"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 whopping $40 million per episode to make — effectively dooming it to be axed for budget reasons.

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

Rank The Star Wars Movies and TV Shows

With 60 “third draft” scripts written that showcased the Star Wars universe in “sexy, violent, dark, challenging, complicated, and wonderful” ways from “the most wonderful writers in the world,” it’s clear the budget was the true killer for this project. Multiplying 60 scripts by $40 million per episode easily pushes the total cost well into the $1 billion mark — a figure that even George Lucas couldn’t manage back in the early 2000s.

McCallum added, “[It] would’ve blown up the whole Star Wars universe and Disney would’ve definitely never offered George to buy the franchise.” The series met its final fate once Disney took control of Lucasfilm and Lucas stepped aside.

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

Star Wars: Underworld was first unveiled at Star Wars Celebration back in 2005, and test footage from the series was leaked in 2020. Since then, however, that's all she wrote. Sadly, it looks as though it may just stay that way.