On the style of the live-action Star Wars television series, Producer Rick McCallum has stated “It is going to be much darker, much grittier, and it’s much more character based.”

Star Wars creator George Lucas has described the series as “bare-bones” and “action-heavy”, and has stated that it will be for more mature audiences like TV shows Battlestar Galactica and Firefly.

That is the best news I have heard yet! I am sure most Star Wars fans would gladly welcome a darker Star Wars - but part of me has to wonder how much of this is just hype and if they thought the prequels were “gritty” too.

Other insider statements have said the series will be like the Young Indiana Jones series - which I never saw - can anyone tell me what those were like - any good? Maybe I will have to see if I can Netflix them, since these are Lucas’s past television work it might be much closer to the finished product than Battlestar Galactica or Firefly.

(If you have been living in a cave and are not familiar with Firefly by Joss Whedon please do yourself a favor and buy the DVD set of the television series and the feature film Serenity)

The official sneak peek video of the upcoming 3D CGI series “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” was released by Lucasfilm.

The 3D animation of the faces are a little too plastic looking for me - especially Obi Wan’s beard - but the ships and other elements look great. I am much more excited about this series after seeing this clip - it should be a great warm-up for the live-action show that will likely not come out until the animated series has had about a year or so on the air.

I will keep a running tally of all the information for the 3D animated series, The Clone Wars, so you don’t have to read every blog post to catch up:

• Expected to air in 2008
• Each episode will have a running time of 22 minutes to fill a half-hour time slot
• There will be at least 100 episodes produced, 40 are said to be finished already
• Kilian Plunkett referred to the character designs from the 2003 2D series when designing the characters for the 3D series
• There is still no television network yet signed up for the series
• Anthony Daniels will voice C3-PO
• Several show topics have been mentioned: “Episodes with nothing but stormtroopers”, “an episode just about Kit Fisto”

I will keep a running tally of all the information for the live-action series, so you don’t have to read every blog post to catch up:

In the not so distant future, in a galaxy not so far far away…

Star Wars is coming to television with not one, but two different television series. Both are currently being developed to hit the air waves in the next couple years.

George Lucas, having wrapped up the final installment of the Indiana Jones saga, has started work on a live-action television series set in the Star Wars universe. The series will not feature any Skywalkers, Darth Vader, Han Solo or any of the major characters from the original movie trilogy or the prequels. However, the series may include some Expanded Universe characters at some point.

Lucas of course remains secretive about the show saying only that it’s about “the life of robots” - whatever that means. Hopefully not a revival of the Droid Series.

Meanwhile, a 3D CGI series called Star Wars: The Clone Wars is being produced by Lucasfilm Animation and is expected to debut in 2008. The animated series will be set in the same time period as the 2D animation version that aired in 25 chapters from 2003-2005 on the Cartoon Network.