Once upon a time, a Star Wars television show titled Star Wars: Underground was in the works. Supposedly, the show would have focused on the various criminal gangs of the lower levels of Coruscant in the early days of the Empire, and would have tied into the also-cancelled Star Wars: 1313 game.
That, of course, didn't happen. According to new details about the project, which describe a sympathetic Emperor Palpatine, perhaps that's for the best.
The news comes in a Venture Beat interview with God of War director Cory Barlog. Barlog briefly worked at Lucasarts (and on Star Wars: 1313) prior to his work on the newly-unveilied entry in the God of War saga, and while there, he was given a sneak peek at the script for Star Wars: Underworld. Lucasarts would be shut down shortly after the Disney acquisition of the Star Wars franchise, but Barlog says part of what he read about the TV show at Skywalker Ranch about the never-to-be-made show actually inspired the direction of the new God of War, which sees series star Kratos transformed from a revenge-fueled madman into a caring father.
"Probably the really small beginnings of this idea, the germination of this — when I was working at Lucas, I was allowed to go up to the ranch and read the scripts for the [cancelled live-action Star Wars] TV show," Barlog says. "It was the most mind-blowing thing I'd ever experienced. I cared about the Emperor. They made the Emperor a sympathetic figure who was wronged by this f-----g heartless woman. She's this hardcore gangster, and she just totally destroyed him as a person. I almost cried while reading this. This is the Emperor, the lightning out of the fingers Emperor. That's something magical. The writers who worked on that, guys from The Shield and 24, these were excellent writers."
While it certainly sounds like an impressive feat to have the audience care about the Emperor's feelings, it kind of goes against everything that makes the character great from the start. Emperor Palpatine is one of the few villains who seems to absolutely relish being as evil as possible. He wants power for power's sake, and doesn't care a bit about the cost to obtain it.
Turning the Star Wars universe's biggest villain into a heartbroken old man sounds like one of the worst ideas in the long history of bad Star Wars ideas. Thankfully, the show never saw the light of day, and the Emperor can keep on being the crazy supervillain that fans love.
