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Rick McCallum appeared at Celebration Europe and gave an update on the live action series. In brief:

* One idea is that there will be multiple series running at the same time

* They're hoping for 400 (!) episodes

* McCallum and George Lucas have met with writers

* Conceptual work has been going on for seven months

* Casting to start in June next year

More can be found here.

Before anything else, let's be clear, it's "hoping for up to 400 episodes". Not "planning 400 episodes". :P

VT-16 wrote:Before anything else, let's be clear, it's "hoping for up to 400 episodes". Not "planning 400 episodes".

Yeah well if Trekkies are any indication, Warsies (The ones who will buy anything Star Wars) are gonna flock to this like the second coming. I'm sure 400 is going to be easily reachable.

havokeff wrote:

VT-16 wrote:Before anything else, let's be clear, it's "hoping for up to 400 episodes". Not "planning 400 episodes".

Yeah well if Trekkies are any indication, Warsies (The ones who will buy anything Star Wars) are gonna flock to this like the second coming. I'm sure 400 is going to be easily reachable.

Probably not. That's between 16 and 20 seasons based on typical episodes per year for American TV.

yes, but they are talking about multiple series running at the same time... so that increases the number of episodes faster. With 4 series on at the same time, they could reach that 400 mark in about 5 or so years.

Stormbringer wrote:

havokeff wrote:

VT-16 wrote:Before anything else, let's be clear, it's "hoping for up to 400 episodes". Not "planning 400 episodes".

Yeah well if Trekkies are any indication, Warsies (The ones who will buy anything Star Wars) are gonna flock to this like the second coming. I'm sure 400 is going to be easily reachable.

Probably not. That's between 16 and 20 seasons based on typical episodes per year for American TV.

Well DS9 averaged about 26 episodes a season, granted that was at the peak of Star Treks popularity. That works out to 182 episodes over 7 years. So 8 seasons would get you half way there.

Now if you look at Star Wars as a new television franchise like Paramount did with Star Trek, there is no reason to believe that Lucasfilm is not going to look to make spin offs to cover new popular characters or different time periods.

While the time period they are starting in is untouched and could be extremely interesting if done right, you have to remember, it is a period without Jedi. Darth Vader will be there, but he has already been slated as a back round menace IIRC. He may show up in an occasional cliff hanger, but so far as I know that is going to be it. So no Jedi and No Vader.

Star Wars has become, especially with the PT about Jedi. I definitely can imagine, three years after the series has run, having a spin off announced. "Star Wars: Jedi", or something like that. Or maybe Lucas gives a big fuck you to the EU and decides to do a series post ROTJ. Either way, as long as the original series is making ratings and money there will be spin offs.

I would also venture to say that the SW TV show is going to appeal to a wider audience than ST, since for some reason, it doesn't have the same nerd stigma that ST has and 1/16 the technobabble.

All of that said you are looking at at least one series that should do at least as well as TNG (7 years) and DS9 (7 years). Voyager sucked and they still got seven years out of it. Even Enterprise got 4 years.

Star Wars the TV show? It's gonna make 400 episodes

Do we have people who are so die-hard that they go for anything related to Star Wars with full approval? I seem to remember Enterprise only lasting because of the sheer number of die-hard fans who love anything ST just because it's ST.

Do we have people who are so die-hard that they go for anything related to Star Wars with full approval?

This is a rethorical question, right? :P

I'm sure with the combination of "wild west in outer space" and "world war II in outer space" it will hit home with more people than the "reverse the polarity of the triflux capacitator" crowd.

Of course it was. I may be a noob sometimes, but not that much of one.

As a quick bit of comparison The Simpsons just this last year finally hit the 400 mark and that was in season 18, eighteen!!! That's a LOOOONG run even for SW and the base popularity it has. Things like network support and continuity of character are damn difficult to maintain for that kind of lifespan even if you are factoring multiple spin-offs into the 400 episode total that is still eighteen seasons of television, just keeping one character for that long will be hellish let alone a core cast that the audience relates to. as far as live action goes the closest current one is Law and Order which still hasn't hit 400 yet.

I'll watch oh yes I'll watch but 400 is something that's realy out there in terms of achievement, a long shot goal for any series.

CmdrWilkens wrote:As a quick bit of comparison The Simpsons just this last year finally hit the 400 mark and that was in season 18, eighteen!!! That's a LOOOONG run even for SW and the base popularity it has. Things like network support and continuity of character are damn difficult to maintain for that kind of lifespan even if you are factoring multiple spin-offs into the 400 episode total that is still eighteen seasons of television, just keeping one character for that long will be hellish let alone a core cast that the audience relates to. as far as live action goes the closest current one is Law and Order which still hasn't hit 400 yet.

I'll watch oh yes I'll watch but 400 is something that's realy out there in terms of achievement, a long shot goal for any series.

As VT-16 pointed out, they're not actually planning for 400 episodes, but are hoping for 400 episodes. Also, McCallum said that there would be multiple series running at the same time.

EDIT: Or rather, an idea is for multiple series running at the same time.

Well, this certainly is awesome, especially if it turns out good.

There cannot be enough Star Wars, especially after such an ungodly wonderful movie like "Revenge of the Sith". I feel my faith in Lucasfilm reinstated (though I still want to burn the EU and execute Kevin Anderson with a firing squad of stormtroopers).

And since this will not deal with the Skywalker family, it won't be as restricted in story-telling like the Prequels were. There's no set restrictions on what can happen if the cast consist of unknown characters. Apart from the big galaxy-changing events that Luke and Co initiate.

My hope is that they will limit character-specific stories to a season or less.

CmdrWilkens wrote:As a quick bit of comparison The Simpsons just this last year finally hit the 400 mark and that was in season 18, eighteen!!! That's a LOOOONG run even for SW and the base popularity it has. Things like network support and continuity of character are damn difficult to maintain for that kind of lifespan even if you are factoring multiple spin-offs into the 400 episode total that is still eighteen seasons of television, just keeping one character for that long will be hellish let alone a core cast that the audience relates to. as far as live action goes the closest current one is Law and Order which still hasn't hit 400 yet.

I'll watch oh yes I'll watch but 400 is something that's realy out there in terms of achievement, a long shot goal for any series.

You do Know this is Star Wars right??
I really really don't believe that we have to worry about the fan base and the network support will be huge. (1/2 dozen networks still play all of the Star Trek series). I really don't think it will be a hard feat to accomplish to get to 400 with ~4 Series running at the same time

My prediction is it won't happen (this "400 episodes!" business). Come back in six years to say "yay" or "nay" but I think McCallum is a bag of hot air, personally.

Stas Bush wrote:Well, this certainly is awesome, especially if it turns out good.

There cannot be enough Star Wars, especially after such an ungodly wonderful movie like "Revenge of the Sith". I feel my faith in Lucasfilm reinstated (though I still want to burn the EU and execute Kevin Anderson with a firing squad of stormtroopers).

Why do I get the feeling that by flooding the viewers with several SW t.v. shows that it'll suffer the same fate as ST. How long will it take before the quality will slide and people wanting to take a break from SW?

The specials effects and visuals aside this series will be only as good as its writers. As long as there is a flowing continuity and no stupid resets or pointless technobabble, as long as the series has the authentic Star Wars feel it will be great.

The interesting thing is that they've literally gone around the world looking for writers. I hope this will bring an international flavor to SW, in tune with the various cultures it's already "borrowed" from.

VT-16 wrote:The interesting thing is that they've literally gone around the world looking for writers. I hope this will bring an international flavor to SW, in tune with the various cultures it's already "borrowed" from.

Yes, as a matter of fact, I was just thinking the other day that the SW EU has a surprising lack of non-American writers. Only Ms. Travissty and Dr. Saxton comes directly to mind and so it'll be interesting to see what comes out of the television project storywise.

Hmmm, I wonder how many EU authors will end up attached to this project--either as writers or story consultants?

metavac wrote:Hmmm, I wonder how many EU authors will end up attached to this project--either as writers or story consultants?

I'd be surprised if any EU author ended up in any of those capacities.

Mange wrote:Yes, as a matter of fact, I was just thinking the other day that the SW EU has a surprising lack of non-American writers. Only Ms. Travissty and Dr. Saxton comes directly to mind and so it'll be interesting to see what comes out of the television project storywise.

Going by this, the British Authors should be restricted to one book only (Hard Contact was rather decent) and the Aussies are in charge of Technical Books and parts of the story that includes technical specifications.

It could work if it followed characters from all different race and background from all different planets, diversity is the key. Problem is star trek focus on the same thing over and over the first was good but after, meh because they kept focusing on the samething....
The writer is important; take Doctor Who which ran for huge amounts of episodes is still consider good.

Are these 400 "Clone Wars" variety "episodes"? As in the 15-minute variety?