Star Wars Droids: The Adventures of R2-D2 and C-3PO has the honour of being one of the first Star Wars TV series ever launched. On September 7, 1985, Droids, along with another Star Wars animated series, Ewoks, aired for the first time, marking the Star Wars franchise's first long term venture onto the small screen. Droids was produced by the Canadian based animation studio Nelvana; the same company that produced the animated segment of 1978's The Star Wars Holiday Special. Following the conclusion of the original movie trilogy, Lucasfilm Ltd. again began working with Nelvana to produce not one, but two separate Star Wars cartoon series that would launch together. Droids would look very similar to animation style seen in The Holiday Special, but would take place before the events of the original Star Wars movie, following the adventures of R2-D2 and C-3PO before they met Luke Skywalker. To go along with the TV series, several book adaptations of Droids episodes were created and Droids characters were added to the Kenner Star Wars action figure collection. Marvel comics also created an 8 issue Droids comic series based on the TV series but with all new adventures.
In 1985, the Star Wars galaxy was a much smaller place than it is today. While a long running Marvel comic series and several novels did exist, for many fans, their exposure to Star Wars was limited to what they saw on the screen. The Droids adventures took Star Wars beyond the movies in a tradition that has since been carried on by the Clone Wars microseries, The Clone Wars and Star Wars: Rebels. |