Disney+ just released the first real glimpse atStar Wars: Visions, and it looks to be unlike anything the franchise has ever done before. It’s one thing to bring in someone likeTaika Waititi to helm aStar Warsmovie, but it’s another beast entirely to gather a group of Japanese animation studios to make something entirely unique. It sounds like those old Newgrounds collab videos, but likely more polished.
CurrentStar Warsofferings tend to cover ground that’s largely been well-trampled before, likeThe Bad Batchand its continuation of a story fromThe Clone Wars. But the real draw ofVisionsand its introduction of anime to theStar Warsuniverseis its potential for entirely original stories to be told with entirely original characters. But there’s also a little bit of fond nostalgia there, and that’s what Disney was going for.
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“From the beginning, stories told in theStar Warsgalaxy have counted Japanese mythology and the films of Akira Kurosawa among their many influences,” Disney said in the official press release, “and these new visions will further explore that cultural heritage through the unique animation style and perspective of each anime studio.” So in a way, even thoughVisionswill be very different from otherStar Warsprojects in the past, it will still pay homage tosome of George Lucas' greatest influenceswhen he originally conceived of this vast universe.
Disney also released a teaser video alongside the press release, allowing a glimpse at the various premises at play in each of the new self-contained stories. The people involved appear to be just as excited as the fans, enthusiastically talking abouttheir love ofStar Warsand how much it means to some of them to finally be working on an official project in the series they’ve treasured all their lives. Each animation studio was given the freedom to tell the kinds of stories they wanted to tell (though presumably still within that Disney-approved threshold), and they came up with some real bangers.
The list of episodes all look interesting, but there are still a few standouts, including “T0-B1” from the studio Science Saru. This story features a small droid with a designheavily influenced by classic animefrom the 50s and 60s, particularlyAstro Boy, and the production images seen in the teaser look remarkably faithful to that idea. Another fascinating episode is “Tatooine Rhapsody” by Studio Colorido, and it actually aims to be a “rock opera style film” according to director Taku Kimura. That’s right. AStar Warsrock opera. Somebody’s oddly specific prayers were just answered.
Star Wars: Visionswill consist of 9 episodes by 7Japanese anime studios, and the aforementioned stories are far from the only intriguing offerings seen on that list. From a tale of dark side twins to a Jedi bunny girl (because of course there’s a Jedi bunny girl), this will surely be one of the most unique and imaginative milestones in the series. Who else has a katana lightsaber? Nobody, that’s who.
