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 the staggering cost behind the cancelled Star Wars: Underworld series: a jaw-dropping $40 million per episode. This exorbitant budget, he explained on the Young Indy Chronicles podcast, stemmed from episodes exceeding the scale of the feature films. Even with the technology available at the time, the minimum cost remained at $40 million per episode, ultimately leading to the project's demise. McCallum described the failure to bring Underworld to fruition as "one of the great disappointments of our lives."

With 60 third-draft scripts penned by "the most wonderful writers in the world," showcasing a "sexy, violent, dark, challenging, complicated, and wonderful" vision of the Star Wars universe, the budget proved insurmountable. The estimated cost easily soared past $1 billion, a sum even George Lucas couldn't secure in the early 2000s. McCallum suggested the series' ambitious scope would have fundamentally altered the Star Wars landscape, potentially preventing Disney's later acquisition of the franchise. Disney's subsequent acquisition of Lucasfilm and Lucas's departure effectively sealed the project's fate.

While McCallum remained tight-lipped on plot specifics, fan speculation has long centered on the series bridging the gap between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. He previously indicated an entirely new cast, a significant expansion of the Star Wars universe, and a target audience of adults, rather than children and teens.

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