Lego Star Wars Holiday Special Will Mix Timelines In Wild Ways

The Star Wars Holiday Special is the notorious 1978 TV special that reunited the stars of the first hit Star Wars movie for a truly terrible mix of music, comedy, and heartwarming seasonal cheer. The show was only screened once and has never been officially released, but it remains a much-bootlegged artefact of a very different era. A new Holiday Special is set to be released this year, using Lego version of fan-favorite characters from the series, and new details about the show have been revealed.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, producer James Waugh explained that the Lego Star Wars Holiday Special will mix characters that you'd never normally see onscreen together in live-action movies and shows. "Normally story groups are so concerned about maintaining this amazing galaxy so that it feels cohesive" he said. "It was liberating to do this in a way that's charming and fun."

The encounters that we can expect to see in the Lego Star Wars Holiday Special include Rey meeting a young Luke Skywalker and Kylo Ren, as well as engaging in a lightsaber duel with Darth Vadar. There will also be two Han Solos and three Obi-Wan Kenobis. Waugh stated that the inspiration came from the realization that kids rarely stick to official canon when playing their own Star Wars games. "My son literally just dumps his bucket out," he said. "We realized that was a play pattern that could actually inform the fun of this show."

Waugh also went on to explain that while the new show would reference the original Holiday Special, it's not simply a Lego remake. "What it does is lean into the conceits that were created in that Holiday Special," he said. "We have Life Day as a fictional thread because of the Holiday Special. You've seen that [referenced] in The Mandalorian, we've used it in publishing, and fans have embraced it. Last year fans celebrated Life Day at Galaxy's Edge in the park. So it's really those elements and going to Kashyyyk for family celebrations with the Wookies, but we're not doing Lego Bea Arthur singing in a cantina."

The voice cast for the Special will feature several actors from the movies, namely Kelly Marie Tran as Rose Tico, Billy Dee Williams as Lando Calrissian, and Anthony Daniels as C-3PO. Other key roles will be performed by Star Wars: The Clone Wars voice actors, such as Matt Lanter (Anakin Skywalker), Tom Kane (Yoda, Qui-Gon Jinn), James Arnold Taylor (Obi-Wan Kenobi), and Dee Bradley Baker (clone troopers).

The Lego Star Wars Holiday Special is directed by Ken Cunningham (LEGO Jurassic World) and written by David Shayne (LEGO Jurassic World). It hits Disney+ on November 17.