"Star Wars: Underworld Cancellation Due to High Costs"

I’m not gonna lie: this one stings. Star Wars prequels producer Rick McCallum recently revealed that the legendary cancelled series, Star Wars: Underworld, would’ve cost a staggering $40 million per episode to produce. This astronomical budget ultimately led to its cancellation.

“The problem was that each episode was bigger than the films,” McCallum explained during an interview on the Young Indy Chronicles podcast. “So the lowest I could get it down to with the tech that existed then was $40 million an episode.” He added that the inability to successfully realize the project over the years remains “one of the great disappointments of our lives.”

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With 60 “third draft” scripts completed, showcasing the Star Wars universe in “sexy, violent, dark, challenging, complicated, and wonderful” ways from “the most wonderful writers in the world,” it seems the budget was the true killer in the crib for this project. At $40 million per episode, the total cost for all 60 episodes would have exceeded $2.4 billion — a sum that even George Lucas couldn’t finance in the early 2000s.

“[It] would’ve blown up the whole Star Wars universe and Disney would’ve definitely never offered George to buy the franchise,” McCallum noted. The series was ultimately cancelled when Disney acquired Lucasfilm and Lucas stepped down.

Though McCallum did not confirm any plot details during the interview, fans have long speculated that the series would explore the events between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. The producer had previously shared that the series would introduce a new cast of characters, significantly expand the Star Wars universe, and target an adult audience rather than teens and children.

Star Wars: Underworld was first announced at Star Wars Celebration in 2005, and test footage from the series was leaked in 2020. Unfortunately, it appears the project may remain unrealized.