Lucasfilm has made another major announcement about the future of Star Wars. The company announced today that Jon Favreau, director of several acclaimed films including Elf (2003), Iron Man (2008), and the upcoming Lion King live action remake, will write and serve as executive producer on the first live action Star Wars series. The series will debut on the upcoming Disney streaming service that was announced last year. No release date for the untitled series has been announced.
Favreau said in a statement on StarWars.com,
"If you told me at 11 years old that I would be getting to tell stories in the Star Wars universe, I wouldn’t have believed you. I can’t wait to embark upon this exciting adventure."
Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy said about the announcement,
"I couldn’t be more excited about Jon coming on board to produce and
write for the new direct-to-consumer platform. Jon brings the perfect mix of producing and writing
talent, combined with a fluency in the Star Wars universe. This
series will allow Jon the chance to work with a diverse group of
writers and directors and give Lucasfilm the opportunity to build a
robust talent base."
Favreau has previously contributed to the Star Wars galaxy as a voice actor, portraying the Mandalorian warlord Pre Vizsla on the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars. He can also be heard lending his voice to another character in the upcoming film Solo: A Star Wars Story.
The series will be the first time live action Star Wars has been produced for television since the infamous Ewok adventure films in the late eighties. Towards the end of his career, Star Wars creator George Lucas had pushed to get a live action Star Wars series made, even going as far as to commission fifty scripts for a series that was never produced. Lucas' series, which may or may not have had the working title "Star Wars: Underworld" (for the record, we had the name first!), would have taken place between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope been set in the criminal underworld of the galaxy. The series was ultimately shelved prior to Lucas selling his Lucasfilm to Disney in 2012.
It seems unlikely that Favreau's show will bear any resemblance to the one Lucas was working on, although Lucasfilm still owns those scripts so anything is possible. It is far more likely that Favreau is developing something original. The Disney Streaming service is not slated to launch until next year, which makes 2019 the earliest we'll see what Favreau and Lucasfilm have in store.
Follow The Star Wars Underworld on Twitter @TheSWU for more updates about this story and other breaking Star Wars news.
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