'The LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special' Will Have Rey Fight Darth Vader And More Crossover Craziness

The Star Wars Holiday Special is so infamous that George Lucas has not only disavowed it entirely, but it has been said that he would gladly smash every copy with a sledgehammer. However, Disney is hoping to give fans a better way to celebrate Life Day with The LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special. The animated special is coming to Disney+ next month, and it will bring all three of the Star Wars trilogies together in a cross-timeline adventure that will have character meetings that would otherwise be impossible, including Rey fighting Darth Vader.Entertainment Weekly has some new details on The LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special coming to Disney+ on November 17. Executive producer James Waugh reassures fans, "This is not like a LEGO Star Wars remake of the Holiday Special in any way ... but what it does is lean into the conceits that were created in that holiday special." That's because the story still unfolds on Life Day, but what happens in this new special will be unlike any Star Wars project that came before it. Waugh elaborated:

"We started realizing that the way they play with them isn't with canonical separation, it's not, 'Let's put all the classic trilogy sets here, the prequel sets here, new sequel sets here.' My son literally just dumps his bucket out. We realized that was a play pattern that could actually inform the fun of this show."

One of the impossible meetings will see Rey encountering Darth Vader and having a lightsaber battle:

As you can see, that's Sebulba's podracer behind them, with a Stormtrooper and Sebulba in the cockpit. What the hell is going on here? It all has something to do with a mysterious Jedi Temple that somehow launches her into this adventure allowing Rey to experience moments and interact with characters from the stories that came before her. That means we'll get multiple versions of characters like Obi-Wan Kenobi, Han Solo, and more.

Star Wars has one of the most meticulously maintained canons in fiction, especially since Disney bought Lucasfilm and effectively wiped out the Star Wars Expanded Universe (turning it into Star Wars Legends) and rebooted anything that was written about Star Wars after Revenge of the Sith. So having something fun like the LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special that allows fans to see zany crossovers has the potential to be a great distraction while we wait to hear what's next for the Star Wars saga, especially since the holidays are going to be marred by the coronavirus pandemic sticking around. Waugh added:

"We really wanted to do was create a piece of entertainment that could be watched every year. In this age of nonstop new content, something that you can actually just go back to over and over every year is rare. What excites me is that I think we achieved that and the story has heart to it."

At least we won't have to worry about some kind of musical interlude by Bea Arthur.