Star Wars: The comedy?

The Star Wars franchise has inspired six blockbuster movies, an animated TV spin-off, graphic novels, and even a bewildering Thanksgiving holiday special. Now George Lucas is promising a Star Wars comedy series animated by Lucasfilm and produced by Robot Chicken's Seth Green (who's already knocked off parodies of the Star Wars films). Is the Force potentially funny, or does this constitute sacrilege of the original trilogy?

Lucas can't help but ruin Star Wars: He's done it again, says James Lileks at the Star Tribune. The "smothering hand" of George Lucas has descended to make the Star Wars franchise more of a joke than it already is. Being a Star Wars fan at this point is like "belonging to a religion that worships a god who shows up every few years, revises the key holy texts [and] makes them stupider."

"Worst TV show idea of 2010"

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There's comedy potential here: Fanboys love "flaws or funny inconsistencies in the Star Wars universe," says Krystal Clark at ScreenCrave, so there's clearly comic fodder here. And the creators of the "hilarious" Robot Chicken know "how to handle campy, fanboy material," so I'm feeling encouraged.

"Star Wars to become an animated comedy series"

This is about money, not comedy: It's amusing when "fans lovingly poke fun at the Star Wars universe," says Matt Goldberg at Collider, but less so when the "behemoth of Lucasfilm" tries to itself. Especially when this venture is clearly, expediently designed to push "the Star Wars brand as far as it will go." Lucas doesn't care about creativity or even potential fan outrage, just money.

"Animated Star Wars comedy TV series being developed by Robot Chicken creators Seth Green and Matthew Seinrich"