Very early on Sunday morning, a full 6-minute episode of the unreleased Star Wars Detours was posted to the Star Wars Leaks subreddit.
An animated series that was created by George Lucas over a decade ago, Detours was meant to take a comical (and very non-canon) look at various corners of the Star Wars universe between Episode III and Episode IV. It featured an incredible voice cast that included “Weird” Al Yankovic, Seth MacFarlane, Donald Faison, and Felicia Day. Its writers room included lots of well known/beloved folks from the comedy and sci-fi/fantasy world like Zeb Wells, Jane Espenson, and Seth Green.
As if that weren’t cool enough, Billy Dee Williams (Lando Calrissian), Ahmed Best (Jar Jar Binks), and Anthony Daniels (C-3PO) also returned to reprise their roles.
Star Wars Detours (Reddit)
39 episodes/segments of Star Wars Detours had already been scripted with over 60 more in the works. Unfortunately, the series was shelved in 2013 so Disney/Lucasfilm could focus on what would become The Force Awakens. Since then, it’s been rumored that the series would make its long-awaited debut, but never did. The closest we’ve come to any news on the matter is when Lucasfilm renewed the Star Wars Detours trademark in 2018.
This morning, however, a full episode/segment entitled ‘Dog Day Afternoon’ made its way onto the internet. It features the bounty hunters Zuckuss and 4-LOM holding up Dex’s Diner on Coruscant. As you can probably guess by the title, things quickly devolve into a hostage situation.
The episode features plenty of robbery/police standoff movie references (like Pulp Fiction‘s iconic opening scene) along with everyone constantly getting Zuckuss and 4-LOM mixed up (which we’ve all done).
Star Wars Detours (Reddit)
Considering the fact that Disney has allowed it to stay up on a popular Star Wars subreddit for 16 hours (as of this writing), this might have been an intentional leak to gauge interest.
Judging by the comments on Reddit, reaction to the show has been decidedly mixed. Still, you’d think that Disney would at least consider putting fully produced episodes of Star Wars Detours on Disney+, especially during a time when the pandemic shut down production on a number of projects.
I enjoyed it well enough, although what little I saw felt like it couldn’t decide if it was a slapstick show for kids or a lore-steeped comedy for adults. That said, I’d love to see what they could do with some of the newer Star Wars media that’s out there now–especially The Mandalorian.
Watch the episode for yourself and decide if you’d want to see more!
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