Episode IX as director. However, the filmmaker dropped out of the project in August 2017, citing creative differences as the reason for his departure, which was later reported to be due to Trevorrow’s failure to deliver a satisfactory script. After the culmination of the Skywalker Saga, Trevorrow’s script for what would have been Star Wars: Duel of the Fates leaked, meaning fans got an idea of what his version of Episode IX would have been like.
Among the elements fans would have seen in Trevorrow’s version of Star Wars 9 was the concept of the First Order cutting off all communications between planets in the galaxy. The core conflict of the film would then have been the Resistance fighting to rectify this and free the galaxy from the First Order’s oppression by attacking the organization's main base on Coruscant. Part of this fight by the Resistance involved Finn forming an army of defective Stormtroopers while Rey searches for the planet of Mortis to confront Kylo once and for all.
After Snoke died in The Last Jedi, Kylo Ren would have served as the sequels' main villain and be revealed as the murderer of Rey’s parents. Palpatine would have been mentioned but not revived as was the case with The Rise of Skywalker. Rey eventually defeats Kylo but is blinded in the process, leading Kylo to transfer his life energy to Rey after speaking with Leia. This would have saved Rey’s life and led to her taking the name Rey Solana. Rey would then rebuild the Jedi Order using a combination of the light and dark sides of the Force.
From the sounds of things, Trevorrow’s movie would have been a proper continuation of Rian Johnson’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi. From keeping Kylo as the series’ main villain and delving into elements of the prequels through Coruscant and Mortis to keeping Rey as someone with no special heritage, it seems like the story of the sequels would have been less jarring based on Trevorrow’s initial script. This is something that can only be somewhat argued for J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, which frustratingly both reverts and continues elements of the divisive Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
9) Boba Fett's Solo Star Wars Movie
Canceled by 2018
After the production of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, the Star Wars anthology movies were set to continue. However, after the commercial failure of Solo: A Star Wars Story, the idea for more anthologies was rethought by Lucasfilm, including a Boba Fett solo film. This project was announced in 2013 with Josh Trank ing as director in 2014. Not long after this, Trank left the project due to creative differences. It has since been revealed that Trank left knowing he was going to be fired, as Disney had caught wind of his poorly constructed reboot of the Fantastic Four.
The studio tried to save the project by bringing James Mangold in as writer and director, but by October 2018, the movie had been canceled. This led to the refocusing of Star Wars through Disney+ and the production of The Mandalorian, something that has retroactively benefited the character of Boba Fett. A spin-off of The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, continued the titular bounty hunter's journey after Return of the Jedi with hopes the character will continue to be part of the New Republic era of Star Wars.
8) Mos Eisley Spaceport Movie
Canceled by 2018
Back in 2018, there were various reports of a Mos Eisley movie being part of the planned anthology movies. However, as all plans for this branch of the Star Wars universe were canceled, the Mos Eisley movie did not evolve beyond whispers and rumors. It was even reported that Lucasfilm had reserved time at Pinewood Studios to start working on an “unannounced” project, believed to be the one about Mos Eisley that was scrapped after the unfortunate failure of Solo: A Star Wars Story.
7) Guillermo del Toro's The Rise & Fall Of Jabba The Hutt
Canceled between 2017 and 2019
In September 2023, auteur filmmaker Guillermo del Toro confirmed via his Twitter/X that he was in talks to direct a Star Wars movie around 2017 from a script by David Goyer:
As it turns out, del Toro's later interview with Collider's Steven Weintraub led to the confirmation that the "J" and "BB" hinted at the so-called "The Rise and Fall of Jabba The Hutt" movie. Del Toro would have been in charge of a story centering on the notorious Star Wars crime boss and how he rose to power before subsequently losing it.
Del Toro confirmed that the primary reason for the movie not entering production was Lucasfilm's decision not to run with the script. Del Toro stated "It's not my property, it's not my money. It's one of those 30 screenplays that goes away, you know?" After the above post from del Toro, screenwriter David Goyer appeared on the Happy Sad Confused podcast and further outlined why the project did not come to : "It was just a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff going on at Lucasfilm at the time, but it's a cool script."
6) David Benioff & D.B. Weiss’ Star Wars Trilogy
Canceled by 2019
Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss ed the Star Wars universe in 2018. As per initial reports, the filmmakers were hired to produce and write a new trilogy separate from the Skywalker Saga. Reportedly, the films by Benioff and Weiss would have been set either in the far future or the distant past, though no more details about the story were revealed due to the film’s premature cancelation.
In October 2019, Benioff and Weiss dropped out due to their commitment to Netflix as they signed an overall deal to write, produce, and direct a new TV series and several films for the streaming giant. However, many believed it was the overwhelmingly disappointing ending the duo produced for Game of Thrones that saw them fall out of favor with the higher-ups at Lucasfilm. While these are just rumors, Benioff and Weiss have produced little of note since Game of Thrones ended, including their initially planned Star Wars series.
5) Rangers Of The New Republic
Canceled in 2021
Another canceled show from the Star Wars franchise is more recent: Rangers of the New Republic. Initially announced in 2020 as a spin-off to The Mandalorian, the show was rumored to focus on Cara Dune as a new inductee into the New Republic investigating the emergence of Imperial remnants in the Outer Rim. However, after the firing of Gina Carano from Lucasfilm, the series stalled. Since then, elements of Rangers of the New Republic were included in The Mandalorian season 3, with its spinoff film expected to fully replace the former with Din Djarin hunting down Imperial remnants.
Furthermore, Ahsoka seems to have set up more elements of Rangers of the New Republic being incorporated into other Star Wars projects. The journey of Hera Syndulla in the 2023 Disney+ show centered on her exploration of Imperial sympathizers within the New Republic and how the leaders responsible for the latter organization were turning a blind eye to the resurgence of the Empire. As such, many have assumed the future stories involving Hera and Carson Teva could tie into The Mandalorian & Grogu or a potential The Mandalorian season 4.
