Why are there no LEGO Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order sets?

Following the announcement of a sequel to Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, here’s why we never saw any LEGO sets based on the original game.

Across a product portfolio that caters to (or has previously catered to) fans of all nine mainline Star Wars films, both silver screen spin-offs, The Clone Wars, The Bad Batch, The Mandalorian and even video games like The Force Unleashed, The Old Republic and Battlefront, the absence of any Jedi: Fallen Order sets is pretty puzzling.

After all, the original title from EA and Respawn Entertainment did big numbers when it dropped in 2019, selling 10 million copies within the first five months of release. It also had the fastest-selling digital launch of any Star Wars game within its first two weeks on sale, received critical acclaim and won numerous awards.

It’s not as if it’s short on marketable characters or vehicles, either: even a single set based on the Stinger Mantis, with minifigures of Cal Kestis, BD-1, the Ninth Sister and a couple of Purge Troopers would have been perfect, while a buildable version of companion droid BD-1 could have easily fit in with the likes of 75188 BB-8 and 75278 D-O.

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None of that came to pass, of course – but the LEGO Star Wars team has at least explained why. Speaking to Brickset in 2020, Design Manager Michael Lee Stockwell revealed that while Jedi: Fallen Order sets were ‘certainly on the table’, there was a fairly major obstacle to bringing them to shelves.

“Video games present different challenges to the movies and television shows because their age ratings can affect the products we release,” Michael explained. “We have a much greater understanding of what [the age rating] will mean in the context of movies than we do with video games. We know roughly what the level of violence might be, for example, whereas video games can be more unpredictable in that regard.”

Jedi: Fallen Order is rated T for Teen in the US, and PEGI 16 in the UK. That puts it slightly above the LEGO Group’s normal demographic, but things have moved on since Jedi: Fallen Order originally launched in November 2019. The LEGO Group’s shift towards the adult market with the introduction of its 18+ label may have paved the way for future sets based on Fallen Order’s sequel, for example – although the company says it still won’t produce sets that are ‘not okay for kids’.

There’s another factor at play here, too: the LEGO Star Wars design team had no grasp on how well Jedi: Fallen Order would be received prior to its release. “Anticipating what might become popular is another challenge,” explained Design Director Jens Kronvold Frederiksen. “We always try to decide what will appeal to as many people as possible, of course, but it can be difficult.”

More recently, Jens told Brick Fanatics that the LEGO Star Wars team’s considerations do indeed extend to the company’s growing adult market, but appealing to as wide a demographic as possible is still the top priority.

“One thing is, what is the target for our product now?” Jens says. “We include products for kids up to adults. But in general, I’d say we would like to cover as much as possible, so if there’s something new out there, we definitely would like to have products.”

Michael has also previously explained why that thinking led to a delay in sets based on The Mandalorian, while Jens tells Brick Fanatics that a ship or character getting exposure across multiple sources – say, The Clone Wars and The Mandalorian – also increases its chances of getting a set, as with last year’s 75316 Mandalorian Starfighter.

While it’s surely too late for sets based on the original Jedi: Fallen Order, products based on its as-yet-untitled sequel could theoretically still happen – at least now the LEGO Group knows how popular the first game was, and now its considerations for its wider portfolio have shifted to embrace adults beyond the Ultimate Collector Series line.

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Author Profile

Chris Wharfe
I like to think of myself as a journalist first, LEGO fan second, but we all know that’s not really the case. Journalism does run through my veins, though, like some kind of weird literary blood – the sort that will no doubt one day lead to a stress-induced heart malfunction. It’s like smoking, only worse. Thankfully, I get to write about LEGO until then.

Chris Wharfe

I like to think of myself as a journalist first, LEGO fan second, but we all know that’s not really the case. Journalism does run through my veins, though, like some kind of weird literary blood – the sort that will no doubt one day lead to a stress-induced heart malfunction. It’s like smoking, only worse. Thankfully, I get to write about LEGO until then.

7 thoughts on “Why are there no LEGO Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order sets?

  • 27/01/2022 at 22:06
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    I’ve heard this interview before, and honestly the whole reasoning just seems silly. Fallen Order is a teen rated game, just like the countless PG-13 and TV-14 properties Lego has made. And Lego has done its fair share of gaming properties as well. Portal is also a teen game, and Lego had no problem producing that Dimensions pack. And Lego even made sets based of Battlefront II, another teen Star Wars game. It seems more likely that they didn’t anticipate the games popularity than anything else. Hopefully we get sets for the sequel, I’d buy them in a heartbeat!

    Reply
  • 27/01/2022 at 00:59
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    There were multiple sets that Lego came out with before 18+ sets were a regular occurrence that were of a more mature theme (Friends, Stranger Things, Batman, even other Star Wars media is more violent than Fallen Order). It’s just lego making excuses as usual with bs reasoning. At least with the appearance of a BD droid in Book of Boba Fett, maybe there’s hope that we can finally get it as a buildable figure

    Reply
  • 26/01/2022 at 23:47
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    Why is it “too late” for them to do sets based on the game? People can still buy it, and the sets.

    Reply
  • 26/01/2022 at 23:45
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    They said video games are harder to know the rating of ahead of time. It’s about being accurate, not being exclusive.

    Reply
  • 26/01/2022 at 14:05
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    Hmmm ok lego.
    Stranger things is not for kids
    But yet you did legos of them!!!
    The star wars movies are more violence than Jedi fallen
    So. What u gonna say about that?

    Reply
  • 26/01/2022 at 08:30
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    Me when it’s 1 am and I’m looking at star wars Lego news

    Reply

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