There Are Some Surprises In The New Star Wars Holiday Special Cast

Chances are if you're familiar with the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special, the new Lego Star Wars Holiday Special has a spot on your to-do list this week. While it's definitely aimed at kids, it's got all the things fans love about Star Wars and it pokes some serious fun at some of the franchise's all-too familiar missteps. One thing you might clock is the fact that the cast of the new Star Wars Holiday Special doesn't exactly match up to Adam Driver's timber as Kylo Ren, or Daisy Ridley's unmistakable tone as Rey. Fans of the universe's animated series may be more familiar with some of these actors, but there are some Star Wars movie stars in the mix too.

For my chronology geeks out there, the holiday special takes place after The Rise Of Skywalker and the defeat of Emperor Palpatine — the second one. It is centered around "Life Day," the Christmas-like holiday created for the 1978 televised Star Wars Holiday Special that aired on November 17 forty-two years ago. That special is infamously bad, and legend has it that George Lucas hated it so much he tried to wipe it from existence. It lives on in many forms, and was the Star Wars thing it was cool for Star Wars fans to hate before all those other Star Wars things that Star Wars fans deemed cool to hate. (See: Ewoks, the '90s Special Editions, the prequels, and the sequels.) So, in a way, this goofy new special is the universe's way of reclaiming Life Day, which was a perfectly fine fictional holiday among the special's other misses.