Lego Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy follows Sig, a young nerf-herder with untapped Force sensitivity. When he and his brother, Dev, come across a long forgotten Jedi Temple they discover an ancient relic. Sig accidentally sets off a chain reaction that rewrites the galaxy around him, much to the chagrin of Jedi Bob, the protector of the Jedi Temple. The pair must work together to keep the relic out of the hands of the Sith as Sig does everything he can to reach Dev who is no longer the brother he knew.

Dan Hernandez and Benji Samit bring their deep love of Star Wars and Lego together in Lego Star Wars: Rebuild The Galaxy. They not only bring Star Wars fan theories to life on screen, but explore completely new versions of classic characters as well. Gaten Matarazzo, Bobby Moynihan, Tony Revolori, and Marsai Martin embody a new generation of characters in this galaxy, while Star Wars icons Mark Hamill, Ahmed Best, Anthony Daniels, and Billy Dee Williams reprised their roles as Luke Skywalker, Jar Jar Binks, C-3PO, and Lando Calrissian.

Screen Rant interviewed Dan Hernandez and Banji Samit about Lego Star Wars: Rebuild The Galaxy. They revealed what inspired some of the variants of classic Star Wars characters and why they wanted to bring Jedi Bob into the canon. They also shared the history of Jedi Bob and explained why the droid Servo could make the jump to live action.

Benji Samit & Dan Hernandez Reveal The Scope Of Their Lego Star Wars Playground

"Everything [Star Wars] was available to us."

Screen Rant: This is the perfect way to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Lego and Star Wars together, and this is a fantastic multiverse story. It has a lot more heart than I thought it would. I thought it was be all jokes, but it has a ton of heart in it. Were all the Star Wars characters free for you guys to use? Were there any characters on the table that you wanted to use but didn't get a chance to?

Benji Samit: No, that's a great question. The truth is everything was available to us, and obviously there are a lot of great characters that are missing from this set of episodes, but that's only because there's only so much we can do in four 22 minute episodes.

You look at our early drafts of this, we're coming in way too long because we just wanted to get everything in there and we had to make some hard cuts. But those cuts came from us. And yeah, I think it sort of came down to what is the most essential stuff that we need to tell this story. But it was tough. It was tough.

Dan Hernandez: Eventually they had to say, guys, we got to cut you off. You got to stop writing. It's over. And we said, okay, okay, okay. You're right. So it was very difficult to choose. There were some tough emissions that I still, sometimes in the dead of night, I'm like, oh, that was a funny, that would've been funny.

But I think that in anything that is referential to sort of the larger canon of work, I also think that you have to be cognizant that it can't just be like the Leonardo DiCaprio meme. I think there's a certain amount of that that's fun, but I think that it also has to service the greater story and sort of the greater thematic point of the piece. That really was clarifying in as Benji said, what got to stay and what we were able to let go over time.

The Origins Of Jedi Bob's Appearance In Rebuild The Galaxy Revealed

"What better way [to celebrate Star Wars fans] than giving them the return of Jedi Bob?"

After watching this, I became a huge fan of Jedi Bob. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, is it true that Jedi Bob's name really came from the fans and it was a generic Lego Jedi that they just named Bob?

Benji Samit: Yes. In the Old Republic gunship set from, I want to say 2003 I think is when it came out, maybe 2004. Yeah, it was just Jedi Knight and it didn't even line up with anyone in that scene. So the fans took it upon themselves to make that random mini fig into something kind of legendary. And it became hard to get.

I mean, it became a collector's item in and of itself where just that mini fig would cost like a hundred dollars to get. I'm a longtime Lego geek, and so I've known about all this stuff going way back as just like a fan in the community. And so when we first started working on this, I said, well, obviously if we're matching up the entire Lego Star Wars galaxy, the Jedi Knight has to be Jedi Bob. It was definitely met with some wait, who,?

Dan Hernandez: It wasn't as obvious as he thought, I would say.

Benji Samit: But to Lucasfilm and Lego's credit, once I explained it to everyone, everyone was on board with the idea. It was this whole special is a love letter to the Lego Star Wars fans. And what better way than giving them the return of Jedi Bob?

Dan Hernandez: And I have to say Bobby Moynihan's performance as Jedi Bob is just beyond our wildest expectations. I think that that's because first of all, Bobby is one of the funniest living people, but second of all, Bobby is a huge Star Wars fan.

Even to the extent where we said, well, there's this character Jedi Bob, he's kind of obscure. And he reached into his pocket and he took out his own Jedi bob that he already had. He said, you mean this character? He already knew. In fact, Bobby brought his original Jedi, Bob mini fig into the recording booth for every session as kind of a good luck charm.

I think that that really is emblematic of the ion that everybody on this project felt and the actual love for Star Wars and Lego that we were all kind of swimming in the entire time we were making this show.

Dan Hernandez Reveals What Inspired Darth Jar Jar, Darth Rey & Redeemed Darth Vader

I'm a big Lego fan and I'm a big Star Wars fan. This felt as if I were picking up Legos in playing out my own adventure, except you guys did it way better. Now, there's a lot of things in the fandom that were either teased or rumored by fans. Did that help shape your decision on where some of these characters were going to go when the galaxy was rebuilt?

Dan Hernandez: A hundred percent. Benji and I have been, I'll confess, we're dorks, we're nerds, we're geeks. Whatever you want to call it, that's us. So we have been extremely versed in all things Star Wars for decades. I think that includes the canonical movies than the shows.

But I would also expand that to include what was formerly called the EU. Now, the Legends books, the comic books, the Marvel Comic, everything that was Star Wars was something that we were consuming. Some of us can't ride bikes. Some of us did study the Star Wars encyclopedia as a kid.

So when we would look at the internet, we would see what people were buzzing about, what people were excited about. I think the Darth Jar Jar is probably the most clear example of that, where we also got excited by this theory and thought it was so interesting and so funny, and really to say, gosh, can you imagine if that were true?

Benji Samit: There was also the Lego geek in me also had the distinct honor of being able to think, well, what do I want a Lego mini fig of? And so things like, well, I want a Darth Jar Jar mini fig. I want a Darth Rey mini fig. I want the Redeemed Jedi Vader mini fig. And so for us to be able to make those decisions of being like, well, they're in the show now. So yeah, it was the coolest instance of playing with my toys ever.

Dan Hernandez: We tried to really put something in for everyone at every stage of their Star Wars experience and their Lego experience. Whether you are a complete newcomer to both, and this is your first experience with Star Wars and Lego, or whether you are someone that has been absolutely studying this like a professor for decades and decades.

Even the name of the planet Vanessa comes from one of the old Star Wars tabletop roleplaying game material, and it's a deep, deep, deep, deep cut. So we really tried to poke around for what can we bring into this that's going to make everyone feel seen and sort of included in the fun of what we're trying to accomplish?

"Servo Is The One That I Think Could Really Jump Over To [Live Action Star Wars]"

I do have a big question for you, Jedi Bob, Sig and Dev, Yesi, Servo, and an Ewok bounty hunter, which one has the best chances of making it to the live action Star Wars cannon? And which would you personally like to see in the live action canon first?

Dan Hernandez: That's a great question. I think it's Servo. I think Michael Cusack is one of the most talented people that we know. We worked with him on our show, Koala Man, and we've become close friends with him. When we set out to say, "Okay, what is our droid in this show?" We said, "You know what? It's got to be an Australian Gonk droid. The choice is clear. There's only one choice."

And Michael is the most tremendous voice actor. Literally, they told us we had to stop sending alt takes of Michael at a certain point because there was too much. He just can't stop once he gets going, which is a great benefit to us because we now have our choice of what to use. And I don't know if you saw in the third episode where he kind of talks over the opening credits, but I still can't believe that we got to do that.

To me, Servo is the one that I think could really jump over to the main line series and be an amazing part of the Star Wars legacy.

More About Lego Star Wars: Rebuild The Galaxy

A nerf-herder discovers an artifact that twists the Star Wars universe, swapping the roles of heroes and villains. He embarks on an adventure to restore order and emerge as the savior who reassembles the fractured galaxy.

Check out our other Lego Star Wars: Rebuild The Galaxy interviews:

• Bobby Moynihan
• Gaten Matarazzo
• Tony Revolori & Marsai Martin

Lego Star Wars: Rebuild The Galaxy is available on Disney+ now.

Source: Screen Rant Plus