When a franchise gets as big as Star Wars, it's almost inevitable that it will veer hard to starboard into strange and surreal lands. Granted, the series already did that with the Star Wars Holiday Special way back in the '70s, but its version of strange and surreal was a bit more along the lines of "what?" and "why does it hurt?" But in more recent times, other efforts have been made to maintain some levity in this super-serious space wizard story, and perhaps none is as infamous as the phantom series itself, Star Wars Detours.

Star Wars Detours made headlines many times, most notably when its production was halted in 2013 in the wake of Disney's acquisition of the franchise. But the fate of the animated comedy series still seems to hang in the balance, as rumors continue to swirl as recently as this year regarding its possible release. The Seth Green-led project seemed to be gearing up for a Disney Plus release in early 2021, but even though that just turned out to be a rumor, some of the show's stars may not have given up hope just yet.

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One such star was Community's Joel McHale, who lent his voice to Star Wars Detours and seemed to enjoy his time with it. Speaking with Coming Soon, he recently sat down and gave his thoughts on the whole thing. "To this day, to the life of me, I cannot tell you why it hasn't aired," McHale said when asked about the project. "I don't know why. I really don't. Seth Green headed up that whole thing. He's one of my favorite people on the planet. He's one of the most talented people, and I thought it was well written too. It could be a whole other dimension to Star Wars and to this day, it should air. It should get out there. I don't know why it hasn't. I really can't tell you. I never watched, I didn't see the leaked one, but I would love to see that whole thing. I would love it to [be released]."

The "leaked one" McHale referred to was a single episode titled "Dog Day Afternoon" that showed up on Reddit in November 2020, leading many to speculate that the entire Detours series would finally see the light of day soon. Unfortunately, there has been no such luck. The CGI animated show, whose writing and humor styles are heavily reminiscent of Green's more well-known series Robot Chicken, was announced all the way back in 2009 by George Lucas himself. But since production was underway when Disney bought Star Wars from Lucas in 2012, things started shifting around and Star Wars Detours was shuffled to the back.

Based on trailers and leaks, the series seems to revel in that very specific style of comedy writing native to the late 2000s/early 2010s. Set in the time between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, it appears to be sort of an animated sketch comedy a la I Think You Should Leave. Using comically deformed character designs, it wouldn't be surprising to find out that none of it was ever intended to be canon, even before Disney's big shopping spree.

Regardless of one's opinion on the show's style of humor, it would really be a shame for it to never officially see the light of day. Perhaps McHale put it best himself when he jokingly added his own frustration about its cancelation, sayingm "I made it into the Star Wars universe and it never aired. What the hell?!"

The Star Wars saga is now available on Disney Plus.

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Source: Coming Soon