At Star Wars Celebration, we got to take a look at LEGO Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures behind the scenes. For those who don’t know, The Freemaker Adventures is a LEGO-based TV series on Disney XD about a group of characters called the Freemakers. This is a family of scavengers who consist of Kordi and her brothers, Zander and Rowan, with their butler droid R0-GR, who go on adventures taking place in between Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. It’s a show that mixes the drama of Star Wars with LEGO’s classic comedy.
Creators Bill Motz and Bob Roth, along with director Michael Hegner and battle droid voice actor Matthew Wood.
First concepts
The concepts for the show actually began at a Comic Con dinner. Bill Motz and Bob Roth both discussed and fleshed out the idea of salvagers. The idea evolved through many forms until it became what it now is, and was taken up by Lucasfilm.
Any idea they went with, they decided, needed to incorporate elements of the whole saga. Being LEGO salvagers allowed them to feature technology from both trilogies, as well as Clone Wars and Rebels. They could take apart old ships, remake them, or build new ones. They could also feature a battle droid and bring Matt Wood back. It led to many new possibilities and was a perfect fit.
Meanwhile, with the new characters family was always at the heart of the story, being so crucial to what LEGO is about. As these were original characters, the stakes were high, and parody was no longer the key focus of the series. And finally, when Michael Hegner was involved and the project was taken further, they could put together pitches for the episodes.
Developing episodes
The family they made was based on relatable characters that would work for comedy and drama. Rowan was an energetic young child who learned the Force very differently from Luke due to his impatience. Zander was the car nut who taught Rowan the most important lessons, despite appearing stupid at first. Kordi would be the one to keep it all together, and made the business run for the others.
Guest stars from the main series would also appear. Luke and Leia are among cameos, while Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine made recurring appearances. Vader and Palpatine’s portrayal was as out-of-touch leaders, ones who gave orders with little care for details. The portrayal was different from or more exaggerated than their film appearances, for comedic purposes.
The series has taken place in almost all planets seen throughout the saga. One clip shown was of the podrace from The Phantom Menace, which they stumbled upon while fleeing villain Dengar. Original locations and technology have also been used, with Doug Chiang designing much of the art.
The music was composed by Michael Kramer. His score was designed to emulate much of the John Williams score and was all performed live. He had access to the entire original score and interpolated elements from it at points. While the music is quite distinct from the Williams score, it is still very much a Star Wars score.
The future of the series
The panelists could not deny nor confirm a second season. The first season will air this summer, and the team expressed interest in making a game, though there are no plans.
Having never seen this series before, I have to admit I was impressed. The score and the style are faithful to the series, while the idea is unique and appears to work perfectly. The LEGO humor is also a perfect fit. I imagine this is a great family series and I look forward to what will come next.