Over the last month we've seen the first trailer and a bunch of clips from Seth Green and Matthew Senreich's new Star Wars animated sitcom, Star Wars: Detours. I wasn't sure about it at first, but the more I've seen from it the more it's grown on me, and I'm excited to see where it goes. It looks like it's going to be a lot of fun. How can it not be!? It's from the guys that brought us the Robot Chicken awesomeness!
From what we've seen we get a sense of what the point of the series is and where it's going. It's a little unclear who the audience is for this... kids? Adults? This question is answered in a recent interview with IGN in which Senreich said, "George said it best: it’s a little young for the older people and a little old for the younger people." Green added,
It’s so undefined for the audience right now. We know exactly what the show is, but how people will interpret it is entirely up to them. When people first saw The Simpsons, they didn’t have anything to measure it against. Star Wars is already Star Wars. No matter how you interpret it, even if it’s coming from the guy who made it up, somebody’s going to have a problem with it. And it’s all right. We’re making the show as awesome as we can, and we love Star Wars.
Another thing we haven't been exposed to in the series is what's going on with Luke Skywalker? Well, they discuss it in the interview, and I think you'll find it very amusing. Here's what they say is going on with Luke...
Green: Oh yeah, but Luke is a teenager that lives in the desert with his f**king uncle. [Laughs] He’s not the coolest kid on the block.
Senreich: Yeah, we talked about it on our Saturday panel. He’s the guy who Obi-Wan is constantly trying to go see and teach that he has the universe to help save, and every time he tries to go there… Well, maybe that wasn’t the first time Obi-Wan had attempted to get to Luke.
Green: That’s our thought, is that Obi-Wan never knew what the correct timing was to approach that sort of prophecy in the desert. So each time, he attempts it and it goes horribly awry. He’s just like [waving hand as if using the Force], “None of this ever happened.” And Luke starts overtime developing real gaps in his memory, and he wakes up in places and doesn’t understand why his clothes are askew. “What happened here?”
That's a great concept to play with, and I can see the hilarious comedy in it. I think more than anything Star Wars fans want this series to be Badass and Cool. When asked what they would say to those Star Wars fans, Senreich said, "We want Star Wars to be badass and cool, too!" Green goes on to say that,
Yeah, we love badass and cool Star Wars, but there are different ways to enjoy the stuff you love. If everything looks the same, then you won’t notice the variety. Star Wars is an international and global brand that is expressed in millions of forms, literally. People laughed along with us at Robot Chicken, which was a parody of Star Wars. I would find it strange for them to not accept a sincere comedy that comes from the creator of Star Wars.
Why deny the mythology? That’s all it really is. We’re determining what legends and myths we want to perpetuate onto our kids and next generations. How many times has Shakespeare been interpreted and reinterpreted? We get so precious about our intellectual property because it’s experience-based. It’s something that you felt, and you don’t feel that someone else could have the exact same experience unless they experienced it how you did. That’s just not accurate.
As of right now we don't know when or where the first episode of Star Wars: Detours will air, but I'm looking forward to it! What do you think about what Green and Senreich had to say in the interview?
Click here to read the rest of the interviews!