Suvudu Universe

The first time I ever encountered Seth Green was at SDCC 2011. I was in the front row to see Pablo Hildago and Dave Filoni talk about the new season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. All of a sudden this little person comes and sits on my feet and starts taking pictures. My first instinct was slap him in the back of the head and call him a “butthead” like a Biff Tannen. But as I squirmed my feet free from his butt, he apologized and it quickly became apparent why he was so enthusiastic, it was Seth Green and he was there to see his wife in her Nightsisters costume.

I’ve run into Seth Green numerous times. He has no idea who I am, and why would he? That said, we did have an intimate moment with his butt on my feet for what that’s worth.

Last May 4th, my wife Amanda and I were at a screening of Return of the Jedi at The Egyptian in Hollywood. We were standing outside and Seth Green and his wife Clare Grant (who I have also met a few times and was really nice) were standing beside us. I was really tempted to ask him about Star Wars: Detours and how it had been shelved. But we were all there to see Return of the Jedi and I did not want to potentially open up a touchy subject with someone who doesn’t even know me, that is at a movie with his wife to have a good time. So we just exchanged a few pleasantries and that was it, I did not take the chance to potentially ruin his day. By the time I thought about how they voiced characters on Star Wars: The Clone Wars and things to ask them, the opportunity had passed me by.

There was a brief period of time where I looked forward to Star Wars: Detours. It was never going to be the biggest Star Wars feature of the week, but as a show to augment the already great time I was having with Star Wars: The Clone Wars or as something Star Wars to watch while Star Wars: The Clone Wars was in between seasons, it certainly was welcome. But then came the news about Disney buying Lucasfilm, the sequel trilogy, and two spin-offs were on their way. Star Wars: Detours was quickly buried underneath the excitement of so many other high profile Star Wars additions.

Then came the news Star Wars: Detours was being put on hold and Star Wars: The Clone Wars was “winding down.” After that, there really was not much more to say.

Well, now Seth Green has finally spoken about the show and where it was at and how much has been completed. It turns out there was a lot done. The show was created by George Lucas too. I have to assume there were going to be twenty two episodes per season and they had nearly completed two seasons worth of content.

In that bloody massacre of shows being disintegrated, there is a small takeaway. Kathleen Kennedy cares about the next thirty years of Star Wars. I know it sounds weird to write about that when talking about shows getting the ax, but it is right there in Green’s own words. Kennedy only has a five year tenure at Lucasfilm and then she could leave. But he says she was discussing the next thirty years of Star Wars. Perhaps Green’s comments say something about her actual intentions to remain aboard at Lucasfilm for a lot longer than her first five years. I hope so, because her contract will be up before the sequel trilogy is even completed. As long as she is involved with Star Wars, we the fans are fairly well taken care of to say the least.

A Reddit chat allowed Green to divulge:

“So there’s actually been quite a bit of talk about this, but Detours is just on hold currently. We have 39 finished episodes and around 62 finished scripts. But that entire show was created before the decision to make more Star Wars movies, so our show (which was created by George Lucas) is an animated sitcom in the world of Star Wars, so we had a lot of conversations with Kathleen Kennedy about Star Wars in not just the next three years but the next 30 years, and when you’re in as privileged a position as we were to be able to work on Star Wars content with its creator, you get a great sense of responsibility to the whole. I was introduced to Star Wars as a child and it was without any ironic or comedic lens, so I saw Darth Vader as scary, and I saw all of those messages very very clearly. We didn’t think it made any sense, in anticipation of these new movies coming out, to spend the next three years with an animated sitcom as three generations’ of kids first introduction to the Star Wars universe.

“I’ve had a lot of parents approach me in the last few years where they showed Robot Chicken or Family Guy Star Wars before they showed them regular Star Wars. The writers on Robot Chicken and I are seeing this a lot. The same way we were introduced to classic music through Bugs Bunny or Tom & Jerry, kids are taking our ironic interpretations of He-Man or other pop-culture icons and never having the opportunity to meet them sincerely. It’s a really bizarre thing to wrap your head around, and because I’ve witnessed it firsthand, it made me more thoughtful about what we were putting it out.

“I do feel that Detours is a timeless bit of entertainment. Media distribution is changing so quickly, so dramatically, that can you even imagine what distribution of content will look like in five years? In a day and age when Netflix series are nominated for the top accolades TV has to offer, who is to say what it will look like when the new Star Wars movie comes out? So Detours can sit on a shelf until the Star Wars movie comes out without losing any of its lustre, because what we’ve created is very funny, very smart and like I said before, timeless.”

I am glad to hear the show is “timeless” in the sense that it isn’t time sensitive, it isn’t referential to pop culture or the media of the day. It would be cool to play one before Star Wars films theatrically. Those of us that remember cartoons before movies know what I’m talking about.

I look forward to seeing these one day. Maybe when Star Wars: The Clone Wars goes to Netlfix in 2015 and Netflix gets all the Star Wars content for digital distribution, that will be time and the place for it? Either way 2015 can’t get here quick enough for so many Star Wars reasons and hopefully Star Wars: Detours is one more reason.

The post Seth Green on 39 finished Episodes of Star Wars: Detours appeared first on MakingStarWars.net.