Star Wars Hits TV For The Next Go-Round

Star Wars geeks, get out your typewriters: George Lucas is looking for writers for a planned TV series about the famed galaxy far, far away. According to “multiple sources” who spoke to Entertainment Weekly, Lucas is coming to Los Angeles next week to meet with “writers of real significance,” and plans to bring the chosen ones to Skywalker Ranch for a week to work on ideas for the series.

Plot details are unclear, but rumor has it that the series will take place in the time between episodes three and four, Darth Vader’s rise to power that Obi-Wan Kenobi refers to as “the dark years.” Lucas won’t be writing or directing any of the episodes, just producing and providing the money. For those of us critical of his clunky directorial hand, that’s music to our ears.

Call me crazy, but it seems like now is the time for a Star Wars series, more than ever. Look at the phenomenal success of sci-fi on television in the last few years. If Heroes can be a hit with its knockoff superheroes and simple heroic journey, think what Star Wars could be when it has the real thing? Granted, Luke Skywalker’s story has been told by now, but Lucas definitely has a sensibility for good, mythic stories, and a TV serial format might be the best way to bring it out. And for those of us who are still fuzzy on the details of the Star Wars universe—who is Darth Maul again?—a new series, with new characters, could be a fresh introduction to the world, and even more reason to go back and get the details from the first movies right.