Here’s your first look at what has to be the most unique entry in the Star Wars canon that Disney has served up to date. Coming this September is Star Wars: Visions, an anime anthology series which comes from many of the biggest anime studios around. This Sunday, Disney Plus released a special featurette previewing the show, which you can check out in the player above.
As exec producer James Waugh points out this preview, Japanese animation – and Japanese cinema, as a whole, it has to be said – have had a huge impact on Star Wars from the beginning so it’s only right that there should be an anime-inspired series set in the galaxy far, far away. What’s more, the varied talent involved in the project is just the icing on the cake. This featurette confirms the seven studios who’ve produced shorts for Visions, including Kinema Citrus (Made in Abyss), Trigger (Kill la Kill) and Production IG (Ghost in the Shell).
Unlike practically every other facet of the franchise, Visions won’t be preoccupied with how it fits into established canon, with each installment of the nine-part season roving around the timeline, introducing new characters, bringing back familiar faces and telling a range of stories in different styles and genres. For instance, one episode, titled Tatooine Rhapsody, is even being described as a “rock opera style film”.
Here’s the full list of episode titles and the studios behind them:
The Duel – Kamikaze Douga
Lop and Ochō – Geno Studio (Twin Engine)
Tatooine Rhapsody – Studio Colorido (Twin Engine)
The Twins – Trigger
The Elder – Trigger
The Village Bride – Kinema Citrus
Akakiri – Science Saru
To-B1 – Science Saru
The Ninth Jedi – Production IG
Star Wars: Visions is on course to unfold on Disney Plus from September 22nd. In the meantime, new episodes of Star Wars: The Bad Batch drop Fridays on the streaming platform.