Lego Star Wars is a Lego theme and multimedia franchise revolving around the Star Wars media franchise created by George Lucas. Part of the theme are, next to, over 883 Lego construction toy sets 1328 Lego minifigures, an eponymous video game series, containing six games, multiple computer animated short films and TV series.
Originally it was only licensed from 1999 to 2008, but The Lego Group extended the license with Lucasfilm, first until 2011, then until 2016, then again until 2022, and then once more until 2032.
Lego Star Wars is based on the Star Wars saga and franchise. The product line directly focuses on the Star Wars characters from the films and TV Series, with the exception of a few special characters.
The Lego Star Wars designers have revealed how they have "changed strategy" to get popular minifigures into cheaper and more accessible sets. Lego Star Wars Creative Lead Jens Kronvold Frederiksen explained, "We have changed our strategy a little bit over the years," and continued, "Where in the past, we often kept some of them – the most important especially – for the higher prices, we are now thinking young kids, maybe newcomers to Star Wars, want to get into it."
The designers revealed the Force Ghost minifigures as a result of changes to the company's transparent plastic. Creative Lead Jens Kronvold Frederiksen, "The reason for not doing it was that the minifigures are made out of many different types of plastic, because they need to have different abilities and characteristics," Design Director Michael Lee Stockwell explained, "Some have to be flexible, some need to use clutch power and whatnot," and continued, "So the hands are different material than the heads, for example."
Stockwell explained how coming up with playsets based on new shows and movies is trickier than creating vehicles. Referring to a Lego set based on The Mandalorian, Stockwell explained, "We were interested in [the Armourer's forge] already from the first season, but we didn't know enough about the context," and continued, "We didn't know enough of what was happening around this.