The Story of How ‘Star Wars’ Almost Didn’t Make it Into ‘The LEGO Movie’

(MASSIVE SPOILERS for The LEGO Movie. Don’t read this if you haven’t watched it yet).

Among one of the funniest and most memorable moments in The LEGO Movie was when the
Millennium Falcon showed up (complete with Han Solo, C-3PO, R2-D2, and Lando Calrissian) and picked up Batman, only to have Batman return later with the hyperdrive he stole form the ship.

That scene would never have happened if the makers of the film didn’t rush to finalize a deal with Lucasfilm before Disney arrived.

In an article by The Hollywood Reporter, detailing the seven years that it took to make The LEGO Movie a reality, producer Dan Lin detailed the complex, labyrinthine journey of trying to get a myriad of different characters from many different properties into the film. From talking to Zack Snyder about their LEGO-ized portrayal of Batman and Superman (DC Comics and Warner Bros. were then developing plans for what would become the DC Cinematic Universe), to showing footage to J.K. Rowling, it obviously wasn’t easy for Dan Lin and company to do something that really hadn’t been done since 1988’s Who Framed Roger Rabbit (a film that brought together many classic cartoon characters and icons into one universe).

Of the many people they had to talk to, the trickiest deal for them was Lucasfilm. As Dan Lin explains: “We flew up to Lucas Films [in Northern California] and showed them a small sample and they approved.” Everything appeared to be set up just fine, until the realization that the clock would begin to tick on that deal. “But a few weeks later, Disney bought Lucas. So we had to rush to close our deal with Lucas before Disney closed its deal,” said Lin.

Now that Disney owns Lucasfilm and The LEGO Movie has officially kicked off the LCU (Lego Cinematic Universe), it’s now a question of whether we’ll see any Star Wars-related material in future LCU films. Personally, unless a miracle happens and Disney is kind enough to play along, I doubt that that another scene involving Lucasfilm property will happen.

On an interesting final note, Dan Lin even admitted that there were still some obstacles that filmmakers had to face, even though the film itself was almost done. Superman nearly didn’t make it, due to a legal battle over the rights to the character, and there were two kissing scenes (one with WyldStyle and Batman, and the other involving mermaids) that got cut for being too edgy. Nonetheless, the end result is a film that’s now loved by many audiences (even if the Academy thought otherwise).

What do you think? Any thoughts on how close The LEGO Movie was to losing this scene? In your opinion, should anything Star Wars appear in future LCU films?

Edited by: Hannah Wilkes