An aborted Star Wars TV show would have recast one of the franchise's biggest villains as a tragic hero.

Emperor Palpatine - Dark Lord of the Sith - was a "sympathetic figure" in the axed series, according to writer Cory Barlog.

Known for his work on the God of War games, Barlog used to work at LucasArts and revealed he read the unfilmed scripts for Star Wars: Underworld.

"It was the most mind-blowing thing I'd ever experienced," he told VentureBeat. "I cared about the Emperor (played by Ian McDiarmid in the films).

Lucasfilm

"They made the Emperor a sympathetic figure who was wronged by this f**king heartless woman. She's this hardcore gangster, and she just totally destroyed him as a person.

"I almost cried while reading this. This is the Emperor, the 'lightning out of the fingers' Emperor. That's something magical."

Star Wars: Underworld was pitched as "much darker" than the movies and would have followed "smugglers, gangsters [and] bounty hunters" in a galaxy far, far away.

Disney's acquisition of Lucasfilm and the new series of Star Wars movies led to the project being abandoned. So it seems we'll never see a softer side to Palpatine...

Rogue One will be the next Star Wars film to hit cinemas - on December 16 - with Episode VIII to follow on December 15, 2017.

Watch the electrifying trailer for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story right here:

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