For 5 years, Star Wars: Visions has been house to among the franchise’s boldest concepts, however few episodes have lingered in followers’ minds fairly like quantity 1 episode 5, “The Ninth Jedi.” Kenji Kamiyama’s sweeping story of a galaxy the place lightsabers have turn into legend stood taller even than a few of Lucasfilm’s personal initiatives. Now, The Ninth Jedi is again as an eight-episode collection, premiering Aug. 5 on Hulu and Disney Plus. Followers obtained a way of what to anticipate at Anime Expo, the place Lucasfilm unveiled the primary trailer for Star Wars: Visions Presents – The Ninth Jedi.
Fantastically animated by Manufacturing I.G. (Ghost within the Shell, Psycho-Cross), the restricted anime continues Kara’s story following each the unique quantity 1 episode and its quantity 3 follow-up, “Baby of Hope,” marking it because the very first Visions story to blossom right into a full tv collection.
The Ninth Jedi seems so as to add weight to the story by menacing new villains, nail-biting lightsaber bouts, and big set-pieces, like huge black gap that appears straight out of Interstellar. Kamiyama returns as supervising director, with Shunsuke Tada taking on the position of lead director. Their work on acclaimed anime initiatives, like Ghost within the Shell: Stand Alone Complicated and Bleach: Thousand-12 months Blood Struggle, ought to give Star Wars followers a breath of recent air, with a collection stuffed with attention-grabbing views on that beloved galaxy far, far-off. To say they’re followers of the Lucasfilm franchise could be an understatement.
Whereas Visions has at all times thrived as an anthology, The Ninth Jedi at all times felt totally different. Kamiyama didn’t merely inform a self-contained journey, however constructed a complete period of Star Wars that begged for exploration. Set lengthy after the Skywalker Saga, the story imagines a galaxy the place Jedi have light into delusion, lightsabers are nearly not possible to search out, and Kara’s father — a legendary saber-smith — might symbolize the final hope for restoring stability.
The brand new trailer suggests Kamiyama and Tada’s ambition hasn’t modified. Increasing past the intimate scope of the unique shorts, the collection seems poised to additional discover this distant future whereas leaning into the hanging mix of samurai cinema, high-concept science fiction, and kinetic motion that made “The Ninth Jedi” certainly one of Visions’ defining chapters. On the forefront of Star Wars: Visions Presents – The Ninth Jedi is the character of what it means to be a Jedi or Sith, in search of to dive even additional into the magical unknowns of the drive.
It’s additionally a milestone for Lucasfilm’s anime ambitions. Moderately than treating Visions as a one-off experiment, The Ninth Jedi represents the primary time the studio has allowed certainly one of its alternate-universe tales to evolve into one thing bigger. If profitable, it might open the door for different fan-favorite shorts to obtain the identical therapy. Judged by its preliminary trailer alone, there’s rather a lot to get enthusiastic about.
Greater than merely persevering with Kara’s journey, The Ninth Jedi proves that Star Wars: Visions is now not only a showcase for standalone concepts. Some tales are just too good to finish after 20 minutes.
The Ninth Jedi premieres Aug. 5 on Hulu and Disney Plus
