If there's one thing that LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga proves, it's that the Star Wars universe is huge and awfully difficult to pack into one game. LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga has a staggering 45 levels, drawing 5 levels out of each of the nine movies that make up the central Star Wars experience. On top of that, there's a sprawling overworld composed of the many planets that fill the Star Wars galaxy. The Skywalker Saga already sounds like a huge game, and that's before it packs things in from the many spinoffs shows in this universe, from The Mandalorian to Star Wars: The Clone Wars. It's really hard for one game to tell the whole story.
What's the best way to tell more Star Wars stories, then? More Star Wars games, of course. Traveller's Tales proves time and time again that it can deliver funny but faithful retellings of beloved Star Wars content. Since it has such a good track record, it should take a crack at a new period in the Star Wars universe: the Old Republic as Knights of the Old Republic represented it. It was a time dense with powerful Sith and Jedi, remarkable characters, and epic battles that would translate perfectly into a LEGO Star Wars game of the same scale as The Skywalker Saga.
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One reason that The Skywalker Saga represents the perfect time for a LEGO Knights of the Old Republic game is that it's making changes to the LEGO Star Wars franchise that would make a KOTOR game better. For example, Knights of the Old Republic focuses heavily on lightsaber combat, since the protagonists are Force users. Traditional LEGO Star Wars lightsaber mechanics might be too simple to feel meaningful throughout an entire LEGO game based on KOTOR. That's why it's great that The Skywalker Saga is introducing combos and more unique fighting styles for its playable Jedi and Sith characters, making more use out of lightsabers. That kind of change would translate perfectly to climactic battles like Revan's confrontations with Darth Malak.
The many planets that fans can visit in The Skywalker Saga also bode well for a LEGO Knights of the Old Republic game. The Skywalker Saga's overworld is composed of a large slice of the Star Wars galaxy, rather than restricting fans to a place like Mos Eisley Cantina, as is tradition. There's a staggering amount of worlds that can be explored on the player's own time, offering more gameplay outside of the game's levels. In KOTOR, players are always doing the same thing as the characters in Star Wars movies: racing around the galaxy to complete an objective. While a LEGO KOTOR game would naturally be filled with levels based on the franchise's story beats, it could also imitate The Skywalker Saga's overworld and offer contrast on it. A LEGO KOTOR game could include a lot of famous moons and planets that The Skywalker Saga skips, like Nar Shaddaa and Korriban.
There's nothing about the Knights of the Old Republic games that would really keep them from becoming a LEGO game. If Traveller's Tales focused on the two original games, it could make a game shorter than The Skywalker Saga but containing many more levels from each part of the source material. Knights of the Old Republic may have focused on player choice, but since each game has a canonical version of the protagonist, Traveller's Tales could stick with that version of the story and develop a game that tells KOTOR's story from that perspective. It could even add bonus levels unlocked after completing the campaign where players complete alternate versions of plot points if it wants to add a nod to BioWare and Obsidian Entertainment's original vision.
LEGO Star Wars is such a thoroughly established series that Traveller's Tales might as well try something new. The Star Wars universe is brimming with additional stories, thanks to Star Wars: The Clone Wars, The Mandalorian, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, Knights of the Old Republic, and much more. The Skywalker Saga is celebrating some of this content with DLCs, but it isn't touching the rich wealth of stories told in other Star Wars video games. It's understandable that packing every Star Wars story into The Skywalker Saga isn't going to happen. Instead, Traveller's Tales could try developing games based on other stories. Knights of the Old Republic would be a great place to start, capitalizing on nostalgia for these classic games and acknowledging them as influential Star Wars stories, even if their place in canon has changed over the years.
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The biggest question around the likelihood of a LEGO Knights of the Old Republic game is whether KOTOR is poised for a comeback at all. The Knights of the Old Republic MMO is ongoing, but the games that inspired it haven't been revisited in a long time. Even so, rumors about Knights of the Old Republic remakes have been swirling for some time. BioWare returning to its most successful franchises, including Mass Effect and Dragon Age, might mean KOTOR has a chance as a comeback. If KOTOR remakes were to hit the market, then Traveller's Tales would have the perfect opportunity to reach out to Disney and BioWare and look for a deal on a LEGO KOTOR game, capitalizing on resurgent popularity on top of nostalgia.
LEGO games have a remarkable knack for making frightening characters and intense story moments approachable and family-friendly. Even if Knights of the Old Republic's focus on the Sith makes for some more intense story moments than some other Star Wars content, Traveller's Tales always seems able to make a gag that lightens up the original scene and makes it appropriate for all ages. There will always be hope for more Knights of the Old Republic games as long as fans make sure that BioWare knows that the series is beloved and there will be players ready to buy the new game or remasters of the originals. That hope translates into a LEGO KOTOR game as well—a fun retelling of these influential stories could appeal to KOTOR fans of all ages while celebrating an important piece of Star Wars history.
LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is in development for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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