It’s officially May 4 and you know what that means? It’s Star Wars Day! Since what feels like the beginning of time, May 4th has been a commemorative celebration of the Star Wars franchise and it originates from the turn of phrase, “May the force be with you,” as uttered by many Jedi masters throughout the series. George Lucas’ adventures in the galaxy far, far away have touched the lives of many, becoming one of the most commercially successful and influential franchises ever created, second only to conglomerate Disney and fellow subsidiary Marvel.
Speaking of influential, Studio Ghibli has been the leading Japanese animation studio since it was founded in 1985. Its strong presence in the industry is synonymous with the golden era of anime, recognized for the highest quality filmmaking and artistry. Studio Ghibli has brought us the likes of Princess Mononoke, Howl’s Moving Castle, My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away, Kiki’s Delivery Service and many more, most of which are often included in lists ranking anime’s finest feature films of all time.
In the midst of the celebrations for May the 4th, Studio Ghibli has tweeted a rather perplexing image that might possibly be a tease for an upcoming project. In the tweet, dolls of Kylo Ren and Grogu are positioned on chairs and edited with a black and white effect, staring off into space rather absent-mindedly. The studio captioned the tweet as a meme of sorts, writing “Ghibli’s post-production team room.”
We’re led to believe that the image is insinuating how exhausted the post-production team feels and the sense of emptiness one feels following the completion of a project. From that information, we can only assume that Studio Ghibli has wrapped (or will soon wrap) post-production on something new. It’s a clever little display of marketing that falls in line with Star Wars Day, targeting multiple audiences at once.
Does that mean Studio Ghibli are confirmed Star Wars fans? There’s some potential for a crossover there in the future.
For now, we’ll continue to speculate until some news breaks. May the 4th be with you, readers.