Cancelled Series Star Wars: Underworld Was So Expensive, It Would've 'Blown Up' the Star Wars Universe

Rick McCallum, producer of the Star Wars prequels, recently revealed a heartbreaking truth about the cancelled Star Wars: Underworld series: its exorbitant cost. Each episode would have cost a staggering $40 million to produce, a figure that ultimately sealed its fate.

"The problem was that each episode was bigger than the films," McCallum explained 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 described the project's failure as "one of the great disappointments of our lives."

With 60 third-draft scripts already written, showcasing a "sexy, violent, dark, challenging, complicated, and wonderful" Star Wars universe penned by top-tier writers, the budget proved insurmountable. Even at the early 2000s, the estimated cost of $2.4 billion (60 scripts x $40 million/episode) was far beyond reach, even for George Lucas.

McCallum noted that the series' ambitious scale would have dramatically altered the Star Wars landscape, possibly even preventing Disney from acquiring the franchise. The project's cancellation followed Disney's acquisition of Lucasfilm and Lucas' subsequent departure.

While McCallum remained tight-lipped on plot specifics, fan speculation points to the series bridging the gap between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. Previous statements indicated a fresh cast of characters, significant expansion of the Star Wars universe, and a target audience of adults, rather than children and teens.

First announced at Star Wars Celebration in 2005, and with test footage surfacing in 2020, Star Wars: Underworld remains a tantalizing "what if?" Sadly, it seems unlikely we'll ever see this ambitious vision realized.