Remember the time when rumors that a live-action Star Wars television series was in pre-production would have ignited swirls of fan frenzy? How things have changed. Now SciFiWire’s report that writers are being assembled down under is just another line item in a crowded RSS feed. The show has long had a planned start date of late ‘09, so this report goes along with what we’ve already known. Assuming we do see a Star Wars series premiering next year, what will it actually be?

Goerge Lucas, who will be relatively hands-off as an Executive Producer, has said several times that the show would run at least 100 episodes, and at one point there was word that could be upped to 400. He has described the show as “Deadwood meets The Sopranos in space” and repeatedly claimed that no major characters from the films would be integral parts of the storyline, but that some characters could show up as cameos. The Empire will be rising in the background, and we’ll hear about the Emporer, but not see him.

Early last year, producer Rick McCallum confirmed that Boba Fett would be “an instrumental part” of the new series (contradicting the ‘no major characters’ rule? or downgrading Boba to a minor character in the eyes of McCallum and Lucas?) which is set in the transitional timeline between Episode III and IV. Later it was reported that McCallum wants to see Daniel Logan, the young Boba Fett from the prequels, in the Fett armor for the series.

The show was originally meant to go earlier this year, but the writers’ strike postponed development. We’ve heard a lot over the last two years about writers working on scripts, and now the SciFiWire report says that “high-quality writers from the Aussie TV industry, including writers from Love My Way and Secret Life of Us” are being assembled. And a couple of months ago Rose Byrne seemed to confirm that casting had begun in Australia.

Lucas is self-financing the show, and has said they are going to write the entire first season at once, then cast and shoot it, so that it is all planned out and properly thought through. He’s still without a network partner for broadcast, and likely will remain so until there is more to show.