TV Review: "LEGO Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy - Pieces of the Past" Delivers More Fast-Paced, Easter Egg-Filled Fun

Pretty much exactly one year ago, give or take a week, Lucasfilm’s acclaimed animated miniseries LEGO Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy made its debut on Disney+. And today, the sequel to that miniseries– entitled LEGO Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy - Pieces of the Past– dropped on the streaming service as well. Below are my thoughts.

The concept of Rebuild the Galaxy is a relatively simple one, although it results in a somewhat complicated cacophony (in a good way) of a Star Wars remix. As we’re told in a breezy recap at the beginning of Pieces of the Past, nerf-herder Sig Greebling (voiced once again by Gaten Matarazzo from Stranger Things) removed the so-called “cornerstone" from his own universe, shifting everything around and creating a new one in which many of the good guys are now bad and vice-versa, among numerous other differences. Here, we catch up with him while he’s training with Jedi Bob (Bobby Moynihan from DuckTales)... and on the other side of the galaxy Darth Dev (Tony Revolori from Spider-Man: Homecoming) plots his revenge.

Other returning characters include Yesi Scala (Black-ish’s Marsai Martin), the energetic power droid Servo (Smiling Friends co-creator Michael Cusack), and the alternate-universe bro-like Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill, reprising a unique version of his most famous role once again). But when a skirmish between Sig and Dev tears a hole in the fabric of the galaxy, out emerges a new villain named Solitus (Solar Opposites star Dan Stevens)-- who we soon learn was once Jedi Bob’s master, before he turned to the dark side of the Force. Our heroes get sucked into yet another alternate plane of existence called the Force Hold, where forgotten characters wind up when the galaxy gets remixed like we saw in the first miniseries. There we meet Jaxxon (a “deep cut" Star Wars comics character voiced by another DuckTales veteran, Ben Schwartz) an enormous brick-built Chewbacca, and even a BrickHeadz Ahsoka Tano (Ashley Eckstein, back for more).

All of these characters and many more cameos (including Billy Dee Williams as the Lando-lorian, Anthony Daniels as a piratey C-3PO, Nika Futterman as a rancor-riding Asajj Ventress, Cameron Monaghan as Cal Kestis from Star Wars: Jedi - Fallen Order, and James Arnold Taylor returning as his Star Wars: The Clone Wars character Obi-Wan Kenobi) must band together to take on Solitus before he strips the galaxy bare. Like his name implies, Solitus wants nothing more than to be alone in the universe, though he does also want to take Dev as his new apprentice in seeking out this goal.

Much of the fun of Rebuild the Galaxy is getting to see so many familiar Star Wars characters, locations, ships, and creatures in next contexts, but the original characters are– as they were in the first installment– endearing and entertaining as well. Like last time, the story is delivered across four episodes at a breakneck pace that probably suits its younger target audience much more than it does a relative old-timer Star Wars fan like me, but I can still appreciate the rapid-fire humor and absolute avalanche of Easter Eggs (I laughed pretty hard when a certain brand-new thousand-dollar LEGO Star Wars set made a brief appearance on-screen) along with the hyperkinetic action and engaging character relationships.

I believe the intent of something like Rebuild the Galaxy and its follow-up Pieces of the Past is to give budding young Star Wars fans something light-hearted and attention-grabbing to enjoy along with their parents, who might be more familiar with the franchise and thus able to explain some of the more obscure in-jokes to the kids. For that reason it’s a little more joke-heavy and less self-serious than Lucasfilm’s other current youngling-focused animated series Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures. But those differences help make Rebuild the Galaxy: Pieces of the Past more appealing to older crowds who will get a kick out of the cavalcade of Star Wars references sourced from across the entire saga, while being drawn in by the narrative at the same time. So, whether you already know who Jaxxon T. Tumperakki is or not, I genuinely mean it when I say this miniseries and its predecessor are both fun for the whole family.

LEGO Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy - Pieces of the Past is available to stream in its entirety right now, exclusively via Disney+.