All 14 Unmade & Canceled Star Wars Movies & TV Shows (& Why They Didn't Happen)

The Star Wars universe has produced a total of 12 live-action movies as of 2026, as well as countless TV series, but many other projects were never made. The franchise has experienced many ups and downs, telling both very successful stories as well as others that drew significant backlash.

Regardless, the Star Wars universe continues to be one of the most popular and profitable sandboxes in sci-fi and fantasy. Despite the Skywalker Saga coming to an end in 2019, the franchise has continued to expand through TV, books, comics, video games, and the announcement of several more upcoming Star Wars movies.

After 2026's The Mandalorian and Grogu, Ryan Gosling's Star Wars: Starfighter release in 2027 will provide a major test of the brand's enduring popularity. If the film is a hit, it will usher in another era for the series, with new characters in a new setting. If it fails, the entire future of Star Wars will be in jeopardy.

Still, this isn't the first time that the life of George Lucas' iconic series has been put into question. The franchise has gone through many changes since its inception in 1977, with a revolving door of creatives pitching different stories and ideas for the saga. Many of these concepts have not made it past the early stages of development.

Whether because of a change in writers and directors, a lack of interest from the audience, or the studio changing its mind, many unmade and canceled Star Wars projects exist across both TV and film. Each of these projects never saw the light of day or was reworked into newly announced movies and upcoming Star Wars TV shows.

Splinter Of The Mind’s Eye

George Lucas wasn’t sure how audiences would react to Star Wars, so he created a backup plan in case the film turned out to be a major flop. Author Alan Dean Foster was brought in to write the novelization of the first Star Wars movie, as well as a second book titled Splinter of the Mind’s Eye.

This story centered on Luke and Leia as they searched a planet called Mimban for the Kaiburr crystal. This relic would enhance the Force powers of the Jedi, and later served as an inspiration for the kyber crystal, the substance responsible for weaponry like Jedi lightsabers and the Death Star.

This smaller story was written so that, if Star Wars was a flop, Lucas could still produce a sequel on a lower budget. Fortunately, Star Wars was a massive hit, the franchise exploded, and Splinter of the Mind’s Eye never became more than a novel, with plans for the movie falling apart by 1978.

The Original Star Wars Prequels

Producer Gary Kurtz has shared that Lucas had plans for a prequel trilogy before the original films were completed. Speaking to IGN in 2002, Kurtz shared that Lucas intended for three Star Wars prequel films that dealt “...with the Clone Wars and the formation of the Jedi Knights”.

While Lucas was originally all-in on Star Wars, his prequel plans changed after the difficulties and stresses that came with completing the first trilogy. While the original films had to break ground in special effects, the gap in time before the prequels allowed for technical advances in CGI filmmaking in the early 1990s.

Lucas used these developments to update the original Star Wars films with special editions, which began release in 1997. These remasters, with updated effects, helped to promote the Star Wars brand, and secured additional funding to go toward the prequels.

In the end, only the Clone Wars made it into Lucas' trilogy. Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace revealed that the Jedi Order was already an established, centuries-old organization. The formation of the Jedi Order has not yet been shown onscreen, but is planned to be addressed in a future James Mangold-directed Star Wars movie.

Star Wars: Underworld

At Star Wars Celebration in 2005, plans for a TV series set between the original and prequel Star Wars trilogy were announced. After many years of development, the series received the working title of Star Wars: Underworld and was planned to focus on the seedy, grittier aspects of the Star Wars franchise.

The series was intended to center around the criminal and political struggles of the galaxy as the Empire attempted to grasp control of the galaxy, set between the events of Return of the Jedi and A New Hope. Characters including Han Solo, Palpatine, Boba Fett, and Lando Calrissian, among others, were planned to appear.

As late as 2012, over 100 episodes of Star Wars: Underworld had been planned out before the studio decided that the series would be far too expensive to produce.

After Disney took control of the Star Wars franchise, Kathleen Kennedy and the team at Lucasfilm repurposed some of the show's scripts and ideas. The concept for Rogue One was originally a planned episode of Star Wars: Underworld, as was the story of Han winning the Falcon from Lando, seen in Solo.

George Lucas’ Episodes VII, VIII, & IX

Even before the original films were completed, George Lucas had plans for multiple Star Wars trilogies. By the time The Empire Strikes Back was released in 1980, he already had the story treatments for nine episodes.

In the earliest versions of this plan, before Return of the Jedi confirmed the relationship between Luke and Leia, Episode VII would have continued Luke’s journey as a Jedi, while Episode VIII would have introduced a new character as his sister. The final episode would have featured Luke’s ultimate battle against the Emperor.

Much of this extended plan was either scrapped or truncated, with several key details making their way into 1983's Return of the Jedi. From Luke becoming a full Jedi Knight to the presence of his sister and the Emperor’s ultimate confrontation with Luke, the sequel trilogy ideas were instead repurposed to give a satisfying conclusion to the original series.

Granted, Lucas still batted around sequel trilogy ideas over the years before selling the franchise to Disney in 2012. One trilogy idea would have concerned the galaxy descending into chaos following the collapse of the Empire, with a resurrected Darth Maul leading a crime syndicate, comparable to some details from Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord.

In this iteration, Luke would have worked with 50 to 100 Jedi survivors to rebuild the Jedi Order, while Leia would have become the leader of the New Republic. Lucas also planned to build off the midi-chlorians concept introduced in the prequel trilogy by diving into the microbiotic world of the Force, and finally explaining what the Whills were.

Some other plans Lucas had included Leia being elected “Queen of her people”, the death of Han Solo, Luke living alone after what happened between him and Darth Vader, Luke training Leia in the ways of the Force, and ultimately, Luke’s death. Notably, versions of many of these details made it into Disney's sequel trilogy.

Colin Trevorrow’s Episode IX - Star Wars: Duel Of The Fates

In August 2015, Disney announced that Colin Trevorrow had joined Star Wars: Episode IX as director. However, the filmmaker dropped out of the project in August 2017, citing creative differences as the reason for his departure. The script has since leaked online, revealing the title as Duel of the Fates.

Duel of the Fates would have been a much different movie from The Rise of Skywalker. In the leaked script, the First Order cuts off communication between planets in the galaxy, and the Resistance fights to restore it.

After Snoke's death in The Last Jedi, Kylo Ren would have served as the sequel's main villain, and would have been revealed as the murderer of Rey’s parents. Palpatine would have been mentioned, but would not be regenerated for the film.

These events lead to an important battle at the First Order's Coruscant base. Finn would have a larger role, forming an army of defective Stormtroopers, while Rey searched for the planet of Mortis, planning to confront Kylo once and for all.

Rey would eventually defeat Kylo, but become blinded and hurt in the process. Ben Solo would then transfer his life energy to Rey after speaking with his mother, giving him a moment of quiet redemption. This would have saved Rey’s life and led to her taking the name Rey Solana, emphasizing her status as a nobody, as implied in The Last Jedi.

Trevorrow’s movie would have been a proper continuation of Rian Johnson’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi rather than a course correction from its controversies. The film was planned to end with Rey rebuilding the Jedi Order using a balanced combination of both the light and the dark sides of the Force.

Boba Fett's Solo Star Wars Movie

After the production of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, there appeared to be a bright future for Star Wars anthology movies, and many were discussed. One of the most exciting options was a Boba Fett solo film, chronicling the adventures of the colorful, albeit surprisingly weak, bounty hunter.

This project actually began discussions early, in 2013, with Josh Trank joining the project as director in 2014, although he didn't stay on for long. The director's reputation suffered in Hollywood following the contentious production of 2015's Fantastic Four, and he left the project over creative differences.

After the commercial failure of 2018's Solo: A Star Wars Story, Disney and Lucasfilm slowed down on their output, and rethought some of their choices. James Mangold was brought in to serve as writer and director on the film for a little while, but by October 2018, the movie had been canceled.

This led to the refocusing of Star Wars through Disney+ and the production of The Mandalorian, something that has retroactively benefited the character of Boba Fett. A spin-off of The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, has since continued the titular bounty hunter's journey after Return of the Jedi.

Mos Eisley Spaceport Movie

In 2018, there were various reports of a Mos Eisley story being among the planned anthology movies released under Star Wars Story branding. It was even reported that Lucasfilm had reserved time at Pinewood Studios to start working on an “unannounced” project, believed to be the one about Mos Eisley.

That planned film was scrapped after the unfortunate failure of Solo: A Star Wars Story. Instead, the franchise went all-in on television in the years following, with series including Star Wars: Skeleton Crew and Star Wars: The Acolyte.

Featuring a plethora of colorful and interesting characters, Mos Eisley is a great setting for Star Wars stories. The location and its people have since been featured in The Mandalorian and discussed in shows including Star Wars: Tales of the Underworld.

Guillermo del Toro's The Rise & Fall Of Jabba The Hutt

In September 2023, auteur filmmaker Guillermo del Toro confirmed via his X account that he had been in talks to direct a Star Wars movie around 2017, with a script by David Goyer.

The director's later interview with Collider's Steven Weintraub confirmed that the "J" and "BB" hinted at a planned movie called The Rise and Fall of Jabba the Hutt. The story was planned to center on the notorious Star Wars crime boss, chronicling both his rise and fall from power.

Screenwriter David Goyer appeared on the Happy Sad Confused podcast in 2023 and detailed why the project did not come to pass: "It was just a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff going on at Lucasfilm at the time, but it's a cool script." Regardless, Disney shuttered the project sometime before 2019.

David Benioff & D.B. Weiss’ Star Wars Trilogy

Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss joined the Star Wars universe in 2018. As per initial reports, the filmmakers were hired to produce and write a new trilogy that would be wholly separate from the Skywalker Saga, either set in the far future or the distant past.

Little more was shared about the project, which ultimately fell apart in October 2019. The pair signed an overall deal with Netflix to write and produce films and series for the streamer, including the science fiction hit 3 Body Problem. This commitment, unfortunately, left no room for the two to work on their Star Wars project.

While there has been speculation that the pair were dropped by Disney following a weaker reception to the final season of Game of Thrones, these are only rumors. The Game of Thrones universe is still alive and well, thanks to their original series, and the two remain major creative forces in Hollywood.

Rangers Of The New Republic

Another canceled show from the Star Wars franchise, Rangers of the New Republic, was initially announced in 2020 as a spin-off to The Mandalorian. The show was rumored to focus on Cara Dune as a new inductee in the New Republic, investigating the emergence of Imperial remnants in the Outer Rim.

However, after the firing of Gina Carano from Lucasfilm in 2021, the series stalled. Elements of Rangers of the New Republic have instead been integrated into The Mandalorian season 3, as well as 2026's The Mandalorian and Grogu, both of which see Din Djarin contending with various Imperial remnants.

Since then, Gina Carano may have set up a return to Star Wars. The actor filed a wrongful termination suit against Disney and won. She has since confirmed being in conversation with Lucasfilm co-CEO Dave Filoni, and it is possible that some plans for Cara Dune could come back into play.

Ahsoka also set up elements of Rangers of the New Republic. In that series, Hera Syndulla tracked down Imperial sympathizers within the New Republic. With these details still present in the Star Wars universe, there remains hope that the stories of Rangers of the New Republic could culminate in Dave Filoni's Thrawn movie, if that ever comes to fruition.