The 2010s were the era of peak Star Wars animation with series like Clone Wars and Rebels. These shows became ingrained in the collective psyche, at least among Star Wars fans and 2000s kids. During a San Diego Comic Con panel on July 23, Seth Green talked about a Star Wars animated parody series that he and Matthew Senreich, producer for Robot Chicken, made in the 2010s that never aired. Now, a collection of episodes will be available for viewing at the Lucas Museum, which opens in September.
And there are plenty of episodes to choose from. Called Star Wars: Detours, the series was in production for four years. The Lucas-appointed team made 39 episodes split into two seasons. Despite this, no network had agreed to air the series yet, which would become its downfall.
The series unveiling happened at Star Wars Celebration VI in 2012. Unfortunately, this happened to be right before Lucas sold the Star Wars IP to Disney. They proceeded to cancel Clone Wars ahead of its planned ending and delayed Detours indefinitely.
Detours had a different tone than the other Star Wars content, and was instead made with inspiration from other parodies of the series by Family Guy and Robot Chicken.
It takes place during the sequel era, with iconic original trilogy characters and locations. Some cast members even rebooted their roles, from Ahmed Best as Jar Jar Binks to Billy Dee Williams as Lando.
Some of the caricatures landed better than others, with the series portraying Obi-Wan as a creepy old guy and Leia as a spoiled space princess. Nevertheless, the bits weren’t all misses, with a hilarious married couple-esque dynamic between Han Solo and Chewy, and some more great humorous moments throughout. Among other weird facts, “Weird Al” Yankovic wrote a good handful of original songs for the show.
When Disney cancelled the release of the Star Wars animated parody series Detours, even Seth Green agreed with the decision, at least publicly. In a Reddit post, he said that he didn’t want the series to be “3 generations’ of kids first introduction to the Star Wars universe.”
But now, after 14 years collecting dust, Star Wars: Detours will officially get its first viewers starting in September 22, when the Lucas Museum opens up.