“LEGO Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures” is coming to Disney XD June 20th at 10am! A couple of weeks ago, I was able to attend a screening of the first episode at the Disney Channel Building. It was not only funny, but also had emotional parts too, making for excellent story telling and enjoyable for kids and adults. You can check out our official review of the series here.

At the conference I was able to get lots of in-depth scoops on “The Freemaker Adventures” from the show’s writers/producers  Bill Motz & Bob Roth. Roth and Motz talked about how they have a close relationship with Lucasfilm, and work with them to verify facts within the Star Wars universe. Not only that, but they also work with Lucasfilm to make sure the stories they write for “The Freemaker Adventures” aren’t too similar to stories they have planned out for future Star Wars films (which they said has almost happened on occasion).

Motz and Roth helped make the creative decision to have the series set between the events of “The Empire Strikes Back” and “Return of the Jedi” for a few reasons. One being that they wanted a large character pool available to use, and wanted to be able to feature Darth Vader. Also, since the Freemaker family are creative people who are always building their own starships out of broken down starships, they figured at that point in time the family would have the most leftover battle rubble available to them.

It was evident that they are both die-hard Star Wars fans, putting in the same amount of passion for the Lego Star Wars series that they have for the actual Star Wars films. They really wanted to stay true to the feel of Star Wars, so rather than this series having parody-type humor, they kept with the same type of humor from the original Star Wars trilogy, mixed with the high stakes of a mature TV show. To give the complete Star Wars fan experience, they even had an 83-piece live orchestra do the score for the show, as well as incorporate John William’s classic score.

Matthew Wood plays the battle droid Roger, who lives with the Freemaker family. Wood has long worked on Star Wars films with sound effects, and even was a part of establishing the gawky walk that battle droids have. Wood was excited to get to play a battle droid, since they normally get destroyed pretty quickly, he found the opportunity interesting to get to play a droid that we get to learn more about that is existing post-Clone Wars time.

Actress Vanessa Lengies plays Kordi Freemaker, the oldest of the Freemaker siblings. In true Star Wars fashion, she said up until casting was near finished for the series the show was top secret. Her audition sides had no references to Star Wars, but even before knowing the full details of the project she said she connected with the character. She loved that Kordi is a strong, spunky female character that is also well versed in mechanics, and is also protective of her two younger brothers.

Eugene Byrd voices middle-sibling Zander Freemaker. He too wasn’t told what he was auditioning for, but he said being a huge fan, he just knew from the language of the script that it was Star Wars related. Once he got the official call that he got the part and was told it was a Lego Star Wars TV show, he said it was the most exciting moment of his career.

Newcomer Nicholas Cantu plays the 12-year-old main character and youngest Freemaker Rowan. In speaking about the series, Cantu’s passion and energy shown through, much like the character he plays. He was fully up to play this role, as he described himself as having a “naturally eccentric personality” and enjoys having pretend light saber fights in his spare time.

Something both the producers and the actors spoke about was how quickly they all became a family behind the scenes. They would often stay and watch each other do their voice overs, and give each other support along the way during the journey to create “The Freemaker Adventures”. They said it was a unique working experience unlike anything else they’ve ever done, and that them feeling like a family made the Freemaker family all the more real.