New and familiar Star Wars characters get the What If…? treatment in LEGO Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy. All the stories you thought you knew get remixed in a way that only the LEGO Star Wars universe could pull off. Grab your blue milk and let’s punch it.
LEGO Star Wars Rebuild The Galaxy Review
For a while now, Star Wars fans have been asking Lucasfilm to release a What If…? type series that like Marvel, would explore alternate storylines for favorite characters. Written by Dan Hernandez and Benji Samit, who recently worked on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem and directed by Chris Buckley, who is no stranger to LEGO or Star Wars, Rebuild the Galaxy is a fun, adventurous romp through the galaxy with humor and heart to spare. It isn’t quite the equivalent of The Watcher sharing the multiverse with us, but this 4-piece special does dive into the Skywalker Saga and remixes the stories we know with the same reverence to canon that past LEGO outings have shown.
LEGO Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy follows in the footsteps of LEGO Star Wars Terrifying Tales and LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special in that it breathes new life into familiar characters and stories from all eras of the galaxy’s long history, mostly by poking fun at them. But it’s never mean spirited, just some good natured teasing. Where other LEGO Star Wars stories have essentially dealt with the events of the Skywalker Saga in humorous ways, Rebuild the Galaxy looks at them from the other side of a mirror. It looks somewhat similar yet it’s not and Hernandez and Samit use this to their advantage to bring in some of the more “out there” discussion board theories. From Darth Jar Jar Binks (Ahmed Best) and Greedo (Jake Green) shooting his shot first to Beach Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), things get a little wild.
This story isn’t just about subverting the familiar, it also is about two brothers trying to blaze their own path in the galaxy. Taking place after the events of The Rise of Skywalker, Rebuild the Galaxy follows two nerf-herders: Dev Greebling (Tony Revolori) and his younger brother Sig (Gaten Matarazzo). Sig is a fanboy, eagerly retelling the events of the Skywalker Saga to anyone who will listen, even if he does occasionally mix up plot points. It was Ewoks not Wookiees. Dev on the other hand yearns to leave their home planet of Fenessa behind and journey out into the wider galaxy. But when Sig uses his Force abilities in an old Jedi temple to touch a glowing brick (the Cornerstone), their entire existence gets turned upside down (and all other directions too), as they find themselves transported to an entirely different galaxy.
Without his brother, Sig worries he might be alone but is soon joined by his longtime friend (and crush) Yesi Scala (Marsai Martin) and Jedi Bob (a deep-cut LEGO Star Wars reference, voiced here by Bobby Moynihan) who was the guardian of the Cornerstone brick. Clearly he failed at his job or this wouldn’t even be happening. Here in this new galaxy, things have gotten a little twisted. Iconic heroes like Rose Tico (Kelly Marie Tran) and Nubs (Dee Bradley Baker) are now Sith baddies while Darth Vader (Fred Tatasciore) and Emperor Palpatine (Trevor Devall) lead the surviving Jedi Order. If that wasn’t bad enough, Sig finds that his brother Dev is now known as Darth Devastator who is bent on conquering the galaxy.
It’s clear to Sig that there is only one person who can help rebuild things– Luke Skywalker. Which would be true except in this remixed world, Luke isn’t some noble Jedi but a laid-back pod-racer who looks like he would be right at home hanging with Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze in Point Break. Hamill returning to voice Luke is something we have all secretly wanted for a while and this version of him does not disappoint. He’s a dude-bro who is completely unserious about anything that doesn’t concern his race winnings. There is more I could say about him but I don’t want to spoil anything, just know that this version of Luke is hilarious and really makes me want to see more of him. Along with Hamill some other familiar voices pop up in role-reversals, I won’t reveal too much but Anthony Daniels is one of them and you do not want to cross this version of C-3PO.
Verdict
Whether you are a child or a kid at heart, LEGO has always been about creating worlds and stories of our own. Much like the bricks themselves, these LEGO Star Wars stories speak to our imaginations and the idea that anything is possible. Just like its predecessors, LEGO Star Wars Rebuild the Galaxy turns a slightly snarky, comedic eye on the galaxy far, far away to give fans something that is fun, entertaining, and a total blast. Yet it also packs in a lot of heart. Below the easter eggs, extreme deep-cuts, and great one-liners, there is a story about a kid on a journey of self-discovery and finding hope even in the darkest of times. With all the doorways it opens, I hope we revisit Sig, Dev, and this version of the galaxy again soon.
All four episodes of LEGO Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy are streaming now on Disney+.
