My suggestion to Disney: noir crime series in Coruscant underworld

Well, we’re getting three live-action series within roughly three years, and the Coruscant underworld is getting explored more and more in cartoons and other EU materials, so i’ts definitely a possibility. And although main-stream SWhas never touched upon noir in any blatant fashion yet (maybe a little bit in ep. II?) it still fits within that movie-serial-vibe that’s its all based on.

PS. There was a book series called Coruscant Nights which is basically a noir private-eye type of series set in the lower levels of Coruscant during the early days of the Empire.

I’ve been pining for a series or movie like this since 1313 was cancelled by the Disney buyout. I’ve been totally fascinated by the Coruscant underworld ever since season 2 of the Clone Wars, and was beyond ecstatic when Lucasfilm announced they were developing a series based on it. I’ll have to check out Coruscant Nights, though, it’s on my reading list but I’ve never gotten to it.

If anybody gets a chance, check out concept art of the 1313 series. In my opinion, it’s one of the great missed opportunities of Star Wars, along with Spielberg’s Return of the Jedi.

Dr. Krogshöj - oojason’s post in Tobar’s Star Wars: Underworld (Live Action Series) thread could be right up your street; not only is there now a 10 minute behind the scenes video of footage from the ‘Star Wars: Underworld’ live action tv series, but also a downloadable batch of documents on the show too 😃

ZkinandBonez said:

PS. There was a book series called Coruscant Nights which is basically a noir private-eye type of series set in the lower levels of Coruscant during the early days of the Empire.

Is this any good? I remember really enjoying his Darth Maul book 20 years ago…

LexX said:

ZkinandBonez said:

PS. There was a book series called Coruscant Nights which is basically a noir private-eye type of series set in the lower levels of Coruscant during the early days of the Empire.

Is this any good? I remember really enjoying his Darth Maul book 20 years ago…

I started reading it last year but got distracted by other things and simply forgot about it until recently. I know that sounds a little weird, but I have a bad habit of trying reading multiple books at the same time (it kinda works), and especially when something suddenly swallows up much of my free time a few books tend to slip through the cracks. So I’m not saying it was boring, what I did read (first 1/4-ish) was actually quite interesting. It was very dark and gritty and managed to seem noir-ish while never dipping into clichés or obvious tropes while still managing to feel like a SW story. A “hardboiled SW story” is probably the best way to describe it. I do think Reaves can get a a bit wordy at times, but the characters were all new and pretty fitting for the setting. The only well known character is Vader who appeared very briefly in the part I read. I did really enjoy the descriptions of the lower levels, I’ve always felt that that particular part of Coruscant lore is a perfect blend of sci-fi concepts and fantasy absurdity. It’s basically an IRL slum dialled up to 11.

This was literally planned under Lucas. A series called SW: Underworld. Live-action too. Just wasn’t feasible budget-wise.