Motz’ wife has banned him from acquiring more LEGO kits, since his collection has expanded so much working on the show.
Roth and Motz went to LEGO headquarters and were shown the models of the Star Scavenger and they loved it. They describe it as surreal.
A: There are two! The Star Scavenger is one. And there might be more.
Q: Can we expect any toy sets from The Freemaker Adventures?
A: We’re super excited that they put the Freemakers in as an expansion pack, but we didn’t have any access to that.
Q: How much access did you have to the game developers like LEGO The Force Awakens? And will there be a LEGO Freemakers game?
A: Not on the wheel. But maybe some at some point…?
Q: Could we see the Ghost crew come onto the Wheel?
They take liberties for the comedy of situations, though the situations could happen.
A: The short answer is no. It’s “canon-adjacent.” We have to play in the canon so this could be.
Q: Is this show “canon?”
A: Some of them. Billy Dee Williams shows up as Lando. And that was Greg Proops as Fode and Beed.
Q: Do you have access to the original cast?
Time for audience questions!
Wood: “One of my favorite memories of Episode I was working on the Podrace, and getting to revisit it was great.”
Dana Snyder from Aqua Teen Hunger Force voices Graballa the Hutt and, according to Roth, is a huge LEGO fan and a huge Star Wars fan.
And now they’re showing a LEGO Podrace on the screen!
Roth teases a Podrace in the seventh episode of The Freemaker Adventures.
From left: Matthew Wood, Michael Hegner, Bill Motz, Bob Roth, and stage host David Collins.
The score for The Freemaker Adventures was recorded with a live orchestra.
Roth: “We have access to all the John Williams cues, and Kramer is able to fold them into Freemaker.”
Michael Kramer, the musical composer of the show, is “brilliant.”
Matthew Wood has used the same digital process for the battle droid voices from the prequels, through The Clone Wars , and it has remained the same through The Freemaker Adventures.
Wood doesn’t process the voice live when they record. He does it in post, but has fun with it on stage.
Matthew Wood has his computer set up to do Roger’s voice on stage! “Welcome to Star Wars Celebration Europe!”
Roth: “When we write the story, we don’t think of the characters as plastic figures.”
Hegner: A touch of humor. We’re allowed to play with them. It’s like creating a side-Star Wars universe that creates a freedom.
Q: What’s the fine line between Star Wars design and LEGO design?
Roth: “We ask him stupid questions all the time. Quick, Leland, what’s the Wookiee’s favorite fruit?”
The Freemaker Adventures relies on the story group, they shout out to Leland Chee.
Matthew Wood is also designing sound for the whole show. From their ship, the Star Scavenger to the place they live, he does it all.
Roth: “The cast is becoming a family.”
The Freemaker Adventures tries to record as an ensemble. Even though Matthew Wood works and lives in Northern California, he flies to Southern California to record dialogue.
George Lucas, when working on The Clone Wars, told Wood about motivations of the battle droids. He said they had low-level processors because it would be too expensive to outfit an army with better. Meaning they’re not too bright.
Wood: “I loved playing those battle droids in The Clone Wars and never expected them to live for more than one episode and have a character arc, which is a dream come true.”
Matthew Wood, voice of Roger, takes the stage!
They’re running a reel now that’s all about Roger.
Hegner talks of the challenge of adapting classic Star Wars sets to LEGO. In order to make them work, they often have to make them smaller to fit the LEGO tone and scale.
Roger was the first character they had named at that first Comic-Con dinner. R0-GR is how his name is represented as a droid.
Matthew Wood, sound designer, is also the voice of Roger: an old B1 Battle Droid from the Clone Wars era.
The show is a true collaboration between LEGO, Lucasfilm, and Disney. Doug Chiang helped design things like Graballa’s ship, The Rancor’s Fist.
Kordi is the middle sibling and has taken the weight of the world on her shoulders. She keeps the other two “knuckleheads” in line.
Zander is the older brother, about 18. Rowan is about 12. Roth drew inspiration from his car-nut of an older son.
Vader and Palpatine are like the “out of touch, detached upper management of the galaxy.”
The screen flashes an image of Luke and Leia on The Freemaker Adventures, Motz explains how amazing it is to have their characters interacting with the classic characters like the Skywalker twins.
Roth took inspiration for Rowan from his 12-year-old son. “How does a Jedi train a kid whose an unfocused bundle of energy?”
Motz: “Humor is important, but the drama is also important. The stakes are real. There’s real jeopardy. The fate of the galaxy is at stake. We want our characters to handle the dramatic as well as the funny.”
They were looking to do something tonally different than previous LEGO Star Wars iterations. Parody couldn’t work with establishing new characters.
Roth: “The core of LEGO is building sets with family and Star Wars is a story about a kid, his father, and his sister, and go back to the prequels and see that it’s about building a family. That’s the core of LEGO, too. Family had to be at the heart of this thing.”
Motz and Roth walked three blocks to dinner and over dinner we fleshed out this idea of a family of scavengers who pick up scrap from battles from The Clone Wars all the way through the edge of Return of the Jedi.
Motz and Roth were at San Diego Comic-Con 2014 and they heard at a party that Disney was looking to do a LEGO Star Wars show. All they knew is that they wanted to incorporate the entire saga.
Hegner is a series director, Motz and Roth are the creators of the show.
Bill Motz, Bob Roth, and Michael Hegner take the stage.
The creators are here to offer a window into their creative process and show the crowd something they’ve never seen before.
David Collins takes the stage!
The Freemaker Adventures panel is kicking off with a trailer for the first episode show!
And that’s it for The Freemaker Adventures! Thanks for tuning into the live blog and be sure to check out the rest of them throughout the day!