LEGO “Death Star” lit up Sphere to mark the announcement of a new technology

The spherical façade of the Sphere complex in Las Vegas this week turned into a giant LEGO-brick “Death Star,” and a live interactive experience was launched on top of the visual overlay. The activation was timed to the announcement of the new LEGO SMART Play technology platform, which the companies talked about at CES 2026.

The projection was deployed on the exterior Exosphere screen, described as the world’s largest LED screen. The Sphere venue and the Sphere Studios production team worked on the event together with LEGO, along with partners at Disney and Lucasfilm tied to the development of the Star Wars brand.

The public part of the announcement looked like a toy-industry-rare hybrid of advertising, a show, and a gameplay demonstration. The franchise’s visual symbol was not merely set dressing but part of a scenario in which the building façade served as both a stage and an interface.

What the show looked like on Exosphere—and why the scale matters

A spherical “Death Star” was projected on Exosphere, styled as a LEGO version with recognizable panels, seams, and a “plastic” raised texture. From a distance it read as a cinematic object; up close, as a build made of parts—and this contrast underpinned the SMART Play idea, where building is meant to feel alive.

The scale of the venue here is not a decorative detail but part of the effect. The screen effectively turns the city skyline into a content canvas that is visible from afar, meaning it works as a mass-media surface without the usual confines of a stage or exhibition hall.

The organizers emphasized Exosphere’s key parameters separately:

• height: 366 ft (about 112 m)
• coverage area: about 580,000 ft² (roughly 54,000 m²)
• its status as the world’s largest LED screen as the reason the demo feels less like a video and more like an environment

At the same time, the public materials provide almost no detail on how exactly the crowd flow was managed around the object and how easy it was for those who happened to be there by chance to take part. For interactivity on this scale, that is an important part of the user experience, but it remained off-camera.

Interactivity on the façade and the X-wing stage

After the visual introduction, the show shifted into game mode. Participants were invited to “jump” into the cockpit of a LEGO X-wing and recreate the trench run episode recognizable from the film “Star Wars: A New Hope.” The concept as described publicly looked like a transfer of building logic into a dynamic scene, where the player’s actions are backed by audio and lighting responses.

The staging itself relied on a sense of presence, but not via a VR headset—rather through the city screen and the feeling that the “mission” is unfolding above the streets of Las Vegas. This approach has a strong side: it lowers the barrier to entry and makes participation more social, because the experience is shared by onlookers around.

Among the guests separately mentioned by the organizers was New York Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart. His involvement was explained simply: he came as a fan and tried the interactive scenario, after which he shared his impressions.

“Today I felt like a kid again when I found myself inside a giant LEGO X Wing and lit up the Las Vegas skyline in honor of my favorite films. I’m glad to be here and celebrate the future of LEGO Star Wars,” Dart said.

According to Dart, if Vegas used to be associated exclusively with gambling, the city is now undergoing a genuine transformation and attracting tourists with a wide range of interests.

His data is confirmed by experts, who show an increase among tourists in the share of those who do not visit casinos and are not into gambling развлечения. As we also learned from the authors of the twinspinca.com portal, modern gambling enthusiasts крайне rarely visit brick-and-mortar casinos and prefer to play online. This could leave Las Vegas without tourists in the foreseeable future. And therefore the city needs to become more interesting for other categories of guests.

What exactly LEGO SMART Play announced

The Exosphere show was tied to the LEGO SMART Play technology presented at CES 2026. The announcement featured representatives of LEGO, Disney Chief Brand Officer Asad Ayaz, and Lucasfilm Chief Creative Officer Dave Filoni, underscoring the project’s strategic importance for the broader Star Wars ecosystem.

SMART Play is described as an attempt to make play feel “live,” so the build doesn’t end up on a shelf. The idea is that the set and the digital staging begin to support each other, from at-home scenarios to large installations like the show in Las Vegas.

The technical foundation is said to be SMART Bricks—that is, interactive elements that respond to the builder’s actions. According to the company, the feedback centers on three types of signals:

• music as an emotional cue and a pacing element
• sound effects as confirmation of actions and part of the story
• light as a visual response and a way to “bring” the build to life

At the same time, it is still unclear how issues of power supply, durability, and compatibility with standard parts are addressed, as well as what data might be collected when the interactivity is used in public spaces. For consumer electronics, such details are typically critical, but they were not disclosed in the brief announcement.

The first sets with SMART Bricks will launch with a Star Wars theme; sales are set to begin on March 1. This choice looks logical, because the franchise provides ready-made sound-and-light scenarios, from a starfighter cockpit to a base’s alarm signals.

Inside LEGO, the new product is called one of the biggest innovations since the introduction of minifigures in 1978, and the comparison suggests a bet on a long development cycle rather than a one-off spectacle demo.