Film director George Lucas has begun work on a live action TV spin-off from the Star Wars movies, it emerged yesterday.

However, the project does not include any Skywalkers or other familiar characters from the six hit films.

"The Skywalkers aren't in it, and it's about minor characters," Lucas said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times.

"It has nothing to do with Luke Skywalker or Darth Vader or any of those people. It's completely different. But it's a good idea, and it's going to be a lot of fun to do."

Lucas admitted such an approach was "taking chances" and that TV network executives would not necessarily be convinced.

"They are having a hard time," he added. "They're saying, 'This doesn't fit into our little square boxes,' and I say, 'Well, yeah, but it's Star Wars. And Star Wars doesn't fit into that box.'"

The Star Wars universe has already spawned many side-plots and lore beyond the original films, through official books, comics and games.

Lucas is also working on a separate TV project, a computer-animated series called Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

Producer Rick McCallum has begun to interview writers for the live action series, according to the LA Times.

The first Star Wars film - which became episode four in the sequence - was released in 1977, followed by The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983). Lucas revived the series in 1999 with The Phantom Menace, the first of a prequel trilogy completed by Attack of the Clones (2002) and Revenge of the Sith (2005).