Adult Swim’s ‘Robot Chicken’ working on a third ‘Star Wars’ parody

Call it a trilogy of sorts.

"We might have to wait 20 years to do a fourth," joked Matthew Senreich, an executive producer, along with actor Seth Green.

What has gotten the most press, he said in a phone interview, was one name: Zac Efron. The "High School Musical" star will play Anakin Skywalker. "He's a fan of the show," he said. "Seth bumped into him at some MTV Awards."

Former Atlantan and "Community" star Donald Glover will do also some voices, along with Anthony Daniels, who played C3PO in the films. In the past, they've gotten Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill to do voices. Harrison  Ford has expressed interest but has not shown enough interest to set aside the time.

“It’s the easiest work there is,” Senreich said. “They come in, record for maybe an hour or less. Then they’re out. Most of the time, they hang out all day and watch us work.”

He said recently married couple Brian Austin Green ("90210″) and Megan Fox ("Transformers") will be coming by soon for one of the 20 regular season episodes set to debut later this year. Ditto with Elijah Wood and Sarah Michelle Gellar. One sad note: a week before he passed, Gary Coleman did some voices. "We have a sketch that's a play on the movie 'Taken,' but with Gary as Arnold from 'Diff'rent Strokes,' " he said. "He was great, really humble. He had a good time. He kept pitching us different ideas."

He said the longer “Star Wars”  episode means deeper story lines. This one will focus on the bad guys. Already, the “Star Wars” parody characters have special tics of their own independent of the films. “Our Emperor is neurotic,” Senreich said. “Boba Fett is a cocky arrogant guy for no reason given that he’s a big failure in the movies. Once you have these personas, you can do completely different things.”

Although the show mocks the Star Wars universe, creator George Lucas is on board. "He has a wicked sense of humor," Senreich said. "In our second episode, we had Luke and Leia in bed together. Anakin killing all the young. I'm shocked we got away with all of that. They recognize this is for an older audience."

I theorized that perhaps “Robot Chicken” can get away with outrageous stuff because its characters are toys. “Everyone has their imagination,” he said. “It can get violent and crazy and over the top. That’s pretty much what we’re doing.”

Among future parody subjects: “Twilight” and “Avatar.” But fist-pumping “Jersey Shore?” Nope. “We work so far ahead,  we have to be careful with pop culture references that might not be relevant in eight months,” he said. With “Jersey Shore,” “it’s hard to say.”

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