LEGO Star Wars Terrifying Tales Creators Talk Behind The Scenes

LEGO Star Wars Terrifying Tales released on Disney Plus this week, and the director and executive producer have spoken about how the Halloween special came to be.





In an interview for StarWars.com, executive producer Josh Rimes spoke about the thinking behind doing a Halloween special in particular for the next big LEGO Star Wars project after Life Day. This involved searching for inspiration from specials the team had watched during their childhood:

Director Ken Cunningham had also helmed last year's Life Day special, so he has experience with the specific tone that LEGO Star Wars needs to hit. He spoke about his relationship with Star Wars, and what inspired him to come back and do another special:

Some fans may have spotted the first terrifying tale was named The Lost Boys, presumably as a nod to the 80s horror film that Cunningham mentioned. Other classic horror projects that they looked to included It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and The Simpsons' Treehouse of Horror, which clearly did inspire Terrifying Tales. One of their biggest priorities was making sure that the scary moments were balanced out with plenty of humor, just like those other examples, to make sure that parents and children could enjoy it together.



Fellow executive producer Jason Cosler went into more detail about how they made sure the show never went overboard with the horror elements, given that their target audience is children:

Director Cunningham agreed, revealing that they would try and interpret things from the audience's point of view:

The creators made sure that each of the three tales were set during each of the three different Star Wars eras: the prequels, the original trilogy, and the sequel trilogy. Cosler spoke about which classic horror stories inspired each of those tales:

Rimes pointed out that these influences were all meant to impact the characters in Terrifying Tales' present day storyline, as well as being entertaining stories in their own right.

Some eagle-eared fans might have noticed that Ren in The Lost Boys is played by Christian Slater. It's surprising that such a big actor would be cast in a LEGO special, but attracting Slater was easy, since he's already a big Star Wars fan.

Terrifying Tales' villain Vaneé was played by Tony Hale, who is likely most well known for his work on Arrested Development and Veep, but his performance was a lot closer to Dr. Psycho in Harley Quinn, only a lot more family friendly. According to Cunningham, Hale had a lot of fun in the role and really enjoyed watching the actor at work:

The creative team are delighted that Star Wars fans finally have a Halloween special to call their own, after the concept has been done so well for many other properties over the years. Rimes hopes that the special is popular enough that fans will sit down and watch it every year.

Cunningham agreed, as when he was younger, he would rewatch some of his favorite holiday specials at the appropriate time of year.

Finally, Cosler reiterated the importance of the Halloween special for him:

LEGO Star Wars Terrifying Tales is out now on Disney Plus. We felt it was an entertaining LEGO special, with fun stories that balanced some spooky moments with plenty of fun and laughs for the whole family.



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