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

George Lucas, the Star Wars creator, had a longstanding interest in animation and a desire to create Star Wars narratives using this medium. During the production of The Star Wars Holiday Special in 1978, David Acomba, the director, presented Lucas with a recent film produced by Clive A. Smith's animation studio, Nelvana. This convinced Lucas to engage Nelvana for the animated segment of the Holiday Special. Impressed with their work, Lucas rehired them in 1984 for two animated series: Droids and Ewoks. These subjects were chosen because they were deemed appealing to younger viewers and, given the uncertain future of the film franchise, were considered the least likely to clash with the storylines of the feature films. Lucas, serving as executive producer for both shows, aimed to elevate the standards of Saturday morning animation, seeking 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."

The pre-production phase commenced in May 1984. During this period, Lucas engaged with the series' producers, directors, and writers, collaborating on story concepts. The science-fiction stories of Jean Giraud, notably The Airtight Garage, served as inspiration for the narratives. The production team attempted to persuade Lucas to incorporate other key characters from the original trilogy, but he insisted on focusing solely on the droids. Lucas outlined his fundamental ideas for the series but remained uninvolved in the daily operational aspects. Rough cuts of the episodes were screened for him as they progressed. Daniels would occasionally revise dialogue lines after reviewing the scripts if he felt they were inconsistent with his character. Strict broadcast standards governed the series, with limitations imposed by ABC's Standards and Practices Board regarding permissible content. Writer Paul Dini remarked on this in a 2004 interview: "...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 either characters, locations, or machinery. Hanho Heung-Up, a Korean company, encountered difficulties with the show's designs, which often required up to 24,000 cels per episode. Consequently, Clive Smith relocated to Korea for eight months to provide assistance to the company. Smith estimated the production cost for each hour-long pair of Droids and Ewoks episodes to be approximately $500,000 to $600,000, making them among the most expensive animated series of that time. "In Trouble Again," the opening theme, 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 part 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 this special, Olympic gymnast Mary Lou Retton provides gymnastics instruction to Danza and the droids.) After airing a complete season consisting of 13 episodes, Droids faced cancellation, partly attributed to its substantial production expenses. These costs stemmed from the intricate design requirements 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.

During the mid-1990s, commencing in 1994, the US Sci-Fi Channel broadcasted episodes of the series, along with those of its counterpart, Star Wars: Ewoks, on its "Cartoon Quest" and "Animation Station" programming blocks.

In 1985, Kenner introduced a toy collection inspired by the series, encompassing action figures, models of spacecraft, and various other merchandise. Random House also released a collection of children's books based on different episodes of the show. An LP record and a cassette featuring music featured in the show were distributed in France. In 1986, Marvel Comics' Star Comics imprint released a Droids comic book, drawing inspiration from the animated series. This comic also carried the title Star Wars: Droids. The comic book series is set between 10 and 6 BBY, a different timeframe from the TV series which was set around 15 BBY. Published bimonthly, the series concluded after a year with its eighth issue. 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 the renowned comic artist John Romita Sr.. Dark Horse Comics also published a couple 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 completion of the series' production, Nelvana forwarded the majority of pre-production materials to Lucasfilm, which subsequently collaborated with Royal Animated Art to sell these items to private collectors. Some items were acquired by a business in California, while others were distributed as part of the Hyperspace fan club. In 2007, Gentle Giant released an animated maquette of Boba Fett, modeled after his appearance in the series. This maquette was exclusively available at Celebration; 700 of the 1000 produced were sold at Celebration IV, with the remaining 300 sold at Celebration Europe. Additionally, Droids merchandise from the Lucas Licensing archives was auctioned off at Celebration IV. In 2010, StarWars.com commemorated the 25th anniversary of both Droids and Ewoks by showcasing a series of articles highlighting the collectibles associated with 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, drawing inspiration from Droids.

The series was first released on home video in 1988 in England and Germany by CBS/Fox Video, featuring twelve episodes and excluding episode nine, "Coby and the Starhunters." In 1990, J2 Communications released The Star Wars Trilogy Animated Collection. The collection consisted of three VHS tapes; one tape contained one episode, while the other two tapes contained two episodes each—with one of those repeating the episode from the single-episode tape. Each tape began with a Star Wars Animated Classics trailer promoting the "Special Double Length Edition" volumes. However, for the single-volume tapes, the white box covers were shown, but differing content was advertised. All thirteen episodes including The Great Heep were released on Region 1 VHS in Mexico through CBS/FOX.

On June 26, 2002, Rick McCallum, the producer of the prequel trilogy, responded to a question regarding a complete DVD release in 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 privately to Paul Ens. According to Pablo Hidalgo, a complete 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 Jim Ward, Lucasfilm's Vice President of marketing, avoided direct answers regarding 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 was ultimately made available on the streaming platform on June 18, 2021, as a component of the Star Wars Vintage Collection.

Droids is situated within the nineteen-year span between the emergence 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 discrepancy: at the film's conclusion, the droids are entrusted to Raymus Antilles, whom C-3PO refers to as "our last master" in A New Hope. Conversely, the Droids series depicts the droids having multiple masters prior to Captain Antilles. Star Wars: The Ultimate Visual Guide addresses this continuity issue, explaining that the droids were "accidentally separated" from Antilles "before returning to Captain Antilles' ship, the Tantive IV." This explanation received further detail through Corla Metonae's backstory, developed by Billy Buehler (AKA The2ndQuest) for Hyperspace's What's The Story? feature, which identified her as the individual responsible for the separation. The circumstances surrounding the separation were further explored in the StarWars.com blog series The Droids Re-Animated, which specifically cited an unexpected raid on the Tantive IV by the pirate group Lok Revenants that forced them to abandon the escape pods they had jettisoned during a routine test, which R2-D2 and C-3PO had been inside at the time.

The Star Wars prequel trilogy includes numerous elements that appear to reference 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 initially appeared in The Lando Calrissian Adventures novel series. In "A Race to the Finish," the droids become involved in a race known as the Boonta Race. A similar name was used for the podrace in The Phantom Menace, referred to 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 features 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 makes appearances in HoloNet News and Star Wars: Rebellion.

In 2021, Leland Chee, keeper of the Holocron continuity database, 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)