Star Wars: Droids: The Adventures of R2-D2 and C-3PO

George Lucas, the mastermind behind Star Wars, harbored a longstanding fascination with animation and desired to present Star Wars stories using this medium. During the production phase of The Star Wars Holiday Special in 1978, David Acomba, the director, showcased a recent film by Clive A. Smith's animation studio, Nelvana, to Lucas. This demonstration persuaded Lucas to enlist Nelvana for the animated segment of the holiday special. Impressed with their work, Lucas rehired them in 1984 to develop two animated series, Droids and Ewoks. The selection of these two subjects stemmed from their appeal to younger viewers and the uncertainty surrounding the film franchise's future, ensuring minimal conflict with the feature films' storylines. Lucas, serving as executive producer, aimed to elevate the standards of Saturday morning animation with these shows, emphasizing superior animation and voice acting compared to typical shows of that era. Anthony Daniels shared this sentiment, stating, "I didn't want to do it. I had to be convinced that it was going to be better. I'm no mug—I wouldn't support something just because Lucasfilm was doing it."

Pre-production activities commenced in May 1984. During this period, Lucas engaged with the series' producers, directors, and writers to brainstorm story ideas. The narratives drew inspiration from the science-fiction works of Jean Giraud, notably The Airtight Garage. The production team's efforts to incorporate other central characters from the original trilogy were met with Lucas's insistence on focusing solely on the droids. While Lucas outlined his fundamental concepts for the series, he remained detached from the daily operational aspects. As episodes progressed, rough cuts were presented to him for review. Daniels, upon reviewing the scripts, occasionally revised dialogue to better align with his character's persona. The series adhered to stringent broadcast regulations, with limitations imposed by ABC's Standards and Practices Board regarding permissible content. Paul Dini, a writer, reflected on this in a 2004 interview, stating, "...we were dealing with a regime at the network that just wanted safe children's programming. Every time we wanted to stretch it a little bit, they would kick up a fuss over it."

The show's animation team tended to specialize in characters, locations, or machinery. Hanho Heung-Up, a Korean company, encountered difficulties with the show's intricate designs, often involving up to 24,000 cels per episode. Consequently, Clive Smith relocated to Korea for eight months to provide assistance. Smith estimated that each hour-long pair of Droids and Ewoks episodes incurred production costs ranging from $500,000 to $600,000, positioning them among the most expensive animated series of that time. The opening theme, "In Trouble Again," was performed by Stewart Copeland from The Police and co-written by Copeland and Derek Holt. The show's new-wave score was composed by Patricia Cullen, David Greene, and David Shaw.

Droids premiered on September 7, 1985, as a segment of the Ewoks and Droids Adventure Hour. ABC broadcasted a preview special a few days earlier, titled The ABC Saturday Sneak Peek and Fun Fit Test w/ Tony Danza, C-3PO and R2-D2. (In the special, Olympic gymnast Mary Lou Retton instructs Danza and the droids in gymnastics.) Following the airing of a complete season comprising 13 episodes, Droids faced cancellation, partially attributed to its substantial production expenses, which stemmed from the elevated design standards compared to other Saturday morning animation programs of the period. Nevertheless, a new one-hour special was subsequently broadcast in 1986, and the initial season was re-aired alongside the second season of Ewoks.

In the mid-1990s, commencing in 1994, the US Sci-Fi Channel showcased episodes of the series, alongside its counterpart, Star Wars: Ewoks, within its "Cartoon Quest" and "Animation Station" programming blocks.

In 1985, Kenner developed a toy line inspired by the series, encompassing action figures, ship models, and supplementary items. Random House also released a collection of children's books based on specific episodes of the series. An LP record and a cassette featuring musical selections from the show were distributed in France. In 1986, Marvel Comics' Star Comics imprint published a Droids comic book, drawing inspiration from the animated series. This comic was also known as Star Wars: Droids. The comic series is set between 10-6 BBY, a different time than the TV show's 15 BBY setting. The bimonthly comic series spanned a year, concluding with issue #8. Notable issues include #4, which featured a crossover with the Ewoks comic series, and #6–8, which presented a storyline titled "Star Wars According to the Droids," offering a retelling of A New Hope with added scenes from the droids' perspective. The comic series was illustrated by comic legend John Romita Sr.. Dark Horse Comics also published a pair of Droids mini-series in 1994 and 1995. A Droids computer game was launched in 1988 for the ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC home computers.

Following the series' conclusion, Nelvana forwarded the majority of pre-production materials to Lucasfilm, who later partnered with Royal Animated Art to sell these materials to private collectors. Some were acquired by a California-based business, while others were distributed as part of the Hyperspace fan club. In 2007, Gentle Giant unveiled an animated maquette of Boba Fett, inspired by his depiction in the series. This was a Celebration exclusive, with 700 of the 1000 produced sold at Celebration IV and the remaining 300 sold at Celebration Europe. Additionally, at Celebration IV, Droids merchandise from the Lucas Licensing archives was auctioned off. In 2010, StarWars.com commemorated the 25th anniversary of both Droids and Ewoks by featuring a series of articles highlighting the collectibles available from each series. In 2015, Gentle Giant re-released several Droids figures as 12" convention exclusives. In 2021, Hasbro introduced several new figures for their vintage collection and Black Series, all inspired by Droids.

The series initially debuted on home video in England and Germany in 1988 through CBS/Fox Video, featuring twelve episodes and omitting episode nine, "Coby and the Starhunters." In 1990, J2 Communications released The Star Wars Trilogy Animated Collection, comprising three VHS tapes. One tape featured a single episode, while the other two tapes contained two episodes each, with one episode repeated from the single-episode tape. Each tape commenced with a Star Wars Animated Classics trailer promoting the "Special Double Length Edition" volumes. However, the single-volume tapes showcased the white box covers but advertised differing content. All thirteen episodes, including The Great Heep, were released on Region 1 VHS in Mexico through CBS/FOX.

On June 26, 2002, Rick McCallum, producer of the prequel trilogy, addressed a question regarding a complete DVD release on StarWars.com's now-defunct "Ask the Jedi Council" feature, stating, "I hope so. Definitely. At some point after we're finished with Episode III, we'd really like to make all of that material available to our fans on DVD. Unfortunately, we won't be even thinking of making any firm plans until we're finished with this trilogy." He also conveyed this sentiment privately to Paul Ens. According to Pablo Hidalgo, a full series release was considered as an alternative to the Animated Adventures DVDs: "I don't know what numbers are run in the mysterious background that decides to say 'You know what? That doesn't look like a product that we can move.'" At 2005's Celebration III, McCallum and Lucasfilm's Vice President of marketing Jim Ward evaded questions about a complete DVD release of the series.

During the Celebration VI "StarWars.com and Beyond" panel, it was suggested that both Droids and Ewoks might be streamed on StarWars.com in the future. In April 2021, StarWars.com announced the series' release on Disney+ later that year. It eventually became available on the streaming service on June 18, 2021, as part of the Star Wars Vintage Collection.

Droids unfolds within the nineteen-year timeframe between the rise of the Galactic Empire in Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith and the events of Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope. However, Revenge of the Sith introduced a seeming continuity issue; at the end of that film, the droids are entrusted to Raymus Antilles, whom C-3PO references in A New Hope as "our last master." Yet, within the Droids series, the droids acquire numerous masters before Captain Antilles. Star Wars: The Ultimate Visual Guide addresses this continuity discrepancy, explaining that the droids were "accidentally separated" from Antilles "before returning to Captain Antilles' ship, the Tantive IV." This explanation was further elaborated upon when Corla Metonae's backstory was developed by Billy Buehler (AKA The2ndQuest) for Hyperspace's What's The Story? feature, identifying her as the individual responsible for this separation. The circumstances surrounding the separation were further detailed in the StarWars.com blog series The Droids Re-Animated, specifically citing an unexpected raid on the Tantive IV by the pirate group Lok Revenants, which compelled them to abandon the escape pods they had jettisoned during a routine test, with R2-D2 and C-3PO inside at the time.

The Star Wars prequel trilogy encompasses numerous elements that appear to reference and/or resemble elements from Droids. Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace features a Toong and mentions Tund, the species' second homeworld, both of which originated in The Lando Calrissian Adventures novel series. In "A Race to the Finish," the droids find themselves at a race known as the Boonta Race. A similar name was used for the podrace in The Phantom Menace, known as the Boonta Eve Classic. The swamp planet of Bogden is a planet visited by the droids in the series. In Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones, Jango Fett states that he was "recruited by a man called Tyranus on one of the moons of Bogden." Jann Tosh's wheel bike was retconned as a predecessor to General Grievous's vehicle in Revenge of the Sith.

The Expanded Universe has also integrated various elements from the series. The Shadows of the Empire soundtrack includes liner notes containing the lyrics of "Dha Werda Verda," penned by Ben Burtt. The lyrics allude to the planet Roon from the series. Admiral Screed is featured in HoloNet News and Star Wars: Rebellion.

In 2021, Holocron continuity database keeper Leland Chee clarified that the events in The Great Heep occur between episodes nine and ten.

• Star Wars: Droids: The Adventures of R2-D2 and C-3PO at the Internet Movie Database
• Classic Television Archive on StarWars.com (content now obsolete; backup link)
• Fox Home Entertainment's Star Wars: Droids site - at the Internet Archive
• Droids Layouts and Posing - Original artwork by Brian Lemay, a crewmember of the show
• Droids and Ewoks: A Home Video History (backup link)
• Star Wars Saturday mornings: Droids and Ewoks 30 years later (backup link)