The Big Picture

LEGO Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy
is a new series on Disney+.
Bobby Moynihan discusses his role as Jedi Bob, the lighthearted nature of the series, and his Star Wars fandom connections.
He also discussed an iconic
SNL
sketch he gave life to.

A brand-new Star Wars series debuted on Disney+ this week. LEGO Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy is a four-episode miniseries, with a very open-ended finale, which sees the Star Wars galaxy flipped on its head as the good guys become the bad guys and the bad guys become the heroes.

Written by the creative duo Dan Hernandez and Benji Samit, Rebuild the Galaxy is a hero’s tale for the lowly nerf-herder Sig Greebling (Gaten Matarazzo), who finds himself thrown head-first into an epic battle of good versus evil after he unearths the “cornerstone,” a powerful artifact hidden within a long-forgotten Jedi temple. Luckily, he isn’t alone in his pursuit of saving the galaxy as Jedi Bob (Bobby Moynihan) becomes his (mostly) wise mentor and Yesi Scala (Marsai Martin) remains a stalwart friend and ally. Unfortunately, the only ally Sig doesn’t have in his newfound galaxy is his brother, and fellow nerf-herder Dev (Tony Revolori), who has fallen to the dark side.

Ahead of the premiere, I caught up with Moynihan to discuss LEGO Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy. During our very humorous chat, we spoke about what corners of the Star Wars galaxy he would want to rebuild, which was entirely on-brand; we looked back at his Star Wars journey with Star Wars Resistance; and discussed Adam Driver’s incredibly memorable Undercover Boss-inspired Saturday Night Live sketch that gave the world Matt the Radar Technician back in 2016. You can read the full transcript of the conversation with Bobby Moynihan below or watch it in the player above. And this is one you’ll want to watch!

BOBBY MOYNIHAN: I love your Jar Jar Binks more than you know.

COLLIDER: Thank you so much. He is my prize possession. Sadly, it is not Darth Jar Jar, but-

MOYNIHAN: Oh, yeah. None of us can be.

I know, tragically. So, I really love the Lego Star Wars universe and this series really narrows in on the concept that I think is just so fun that they can do anything in it. So for my first question in all of these interviews, I’m trying to do a fun one. I’m curious if you could rebuild any part of the Star Wars canon and change it up, what would you change and why?

MOYNIHAN: I would put Jedi Bob at Jabba’s Palace just hanging out, maybe even bartending.

Interesting.

MOYNIHAN: Jabba’s Palace. I want to see Jabba’s Palace on a Friday night at 9:30 PM. I want to see what they did in that place. Jabba’s Palace after dark is the series I want.

Is Jedi Bob doing any standup?

MOYNIHAN: Probably, I think, yes. I think 100% yes. I tried to improvise in this series that at one point Jedi Bob, when he was younger, was in the Max Rebo Band, but he got kicked out for stealing. I kept trying to shoehorn it in and it didn’t make it.

That is incredible. I think that’s still canon.

MOYNIHAN: Yeah, I agree. I’m Jedi Bob, I get do that stuff, right? I can say that, right?

Bobby Moynihan Looks Back at ‘Star Wars Resistance’
Image via Disney+

Exactly. Obviously, this isn’t your first Star Wars rodeo. I miss Star Wars Resistance so much. But how liberating is it to get to be part of this very upbeat, very goofy, and an incredibly Star Wars-y corner of the universe with Rebuild the Galaxy ?

MOYNIHAN: That’s it. It was that. It was finding Dan and Benji, I think, for me was like, oh my gosh, I found two guys who love this universe and love LEGOs equally as much as they respect them. But they also understand that they can make fun of it. That it’s pretty cool, but it’s not also not the coolest. It’s the idea of Star Wars can be very full of itself. It’s very regal and very important. But this one is very [big], and also Darth Maul is wearing a shirt in this with a tie, and he’s a gentleman, and it’s very silly.

It is. Ben Solo is always shirtless and-

MOYNIHAN: He is always. As it should be.

It’s true. Back in 2018, I was re-watching some old interviews you had done and you had done that starwars.com interview and you talked about how much you wanted your own Star Wars action figure. I’m curious, is there a Jedi Bob Lego that you have now? Yes. Does it have a point of honor among your Star Wars collection now?

MOYNIHAN: Yeah, I’m a collector and I have a lot of friends who collect. Especially now with 3D printing, it’s amazing how easy it is to get someone to make a figure for you. I now have figures of all my characters. It’s a blast. But this was nuts. Staying up one night and making my Jedi starfighter out of LEGOs and then putting little Jedi Bob in it at 47 years old, I was definitely giggling and being like, well, this is the best.

I love that. I was like, I really hope he’s had his wish come true now that he has his own Star Wars figure.

MOYNIHAN: I’m a lucky boy. I’ve had billions of wishes come true. I’m extremely lucky. This is 1,000,000,112.

I did want to talk a little bit about Star Wars Resistance because I think Resistance Day was just a few months ago, really, that people still celebrate that series and still love that series so much. What was it like for you getting to be part of that and then getting to come back and be part of Star Wars a second time? That’s huge in its own right.

MOYNIHAN: Yeah. It’s Star Wars. That one to me is special. It will always be special. That was the first one, and I loved it. I still do. I love it so much. My dream is live action. I want to play live action Orka. Orka and Flix, come back someday, please. They could be anywhere. But then getting to do Bad Batch or just a couple little things here and there and being part of the universe. I got to do Star Wars Rebels. I played a one-off little character named Pintu Son-El, this alien creature.

We were moving books and I found a Star Wars encyclopedia of all the characters. I started flipping through it and I see that character that I played, and I’m like, no way. Then I see the species in the book, the species of this character is now Moyn, M-O-Y-N. I was like, are you kidding me? I turned into a five-year-old. I was like, I just happened upon this thing, this book that I have. I didn’t know this was in here. Now my last name is one of the species in Star Wars, and I’m playing Jedi Bob. Yeah. I have a lot of lucky moments where I stand in my house going, wow, that was…

Isn’t that what we all do? We just wish-fulfill for our five-year-old selves.

MOYNIHAN: Yeah. I think I’ve made a career at it.

The Cultural Impact of ‘SNL’S Matt the Radar Technician

Also, as we wind down, I think we have a couple of minutes left. I also wanted to look back at the Matt the Radar Technician sketch on SNL . Did you have any idea at the time that this was going to have the cultural longevity that it has? I was just at a convention a couple of weeks ago and there were people dressed up as Matt the Radar Technician.

MOYNIHAN: I saw that. There was like 20 people. I saw it. It’s the best. My favorite moment was going to Comic-Con, seeing a bunch of people dressed as Matt. I asked if I can get a picture, and they were like, all right, weirdo. No clue who I was. No clue. I was like, you know I wrote what you’re wearing, right? That’s the best. It’s hilarious. But that one, no, you never know. We just wanted to play around in Star Wars with Adam Driver, and that was the one that got in. Then he was so down, and he’s the reason why that thing is so beloved is because he’s so good in it. It’s insane.

He was so down to clown.

MOYNIHAN: The best. He was the best. Downstairs, I have the helmet. He signed the helmet. I have the R2-D2. He signed that. I got a bunch of stuff.

Oh my gosh, that’s so cool. Well, this was-

MOYNIHAN: I have his Matt pin downstairs. Yeah.

You basically just have a whole replica of the sketch downstairs.

MOYNIHAN: I stole everything from work for 10 years.

Hey, I mean, you got to do what you got to do. Well, this was really great. Thank you so much, Bobby.

MOYNIHAN: Yeah, such a pleasure. I hope you enjoyed it.

I did. I loved it. I love the Legos universe so much.

LEGO Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy is streaming now on Disney+.

Stream on Disney+