Remember when Star Wars featured a big green humanoid rabbit as part of its official canon? It turns out that might not be the weirdest thing the franchise ever did for much longer. If a new report is true, then Disney Plus will soon begin to stream possibly one of the strangest Star Wars projects this side of those Family Guy parodies, and that's saying something.
Apparently, somebody decided they missed all that weird stuff that permeated the old Star Wars Expanded Universe (now known as the non-canonical "Legends") and that person is George Lucas. No, seriously. Lucas created an animated comedy series in 2012 with the help of Robot Chicken and The Simpsons writer Brendan Hay. The series was called Star Wars: Detours, and after being canceled well before its release, it looks like it may have one more chance at life.
The report comes from the news leak and speculation site The Vulcan Reporter, so all information should be taken with a grain of salt. It claims that Disney Plus will soon begin streaming Star Wars: Detours after it's spent years in relative purgatory, though no actual source was given. Luckily, since much of the show was already produced by the time of its cancelation, there's a good amount of actual footage out there, including a full trailer to give curious fans an idea of what they missed. The series itself is a CG-animated comedy series with cartoony designs and a particularly zany sense of humor that fans of Robot Chicken will likely find familiar. Featuring characters from the original and prequel trilogies, it almost seems like a parody of the actual idea of a parody, at least until a closer look reveals its surprisingly robust voice cast.
Not only is the cast jam-packed with veteran voice actors and character performers like Catherine Taber, Jennifer Hale, and Dee Bradley Baker, but it also includes some Star Wars royalty reprising their own roles from the films. Ahmed Best returns as Jar Jar Binks, Anthony Daniels as C-3PO, and even Billy Dee Williams as Lando Calrissian. Along with them, big names like Seth Green, Felicia Day, and even "Weird Al" Yankovic take part as well. (Also, that's definitely Seth MacFarlane as Emperor Palpatine.)
Star Wars: Detours explores less of the big story beats of the series and more of its own character moments. One look at the trailer and it's clear that there's no way this thing was ever meant to be canon even back before Disney's acquisition of the Star Wars franchise. Depending on one's opinion of its humor styles, that may or may not be a good thing. Comedy is subjective, of course, so some gags will probably land better than others. (The delivery of Dex's "...she's dead" line when speaking to Leia might be one of the standouts.)
Regardless of opinions on the writing, it's important to remember that this news is still unconfirmed by any official sources. But while tempered expectations will help, the idea of more straight-up comedy in the Star Wars universe might not be such a bad idea.
The Star Wars saga is now available on Disney Plus.
Source: The Vulcan Reporter