Star Wars: Underworld is an abandoned TV series idea made by LucasArt. The series would have told the story of the criminal gangs who ruled the lower levels of Coruscant during the rise of the Empire. The series never reached production.
Cory Barlog, director of the new God of War video game and former Lucas Art Employee, spoke about the abandoned project in an interview with VentureBeat. After reading the scripts, he revealed the plan was to feature a story that would shockingly make us feel “sympathy for Palpatine.”
But How?
Barlog compared the Palpatine to his angry protagonist from God of War, saying: “television is this great format where people can have a relationship with characters for an extended period of time. During that time, a character can go from one extreme to another. They can go from a character you loathe to a character you love and root for.”
So where does this sympathetic Palpatine come from? Palpatine is iconic as one of film’s nastiest villains. It is hard to see how we could feel sympathy for such a character. Barlog elaborated saying it is through a certain circumstance during Palpatine’s younger life that causes this reaction. “They made the Emperor a sympathetic figure who was wronged by this heartless woman […] She just totally destroyed him as a person. I almost cried while reading this.” This comes as a surprise since most Star Wars fans hate Palpatine so strongly.
Despite the cancellation of Underworld, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy said not all hope is lost for a live action series. She spoke in an interview with Slashfilm, expressing her interest in following their ideas in the future in some capacity. “We don’t want to throw any of that stuff away. It’s gold. And it’s something we’re spending a lot of time looking at.”
Perhaps we will have a chance to see this version of Palpatine in the future!
Doing a little of this, a little of that. If you see me holding a camera, run!
