A long time ago at an animation studio in Burbank, director George Lucas teamed up with the “Robot Chicken” goofs to make 39 episodes of “Star Wars: Detours,” an animated parody of the Star Wars universe.
But when the Empire known as Disney absorbed Lucasfilm in 2013, the series took its own detour into a vault, also probably in Burbank, where it gathered dust on a shelf. Until now.
“Guys, here’s the thing,” said Seth Green during a panel on the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Hall H at San Diego Comic-Con on Thursday, July 23. “We made a show with George, an animated series. He wanted to make a ‘Simpsons’ in the Star Wars universe. It’s called ‘Detours.’
“And there’s going to be a curation of episodes from that show on display for the public,” continued Green, co-creator of the animated series “Robot Chicken” with Matthew Senreich, with whom he also runs Stoopid Buddy Stoodios.
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Keke Palmer speaks at ‘Inside The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art’ Hall H panel during 2026 Comic-Con International: San Diego at San Diego Convention Center on July 23, 2026 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Amy Sussman/Getty Images)
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Keke Palmer speaks at ‘Inside The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art’ Hall H panel during 2026 Comic-Con International: San Diego at San Diego Convention Center on July 23, 2026 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Amy Sussman/Getty Images)
What was it like working with Lucas, panel host Keke Palmer asked Senreich and Green.
“He’s funny,” Senreich said. “Nobody thinks that. Like, everybody sees the serious side to him. The fact that we had this opportunity to make him laugh was always one of those things I always come back to.
“It took me like six months to get comfortable talking with him because I had idolized him growing up,” he continued. “But once you get to that place, you realize he’s like us.”
Green met Lucas first, though Lucas might not have realized that, he said.
“I met him several times before he would remember meeting me,” Green said. “I realized I had to figure out a better point of entry, and I finally found the right moment. It was truly just finding anything that we could have in common, and then talking to him.
“Not as a fan. And it made him comfortable to interact with me where I was. Like, I’m not crazy,” Green said.
“I don’t need you to sign everything,” Senreich added.
“But also, like, I would take them,” Green said, prompting laughter from the rest of the panel, which in addition to Senreich and Palmer included Jim Lee, president, publisher and chief creative officer of DC Comics, and Ryan Linkof, senior curator and head of film programming for the Lucas Museum.
Linkof also shared details of the film programming the museum will feature when it opens on Sept. 22. Two state-of-the-art theaters will screen films nonstop when the museum is open, one of them focused mostly on documentaries, the other on experimental and avant-garde films including animation.
“[Lucas] had this great and really unique idea for a film program that would essentially be an extension of the the exhibitions,” Linkof said. “And see these beautiful theaters as almost like film galleries.”