Seth Green On Why Star Wars: Detours Took A Detour Into Limbo
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Last August at Star Wars Celebration VI in Orlando, Florida, Robot Chicken creators Seth Green & Matthew Senreich announced that they were creating a new animated series called Star Wars: Detours. The show was going to be a tongue-and-cheek and humorous approach to “a galaxy far, far away.” That announcement was made two months before a much bigger one: Disney’s acquisition of Lucasfilm, after which Disney promptly put all existing Star Wars properties and spin-offs such as The Clone Wars and Star Wars: 1313 on hiatus until they could figure out what to do next. Unfortunately, Star Wars: Detours did not make the cut in the new era of the Disney-owned Lucasfilm.
So what became of Star Wars: Detours? Seth Green recently participated in a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) where he answered fans’ questions about his projects and his career. Detours was a subject fans were curious about. Apparently, there are many episodes and scripts completed and ready for viewers to watch. The only questions are where, when, and if they’ll eventually be able to watch the animated series. Green says:
So there’s actually been quite a bit of talk about this, but Detours is just on hold currently. We have 39 finished episodes and around 62 finished scripts. But that entire show was created before the decision to make more Star Wars movies, so our show (which was created by George Lucas) is an animated sitcom in the world of Star Wars, so we had a lot of conversations with Kathleen Kennedy about Star Wars in not just the next 3 years but the next 30 years, and when you’re in as privileged a position as we were to be able to work on Star Wars content with its creator, you get a great sense of responsibility to the whole.
I was introduced to Star Wars as a child and it was without any ironic or comedic lens, so I saw Darth Vader as scary, and I saw all of those messages very very clearly. We didn’t think it made any sense, in anticipation of these new movies coming out, to spend the next 3 years with an animated sitcom as 3 generations’ of kids first introduction to the Star Wars universe.
While it was on the air, Star Wars: The Clone Wars aired on the Warner Bros. owned Cartoon Network, which was where fans thought Detours would land. After the Disney acquisition, it was believed that those animated series would find a new home on Disney XD. Sadly, they were scrapped to make way for new series and spin-offs. Seth Green would like something like Detours to appear on the Internet streaming service Netflix one day, which tangentially has a deal with Disney to stream their movies and TV shows. Green continues:
I do feel that Detours is a timeless bit of entertainment. Media distribution is changing so quickly, so dramatically, that can you even imagine what distribution of content will look like in 5 years?
In a day and age when Netflix series are nominated for the top accolades TV has to offer, what is to say what it will look like when the new Star Wars movie comes out? So Detours can sit on a shelf until the Star Wars movie comes out without losing any of its [luster], because what we’ve created is very funny, very smart and like I said before, timeless.
Disney is currently developing the new Star Wars: Rebels animated series for Disney XD. The series takes place between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope in the Star Wars timeline and would follow a small band of teenagers who eventually help form the Rebel Alliance. A majority of the creative team from Clone Wars are also working on Rebels, including producers and animator Dave Filoni. Disney and Lucasfilm are planning to launch Rebels sometime in 2014.
