Star Wars Droids Is Now Live on Disney+ and It’s a Must-Watch

As of now, all 13 episodes of Star Wars: Droids are streaming on Disney+, marking the digital debut of the series, which ran for a season on ABC in 1985 and 1986. The series was one of two — the other being Ewoks — that took popular characters from the Star Wars franchise who didn’t have to carry their own narratives going beyond the then-established trilogy, and continued their adventures. Its inclusion brings Disney+ one step closer to being the one-stop home for all the Star Wars content ever officially created. And yes, you should definitely check it out, in all its ’80s kid-show glory.

Per a description at the Star Wars fandom site, “Star Wars: Droids: The Adventures of R2-D2 and C-3PO is an animated television series that features the exploits of the droids C-3PO and R2-D2 who, over the course of their adventures, often find themselves in the company of new masters — and in new dangerous and difficult situations as a result. The series is set in 15 BBY — between the events depicted in Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope.”

“[George Lucas] thought that the best characters to use would be the ones who weren’t so heavily tied into the movies’ plots, such as R2-D2 and C-3PO,” executive producer Paul Dini said in 1988. “They’re the running characters in the Star Wars universe. The droids would be a natural for animation because they could go all over the universe and get involved with all sorts of creatures and worlds that didn’t necessarily have Luke Skywalker, the Empire or any of those elements. The only constants would be Artoo and Threepio.”

As you can imagine, the Droids show was eventually written out of continuity, since it didn’t mesh with the ideas that Lucas had for the prequel trilogy. Still, its short life on ABC gave it a reputation and earned it a Marvel Comics series that ran for 8 issues in 1986 and 1987. Years later, another Star Wars: Droids comic — this time without the house style of the animated series and published by Dark Horse — ran for 17 issues from 1994 until 1997.