ABC President Channing Dungey attends the 2016 ESSENCE Black Women In Hollywood awards luncheon at the Beverly Wilshire Four Seasons Hotel on Feb. 25, 2016 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo : Getty Images/ Earl Gibson III)
A new live-action "Star Wars" television series has been in rumored even before Disney acquired Lucasfilm. ABC President Channing Dungey has now addressed speculations about a show launching on ABC in which she confirmed a show may happen but not right now.
Dungey did state during last summer's Television Critics Association panel that there was a possibility of a "Star Wars" series launching on ABC. This started a rumor-mill that a series was already in development.
Those rumors were blown out of proportion, she explained in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. That being said, the doors were open for such a show to be made and that they had discussions with Lucasfilm regarding the possibility.
"We have had some conversations in general about wanting to find a way to bring something from the Lucas 'Star Wars' Universe to ABC, but that's far into the future," she stated. "The focus at the moment for Lucas is on the current stuff that they're doing on the film side and then, of course, they do have the stuff that they are doing on Disney XD."
The series currently on Disney XD is "Star Wars Rebels," an animated series set before "Star Wars: A New Hope." The films Dungey mentioned include the main entries like "Star Wars Episode VIII" and the anthology spin-off films like "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" and the upcoming "Han Solo" movie.
Script for episodes of a live-action series did surface last year, Gamespot reported. Lucasfilm producer Rick McCallum had at least 50 scripts written by writers such as Ron Moore, famous for his contributions for "Battlestar Galactica." This series was eventually canceled because it was reportedly too expensive.
HBO was also offered the show but they turned it down due to small ownership stake. If HBO were to accept they would have to split the ownership rights with Disney, which owns both ABC and Lucasfilm.
The midseason trailer for "Star Wars Rebels" Season 3, the current television series from Disney XD and Lucasfilm, can be viewed below:
