Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga release date, trailers, news and gameplay

Lego and Star Wars go hand in hand these days, and Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is set to bring that galaxy far, far away to your console in all its brickified glory.

There’s a long history between Star Wars, Lego and gaming, stretching back to the original Lego Star Wars: The Video Game release more than 15 years ago. The series has delighted in taking scenes from the franchise and turning them into slapstick, family-friendly adventures, but we’ve not seen a new game in the Star Wars arm of the licensed series since 2016’s Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga – what you need to know

What is it? The latest Lego game to take place in George Lucas’s Star Wars universe.
When will it release? TBC, but having already missed its initial October 2020 release date and a ‘Spring 2021’ launch window, we’re hoping before the end of 2021.
What platforms will it be available on? The Xbox One family of devices (including Xbox Series X), Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, PC and Mac. So everything, basically.

Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga release date

Do, or do not – there is no try. Those immortal words of Jedi Master Yoda seem to have been forgotten by the developers over at Traveller’s Tales and their Warner Bros. publishers. Despite trying to hit a ‘Spring 2021’ release date (so, March-June) after already having missed a suggested October 2020 window, Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga release date is currently unknown.

We had hoped to find out a little more about the game and its release during Lego Con, a new online live event for the brand, which will showed off the best of brick-building behemoth’s new upcoming toys. Livestreamed directly from the Lego House in Billund, Denmark on June 26, Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga unfortunately did not make an appearance, leaving us still guessing as to when it will appear.

Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga trailers

We may not have a solid release date, then, but we’ve still seen lots of what the game has to offer already. Way back in the summer of 2019 we were treated to a reveal trailer, showing off the franchise’s glitzy new visual look, and the series’ trademark humor, albeit in a teaser that didn’t appear to show any gameplay:

Then in August 2020 we were pleasantly surprised to see a gameplay trailer that matched the visual polish of the teaser. As well as showing off key playable scenes from the franchise, from dogfights to lightsaber duels, the game still features the wacky toybox-like potential for mischief that previous Lego games have had. Keep an eye out for C-3PO riding a bantha, for instance:

Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga setting and gameplay

As mentioned earlier, Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is in the enviable position of being able to adapt tales from right across the entire ‘Skywalker’ saga. So in other words, you’ll be playing scenes from the original trilogy (Star Wars: A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi), the prequel trilogy (The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith) and the sequel trilogy (The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, The Rise of Skywalker).

That does mean the excellent Rogue One, Solo: A Star Wars Story and The Mandalorian TV show are not set to feature. However, the Deluxe Edition of the game is set to include a ‘Character Collection’ bundle, which will throw in six character packs including characters from The Mandalorian, Rogue One, Solo and even the brand-new Star Wars: The Bad Batch animated series, as well as an additional pack including ‘Classic Characters’.

Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is expected to be a slight departure from the Lego games that have come before it, promising deeper gameplay than the simplistic platforming and combat of previous Lego games.

Each episode of film will feature five story missions, for a total of 45 core levels in the game. Combat has been sharpened up – lightsaber duels will focus on combo building, with a mixture of light, heavy and Force attacks wielded in tandem, while ranged shooting combat moves the gameplay to an over-the-shoulder viewpoint, ala Gears of War or Uncharted. It’ll still be family friendly, but might not be quite as button-mashy as previous Lego games.

You’ll have plenty of hub worlds to explore before taking on the core missions, and these will be littered with secrets to find and collectibles to… er… collect. Hubs will range from the desolate wastes of Tatooine to the forests of Endor and the dark heart of Exegol, where the Emperor holds court. It’s an incredibly ambitious undertaking then, collating all the major sights (and sites) of the near-complete Star Wars universe. All of these locations will include random encounters too – you might be messing around before being ambushed by a Tie Fighter fleet, for example.

Vehicular based play will also be significant. The gameplay trailer shows the player taking the controls of everything from a podracer to an X-Wing, a Snowspeeder to those stupid horse things that turned up in Rise of Skywalker.

There will be variety, collectibles and fan-favourite characters and scenes aplenty then. Who knows – it may even wash away the bad taste The Rise of Skywalker left us with. We’ll have more on Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga as it’s revealed, so keep checking back to TechRadar for all the latest news.