LEGO Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy, the four-piece animation set to hit Disney+ on September 13, is confirmed to be the first Star Wars story set after the events of Rise of Skywalker.
2019’s conclusion to the Skywalker Saga ends with the Resistance celebrating their victory, and Rey taking on the Skywalker name having defeated the evil Emperor (hopefully!) for good.
While Disney has announced a new movie that will follow Rey’s attempt to rebuild the Jedi Order, with Daisy Ridley set to reprise her role, we now know that Rebuild the Galaxy moves Star Wars past Rise of Skywalker itself on the Star Wars timeline.
Rebuild the Galaxy is a sort of Star Wars What If? in which iconic characters assume very different roles. It sees Jar Jar become a Sith and a bemused alternate universe Luke Skywalker (voiced by Mark Hamill) learn of his fate in the original universe, for example. Its protagonist, ordinary nerf-herder Sig Greebling (Gaten Matarazzo), is well aware of all the events of Star Wars up to this point, which explains why Rebuild the Galaxy is set after Rise of Skywalker.
In an interview with IGN, showrunners Dan Hernandez and Benji Samit confirmed Rebuild the Galaxy’s place on the Star Wars timeline. Here’s the exchange with IGN’s Tom Jorgensen:
IGN: Is this the first time we've ever gone past Rise of Skywalker on the timeline?
Dan Hernandez: I believe that it is the first time –
Benji Samit: Yes.
IGN: That's pretty wild.
DH: It is wild, and it wass something that we –
BS: There were discussions!
DH: There were some discussions!
BS: It's removed from a lot of the core worlds and core timeline that's happening. We didn't want to step on anything that could happen in the future, but it was important to us that our protagonist knew about everything that has come before. So it had to take place afterwards.
DH: Sig, who's our main character, who's played by Gaten Matarazzo, who's the nicest person in the world and a huge Star Wars fan – he brought the energy of a real fan who had really studied everything. I've often made the joke that I can't rollerskate, I can't ride a bike, I can't really do any of those things that kids learned at a formative age, but what I did do with my time during my youth was I studied the Star Wars Encyclopedia.
In many ways, this character of Sig is a surrogate for people who know this stuff, who really know it. And then for that person to suddenly find themselves in a rebuilt galaxy where everything is different, it felt more shocking, it felt more dramatic, but it was also a little bit of a invitation to people like us who know all this stuff to say "it's different and we're all gonna be taking this adventure together as Sig is taking this adventure."
I think that was something we felt really was exceptionally important and thankfully Lucasfilm was completely on board with it. So yeah, it's the first piece of content post-Rise of Skywalker, which is pretty amazing.
The future of Star Wars includes Star Wars Skeleton Crew, the Jon Favreau-directed The Mandalorian & Grogu movie, Ahsoka Season 2, Andor Season 2, and the aforementioned Rey movie. It does not, however, include The Acolyte Season 2 after the High Republic era show was canceled after just one season.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
