Star Wars will give the holiday special another try on Disney+ with Legos

By Rick Marshall August 13, 2020

Just when Star Wars fans were starting to successfully repress the shame of 1978’s Star Wars Holiday Special, the franchise will return to Wookiee homeworld Kashyyyk for another attempt at celebrating Life Day.

This time it’s going to be different, though, because The Lego Star Wars Holiday Special has, well, Legos.

Disney made the announcement of The Lego Star Wars Holiday Special on Thursday, August 13, via StarWars.com, where the franchise’s official site offered up a few details about the impending special that will debut on Disney+ in November.

The special will be set after the events of Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker, and will have Rey, Finn, Poe Dameron, Rose, and Chewbacca travel to Kashyyyk to learn about — and celebrate — the Wookiee holiday known as Life Day. Along the way, Rey will find herself visiting a mysterious Jedi temple that sends her on a journey through time and allows her to learn from Luke Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and various other figures from Jedi history.

Oh, and R2-D2, BB-8, and the rest of the droids will be there, too. There’s no word on whether Baby Yoda will make an appearance, however.

The announcement of The Lego Star Wars Holiday Special indicates that the special will cover a lot of ground, bringing in characters and events from all nine of the Skywalker Saga films in Lego form.

The celebration of Life Day was first introduced in George Lucas’ much-maligned Star Wars Holiday Special, which has become the focus of ridicule over the years but holds the distinction of bringing one of the franchise’s most iconic bounty hunters to the screen for the first time: Boba Fett. The 1978 special was the subject of so much negative buzz, in fact, that Lucas had it banished from TV and the home entertainment marketplace in the years that followed — making it a difficult-to-find chapter in the Star Wars timeline.

Directed by Ken Cunningham from a script by David Shayne, The Lego Star Wars Holiday Special will premiere November 17 on Disney’s streaming service Disney+.

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