For years now, there have rumors about Lucasfilm making the jump into live-action television. With the rise of Netflix and all other streaming services, it is a surprise that the Star Wars universe had not entered the live-action tv/streaming market as Star Wars has long had a successful animated run with shows such as The Clone Wars and Rebels. While 2016’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story was a huge hit both commercially and critically, the film was once intended to be done on a much smaller scale. According to John Knoll, the visual effects supervisor said he initially came up with Rogue One when brainstorming live-action television series. Knoll told Comicbookresources.com that he first stumbled upon the story idea nearly a decade ago.
“I had heard that Lucasfilm was developing stories for a potential live action TV series, and they were active in story development at the time. I started thinking about, ‘What would be a fun thing to do as a one-hour episode as a live action ‘Star Wars’ TV show? One thought was, ‘What about a Mission Impossible-style break-in into the most secure facility in the Empire to steal the Death Star plans? There could be a lot of tension of potentially being discovered and overcoming security measures. That could be a lot of fun!'”
When Lucasfilm then announced it would begin looking into standalone film ideas for the franchise, Knoll was persuaded by to pitch Rogue One to Kathleen Kennedy and it all turned out for the better as Rogue One: A Star Wars Story was not only released but was a massive hit.
