STAR WARS has been on a roller coaster of news and rumors since Disney purchased Lucasfilm last year. From J.J. Abrams signing on to direct STAR WARS: EPISODE VII to the inclusion of castmembers Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and Harrison Ford, to the recent closing of LucasArts, it is hard to tell what is true and what is rumor. We do know that STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS was cancelled and that Disney was opting to focus on new projects specifically aimed at the post-RETURN OF THE JEDI time period. Now, rumors are circulating that STAR WARS: EPISODE VII will be getting an animated prequel series entitled STAR WARS: RECLAMATION.
Starting out on IMDb message boards, STAR WARS fansite TheForce.Net reported that an anonymous Lucasfilm employee has shared pages from the script for RECLAMATION, possibly in response to the mass layoffs at the company. Now, this project has been in development since prior to the Disney merger, so this could be a cancelled project, or it could be the next big thing leading into the new trilogy. According to the scanned pages of the script, here is the rundown of RECLAMATION:
RECLAMATION is a character-driven war epic set in the storied STAR WARS universe. Making use of decades of media as influence, it will be and all-new story designed to introduce the audience to themes and characters pivotal to EPISODE VII and beyond.
Drawing from the talent and workflow structure employed in the creation of THE CLONE WARS animated series, our goal with RECLAMATION is to create a show with similarly wide appeal in terms of viewership and marketing possibilities. Besides again targeting children and young adults, we believe we can also appeal to the 18-49 demographic, by focusing on the ORIGINAL TRILOGY era characters and imagery.
Fifteen years have passed since RETURN OF THE JEDI and the death of Anakin Skywalker. The Galactic Empire has been beheaded for over a decade, but a state of civil war continues…The Union of Imperial Loyalists, a loose alliance of systems loyal to the Empire’s cause, refuses to cease hostilities until Coruscant is surrendered and abandoned.
Our story begins at a turning point in the struggle. Supreme Chancellor Mon Mothma and Vice Chair Leia Organa are due to meet Grand Moff Ono in the first round of long-awaited peace talks…Everyone in the room — Republic, Union, and Jedi alike — are shocked as legions of black droids issue forth from the depths of Coruscant, destroying indiscriminately.
The aftermath of this attack sets the stage for an unlikely and uneasy alliance. Republic and Loyalist worlds are forced to unite to repel the unforeseen threat concealed beneath their very feet. The self-replicating machines lead heroes on both sides on a journey into the underworld — where technology and the Force itself collide — to uncover a mystery almost as old as the Republic itself: the dark legacy of Level 1313.
With references to 1313, this could be a project that was in development to tie in with the game STAR WARS 1313. With that cancelled, this may never come to fruition. One would think with Disney protecting their STAR WARS projects for maximum profit potential, these pages would have been redacted from the internet by now. But, they are still out there.
Now, this looks to be pretty legit, but thanks to trolls all over the internet, this could be a very complex trick. Even for a trick, this is an interesting concept that should give us an idea of where we could expect the new trilogy to be headed. Could this setting work with the age of the current cast members? Does this seem exciting enough for fans awaiting true sequels to the original trilogy? Are you excited?
STAR WARS: EPISODE VII is tentatively slated to open in 2015. If you would like to see the actual page scans,