Star Wars Live-Action Television Show Rumors

The rumor mill is churning once again! This time, though, Jordan Maison from Cinelinx and Jason Ward from Making Star Wars are in agreement: a Star Wars live-action television show is in the works!

According to Ward’s source, Disney is planning on creating a live-action Star Wars series in the style of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., which airs on ABC. (Ward assumes that his source does not mean that the premise will be the same as the Marvel show. My guess is, the two will be similar in that they will both have expanded out of a film franchise).

The idea of ABC bringing Star Wars to television in a format other than cartoon animation is actually not a new one. Back in 2013, Entertainment Weekly reported that the president of ABC entertainment, Paul Lee, was going to look into doing a live-action Star Wars series.

"“We’d love to do something with Lucasfilm, we’re not sure what yet. We’re going to look at [the live-action series], we’re going to look at all of them, and see what’s right. We weren’t able to discuss this with them until [the acquisition] closed and it just closed. It’s definitely going to be part of the conversation.”"

Lee compared such a project with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., saying,

"“We got to a point here with Marvel, a very special point, where we’re in the Marvel universe, and very relevantly so, but we’re not doing The Avengers. But S.H.I.E.L.D. is part of The Avengers. So maybe something oblique is the way to [approach the Star Wars universe] rather than going straight head-on at it.”"

But don’t expect to see live-action Star Wars weekly on your cable network for some time yet. The word from Cinelinx is that the show will be shot at Pinewood Studios in London, where The Force Awakens was filmed and where any future Star Wars movies are expected to be filmed, as well. The problem is, the show can’t be put into serious production until it’s known how long they can shoot between movies. Once that happens, though, says Maison, budgeting can begin and the show can finally start to take off.

Despite the wait, the reasoning behind shooting at Pinewood is smart. There, the show will be able to utilize sets that are leftover from the films, thereby saving money and also keeping an ongoing continuity with regards to the look and feel of Star Wars onscreen.

I’m not sure how I feel about a live-action Star Wars show. As long as they have quality acting and storytelling, I guess I’d be open to it. And with the story group handling all of the new canon, the storytelling part may be almost a guarantee.

But no matter what happens with those two elements of the show, at least the sets will be great!

Tell us what you think about this new development! Sound off in the comments below or tweet us, @dorksideoforce.