Popverse's top stories of the day

• How Disney+'s What If...? is the moonshot for the next 50 years of Marvel Studios & the MCU
• Watch: Dune: Prophecy's Desmond Hart explained: His secret identity, his past, and his possible future [SPOILERS]
• Dune: Prophecy's Desmond Hart explained: His secret identity, his past, and his possible future [SPOILERS]

---

This September, Disney+ premieres the new animated miniseries LEGO Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy. A non-canonical story set entirely in LEGO, this new 4 part adventure focuses on original character Sig Greebling as the rules of the entire Galaxy are rewritten around him, from Ewok bounty hunters to the rise of Darth Jar Jar. For a franchise in an ongoing search for its Post-Skywalker Saga identity, it all sounds like a pretty wild swing, on its face. But in truth, Rebuild the Galaxy is merely the latest madcap installment in a LEGO Star Wars saga that’s been building itself brick by brick just a little bit back and to the left of Canon for nigh on 14 years. If you’re intrigued by this irrevent, whimsical Star Tour, we’re here to guide you through the instruction booklet without missing any pieces. You don’t even have to travel far – most of it can even be found right on the Disney+ docking bay.

The Silent Era (2002-2010)

A key component of the brand identity in the earliest LEGO animated shorts and video games was a reliance on silent visual comedy, seldom employing voice actors to deliver any dialogue whatsoever. The earliest animated LEGO Star Wars shorts, first streaming on archaic builds of the official LEGO website to promote their new LEGO Star Wars builds and products, played out like silent branded skits akin to the earliest animated cartoon shorts. Almost like if Steamboat Willie had Chewbacca in it. This period includes the stop motion animated “The Han Solo Affair,” a comedic recreation of the chase for the frozen Han through Cloud City in The Empire Strikes Back; “Revenge of the Brick,” a farcical abridged retelling of Revenge of the Sith; “The Quest for R2-D2,” an R2-focused Clone Wars era misadventure; and Bombad Bounty, inserting Jar Jar Binks into key moments from the Original Trilogy. These shorts have been lost from official channels, but you can still find them on YouTube if you poke around for them.

The Padawan Menace (2011)

The first episode-length LEGO Star Wars special with a wholly original narrative aired on Cartoon Network during the original run of the Clone Wars cartoon, and takes place during that series. The story focuses on a runaway orphan named Ian who sneaks into a Coruscant tour group and ends up getting into trouble with Yoda, R2-D2, and C-3PO. The big reveal: the young “Ian” had actually been “Han” all along. The LEGO brick with the first letter on his nametag had just fallen sideways. Like the early silent shorts, The Padawan Menace is unavailable on Disney+, but you can still watch it for $2.99 on Amazon in their LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Brick Saga So Far collection.

The Empire Strikes Out (2012)

This special, which aired on Cartoon Network the following year, is set after the destruction of the Death Star in A New Hope, and does much to establish the tone of the LEGO Star Wars franchise going forward – as a sort of family-friendly alternative to the Robot Chicken Star Wars parodies in its loving mockery of the source material. The original movies meld with the prequel trilogy here as the heroes of the Rebellion broker an alliance with the Gungans on Naboo, while Darth Vader and a still-living (but leg-detachable) Darth Maul compete like rival siblings for Papa Palpatine’s favor. This special can also be found in Amazon’s LEGO Star Wars collection.

The Yoda Chronicles (2013-2014)

The seven episode “Yoda Chronicles” series is the first ongoing animated LEGO Star Wars project featuring a continuous narrative – but because of the way it was distributed, the first three episodes are a little more elusive to find today. The first three episodes originally aired on Cartoon Network in 2013, with the remaining four, “The New Yoda Chronicles,” airing on Disney XD as the effects of the sale of Lucasfilm to Disney went through. Because of this, you can find the last four episodes of The Yoda Chronicles on Disney+ today, but for the first three you’ll have to go back into Amazon’s LEGO Star Wars collection.

The first three episodes of The Yoda Chronicles, “The Phantom Clone,” “Menace of the Sith,” and “Attack of the Jedi,” center on Yoda and a group of original Padawans during the Clone Wars on the trail of Jek-14, a Force-sensitive Clone Trooper developed as a Separatist secret weapon. Yoda and the Padawans helped turn Jek-14 away from the Dark Side, and he struck out into the Galaxy to find a life of his own.

The remaining four episodes of The Yoda Chronicles can all be found on Disney+, though the service classifies them as separate specials and doesn’t mark the correct order. These episodes, set during the Original Trilogy, focus on Yoda and the Force spirit of Obi-Wan continuing Luke Skywalker’s training, sending him across the Galaxy to gather missing Holocrons – even momentarily reuniting Yoda with his old friend “Ian,” and providing an update on Jek-14’s whereabouts. The correct order of these specials is as follows:

• Escape from the Jedi Temple
• Race for the Holocrons
• Raid on Coruscant
• Clash of the Skywalkers

You may also notice a LEGO Star Wars special on Disney+ titled “Duel of the Skywalkers.” Duel of the Skywalkers is just an alternate version of “Clash,” nearly identical but for a different ending. Which version is “canon” doesn’t really matter. This is LEGO Star Wars.

Droid Tales (2015)

Like the original LEGO Star Wars video games, this five episode Disney XD series is a chronological retelling of the events of the first 6 films in the franchise. The difference here is a framing narrative set shortly after Return of the Jedi, all given from the perspective of C-3PO – played here, as nearly always since the start of recorded history, by Anthony Daniels. 3PO even manages to shoehorn a plug in for the contemporary Star Wars: Rebels animated series, inserting his brief encounter with Ezra Bridger and the Ghost crew into episode 3. Like every LEGO Star Wars special from 2014 on, you can find Droid Tales on Disney+.

The Resistance Rises (2016)

Similarly to the LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens video game, the five episode Resistance Rises series serves as a sort of non-canonical expansion to the events of the film, giving us new contemporary misadventures for Finn, Rey, Poe, Han and Chewie, and even one episode featuring Maz Kanata and an elderly Lando Clarissian, years before his canonical return in Rise of Skywalker.

The Freemaker Adventures (2016-2017)

If you’re only going to watch one thing on this list, make it this completely original two-season series set between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. These 26 episodes follow the Freemaker siblings and their reconstructed B1 battle droid R0-GR, four handy shipbuilders who run a repair shop on the far end of space, as they get swept up in the final battles of the Galactic Civil War. It’s an exciting, hilarious, and often heartfelt story of unlikely heroes rising to meet impossible odds. In other words, Star Wars in its truest sense, brickful or brickless. The main reason we wrote this article is so you have some idea what’s going on when an elderly Jek-14 suddenly shows up for an episode in the second season.

LEGO Star Wars: All-Stars (2018)

After the prolonged continuous epic narrative of The Freemaker Adventures, All-Stars provides a more agile vehicle in its anthology format, where each episode is free to focus on another character at a different time in the Star Wars saga – much like 2017’s Forces of Destiny. The Freemakers’ R0-GR, the young Han, Chewbacca, and Lando of Solo: A Star Wars Story, and the next generation of Freemakers in the era of the Resistance all get their due here, as does personal favorite secondary Freemaker Adventures villain Graballa the Hutt, as played brilliantly by Dana Snyder.

(When you search for All-Stars on Disney+, you may also notice a collection of “All-Stars Shorts.” Don’t bother with these if you’ve already seen the series proper – all eight of these were compiled to form the first R0-GR centric episode of All-Stars.)

The LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special (2020)

This one’s exciting for a couple reasons – and not just because it’s a Star Wars Holiday Special you can actually watch. Although, like all LEGO Star Wars specials, none of the events here can be taken as canon, The LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special is one of the few existing pieces of Star Wars media to date set AFTER The Rise of Skywalker. As the heroes of the Resistance prepare for a Life Day celebration with Chewbacca’s family, here we get to see Rey beginning training Finn as her first Jedi student. One time traveling crystal misadventure later, Rey gets some timely assistance by the Force spirit of Yoda on how to accept the mantle of teacher and mentor to the next generation of Jedi. This also marks the beginning of the Disney+ era of LEGO Star Wars programming, which has thus far brought us a new special each year (2023 excepted).

LEGO Star Wars Terrifying Tales (2021)

This Simpsons Treehouse of Horror-style treatment of the Star Wars Galaxy for the Halloween season features some interesting insights into the character of Kylo Ren, with the first of three stories depicting his history with the underexplored Knights of Ren – even providing the first appearance of Ren himself outside of Charles Soule’s Star Wars comics. The other two stories are pure exercises in horror genre fiction, including “The Wookiee’s Paw,” an adaptation of the classic W.W. Jacobs short story starring Luke Skywalker.

LEGO Star Wars Summer Vacation (2022)

This one is particularly funny to watch now, as the whole special is framed as Finn taking the overworked Resistance heroes with him on a much-needed vacation… aboard the Halcyon starcruiser. It’s essentially a 48 minute LEGO commercial for Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser, the Disney resort you can no longer attend, having shut its doors last year due to poor attendance. This special does, however, feature the Star Wars Galactic debut of “Weird” Al Yankovic as “The Bith Boys” front man Vic Vankoh. So it’s got that going for it.

And that’s everything you need to watch before LEGO Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy in September! Well, okay, you don’t really NEED to watch all of it. Or, really, any of it. But we’re here to have a good time with some Star Wars you can watch with your kids. Or alone. I’m not your dad. If there’s one thing LEGO and Star Wars fans both know well, it’s the determination to hold fast to a beloved cornerstone of childhood for the rest of their lives. It’s a flavor combination that goes down smooth.

---

---

Get to know, understand, and love the Star Wars franchise more with our Star Wars watch order, guide to all the upcoming Star Wars movies & TV shows, and all the Star Wars movies and Star Wars TV shows ranked.