Shelved Star Wars Cartoon ‘Detours’ Resurfaces After 13 Years — But Not on Disney+
Star Wars Detours, the long-buried Simpsons-style animated comedy set inside the Star Wars galaxy, is finally going to be seen by the public after 13 years in limbo. During a Lucas Museum of Narrative Art panel at San Diego Comic-Con, producer and voice actor Seth Green confirmed that selections from the shelved series will screen in a curated exhibit at the museum, which is set to open its doors on 22 September 2026.
Seth Green talks about his working relationship with George Lucas and reveals that the abandoned animated series #StarWarsDetours will have a curated exhibition at the @lucasmuseum, LaughingPlace reported from the panel. The outlet noted that Green’s announcement was met with cheers as fans will finally get to see more from the parody project in a curated exhibit within the massive new museum.
It marks the first confirmed public access to any part of the series since Lucasfilm quietly pulled the plug on its release back in 2013 — and, notably, comes billed as George Lucas’s final involvement with the Star Wars franchise he created and later sold to Disney.
What Star Wars Detours actually was
Star Wars Detours was an animated comedy produced by Seth Green, who decided to work alongside George Lucas and Lucasfilm to bring a humorous take to the franchise, alongside Robot Chicken co-creator Matthew Senreich. The series was made through Lucasfilm Animation and Green and Senreich’s own Stoopid Buddy Stoodios, and Lucasfilm released footage of the show at Star Wars Celebration VI in 2012, presenting it as an animated comedy series set between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope.
According to reporting on the project’s origins, Lucas wanted a series that felt like The Simpsons inside the Star Wars universe, and the team he assembled built a fast-paced, irreverent comedy that would sit between the prequels and the original trilogy. The parody leaned heavily on familiar faces, with most of the iconic characters from the original trilogy, like Darth Vader, Princess Leia, Han Solo, and Emperor Palpatine, set in a spoof-like story, while characters from the prequels, like Dexter and Jar-Jar Binks, also would have appeared.
The voice cast was stacked with comedy talent alongside Star Wars veterans. Reporting on the project has confirmed appearances by Seth Green, Donald Faison, Felicia Day, Cree Summer, Seth McFarlane, Zachary Levi, Joel McHale, and “Weird Al” Yankovic, plus veteran Star Wars actors, including Billy Dee Williams, Anthony Daniels, Ahmed Best, Catherine Taber, and Dee Bradley Baker.
Why the show was shelved after Disney bought Lucasfilm
Production on Detours was well advanced by the time Disney closed its acquisition of Lucasfilm in 2012. Confirmation of just how much material existed came in 2015, when Seth Green, one of the show’s voice actors, confirmed that Star Wars Detours had finished development of 39 episodes in total with another 62 scripts already written.
Despite that volume of finished work, Lucasfilm paused production of Detours in 2013, and the series is still technically in limbo, with the studio never officially cancelling it outright. The change in ownership is widely cited as the reason: the parody series would have taken place between the prequel and original trilogies, but after Disney’s acquisition of Lucasfilm and the planned sequel trilogy, the series’ release was put on hold.
Green himself has been candid about why a straightforward streaming release still hasn’t happened, even with a completed season sitting in the vault. Speaking earlier this year, he said “Detours itself would have to be edited, upgraded – they’d have to do new work on it to make it possible to put it on streaming. I just don’t think they’re willing to commit the spend to update and release this when they can’t see a clear benefit.”
A museum exhibit, not a Disney+ drop
The SDCC reveal is a far cry from the wide streaming release fans have speculated about for years. As ComicBook.com reported from the panel, that availability will be seriously limited — rather than a streaming release or any broadly accessible debut, selections of Detours will be playing exclusively at the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art.
The framing matters for a franchise built on nostalgia: this is 14 years after Lucas sold the franchise to Disney, and it’s being pitched as his last direct contribution to the saga he created. LaughingPlace notes that fans will have tons to check out at Lucas Museum when it opens on September 22nd, giving a firm date for when the exhibit — and the first public glimpse of Detours footage — will actually be accessible.
Slim odds for a wider release beyond the museum walls
For Star Wars fans outside Southern California, including in New Zealand and Australia, the practical takeaway is that Detours remains effectively unwatchable at home for now. Lucasfilm has made no announcement of a Disney+ release tied to the museum exhibit, and Green’s own comments earlier this year suggested the studio has shown little appetite to fund the technical clean-up an old-format animated series would need to meet current streaming standards.
There is at least a sliver of institutional hope, however. Coverage of Green’s comments pointed to Dave Filoni and Lynwen Brennan stepping into leadership roles at Lucasfilm following Kennedy’s departure, with Filoni especially having shown a deep respect for all corners of Star Wars storytelling — the kind of shift that has, in the past, preceded revivals of previously shelved franchise material. For now, though, a trip to the Lucas Museum will be the only way to see any of it.
Read also: Sega’s Utsumi Backs Physical Discs as Sony Plans All-Digital PS5 Future by 2028
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Article By News Desk
