In 1999, The LEGO Company reached a deal with Lucasfilm to begin creating products inspired by the Star Wars franchise. It was among the many tie-ins designed to coincide with the release of Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. LEGO began with sets inspired by the original trilogy, and then the new movie. In the years since Star Wars quickly became the most popular brand in LEGO’s lineup. New Star Wars sets were met with intense speculation and discussion and were rapidly picked off the shelves. Since then, countless new sets have been produced. Dedicated collectors have created their own original LEGO creations and short films based on Star Wars.
Hype for the collaboration reached a high point in 2005 with the theatrical release of Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith. LEGO launched LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game, which featured levels from all three of the prequel films. It instantly became a beloved bestseller. The game was followed by sequels that included the classic trilogy, the complete saga up until that point, The Clone Wars, and The Force Awakens. The success allowed LEGO to begin developing games centered on other brands such as Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, the DC universe, the Marvel universe, Pirates of the Caribbean, Jurassic World, and The Incredibles.
Since the release of the first game, LEGO has also produced short films and animated specials that feature the sets and characters. These projects retain the same quirky sense of humor as the games. Before you check out the new game LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, check out these seven fun specials.
The Padawan Menace (2011)
After several silent short films beginning with 2005’s Revenge of the Brick, LEGO aired its first longer special featuring actual dialogue. Lucasfilm already had a deal with Cartoon Network thanks to The Clone Wars, and so The Padawan Menace was set during the same era. It follows Yoda (Tom Kane) as he teams up with a young boy named Ian (Katie Leigh) to save R2-D2, C-3PO, and a group of younglings. The special featured Star Wars guest stars including Anthony Daniels, Phil LaMarr, and Nika Futterman, and ended with a fun reveal regarding Ian’s identity.
The Empire Strikes Out (2012)
The Padawan Menace had been popular enough that a loose sequel, The Empire Strikes Out, was approved. The Empire Strikes Out was set during the timeline of the classic trilogy, but featured many characters from the prequels and The Clone Wars, with a special focus on Darth Maul. Maul was central to Star Wars merchandising in 2012, as The Phantom Menace had been re-released theatrically in 3D and the character had just returned to The Clone Wars. The LEGO version was a bit more comedic; Maul vies for Emperor Palpatine’s attention in a rivalry with Darth Vader, and sings a song about how awesome he is.
Droid Tales (2015)
Lucasfilm has been developing kid-friendly adventures centered on C-3PO and R2-D2s’ adventures since the beginning of the franchise; the cartoon series Droids ran for one season in 1985, and a new animated film titled Star Wars: A Droid Story is set to be released on Disney+. The LEGO “brickverse” in the five-part miniseries Droid Tales retells events from the previous six films from the comic perspective of the droids; it was part of the ramp-up to the release of The Force Awakens, designed to inform younger viewers about the franchise’s history.
The Resistance Rises (2016)
Droid Tales had focused on characters and events from the first six films and Rebels, so LEGO needed a way to show off their new line of products made to coincide with the sequel trilogy. The five-part animated miniseries The Resistance Rises chronicles the events that take place before The Force Awakens, and follows Poe Dameron and BB-8s’ early adventures. They embark on a daring mission to rescue Admiral Ackbar from the First Order; later episodes included the other major characters from the seventh film, including Kylo Ren, Captain Phasma, Han Solo, Chewbacca, Maz Kanata, Rey, Unkar Plutt, Finn, and a guest appearance by Billy Dee Williams as Lando Calrissian.
The Freemaker Adventures (2016-2017)
LEGO Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures was by far the most ambitious animated crossover between the two brands. Rather than focusing on legacy characters, the animated series introduced the three young siblings Rowan, Kordi, and Zander Freemaker, as well as the friendly reprogrammed battle droid R0-GR. In a series of adventures set between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, the Freemakers scour the galaxy for adventure and join the Rebel Alliance in the attack on Death Star II. It was the first LEGO Star Wars project that felt like an actual television series and ran for two seasons on Disney XD.
The LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special (2020)
The 1978 The Star Wars Holiday Special is one of the most notorious low points in the entire franchise; the two-hour variety special has never been officially released by Lucasfilm in any format, and it's one of the rare Star Wars archive items that is absent from Disney+. The LEGO Star Wars writers had fun with the idea with their animated LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special. It told a new, original story that still focused on the Wookiee holiday “Life Day,” but featured events after The Rise of Skywalker as the Resistance heroes gather their friends for a celebration. Ironically, the animated holiday cartoon did a better job at showing Finn’s force training with Rey than J.J. Abrams’s actual threequel did.
Terrifying Tales (2021)
Following the success of the holiday special, LEGO released another 45-minute adventure for Disney+ set within the Star Wars universe’s version of the Halloween season. In what is essentially the Star Wars edition of The Simpsons’ “Treehouse of Horror” episodes, Poe Dameron and BB-8 travel to Darth Vader’s castle on Mustafar and experience visions focused on “alternate” events in the saga that favor the villains. The stories of a young Ben Solo, the birth of Darth Maul and General Grievous, and a dark side Luke Skywalker are explored.