Exciting times lie ahead for Star Wars fans. Along with the recent flux of new content, several interesting projects are on the horizon. One of the most anticipated is the full-blown anime spin-off of “The Ninth Jedi,” a story that originated in the Star Wars: Visions anthology. Now Lucasfilm has officially commented on the project, confirming the spin-off has full backing of the studio.
The original “The Ninth Jedi” short focused on Kara, the daughter of a legendary sabersmith, who becomes entangled in a mission to restart the Jedi Order. Talking about the upcoming limited series to Polygon, Lucasfilm’s vice president for animation development and production, Josh Rimes, detailed the studio’s deep involvement on the project. Rimes described the upcoming 2026 show, Star Wars: Visions Presents – The Ninth Jedi, as “the first full on anime Star Wars series” and confirmed that Lucasfilm is supporting the team “from early pitch stages through designs and production,” assuring fans the series “coming together in spectacular fashion.”
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When “The Ninth Jedi” premiered in Star Wars: Visions Season 1, it was one of the most well-received episodes. This success led to an expansion of the world, with a new follow-up episode, “The Ninth Jedi: Child of Hope,” debuting in Season 3 this October. This new episode serves as a direct bridge to the upcoming series. Talking about the creative strategy that led to the expansion of the story, Rimes explained that once the Visions anthologies proved successful, the studio began looking for ways to grow the storytelling format beyond standalone shorts. “The Ninth Jedi” became a prime candidate, which Rimes credited as a powerful example of how the anthology’s creators could establish such compelling, fully-realized worlds and characters.
“The world of The Ninth Jedi always felt so epic-scaled and the ending to the first short promised a grand journey to come, so discussions with director Kenji Kamiyama and the team at Production I.G naturally evolved,” Rimes said. He added that the studio’s excitement was matched by the creators at Production I.G, who were equally invested in Kara’s journey, particularly exploring how her personal quest to find her father would affect her task of restoring the Jedi Order.
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The original 2021 short was set a thousand years after The Rise of Skywalker, with the Jedi nearly extinct. When the sabersmith Lah Zhima is captured by Sith agents, his daughter Kara is entrusted with delivering six new lightsabers to a supposed Jedi gathering, only to discover most of the Jedi were actually Sith in disguise. She narrowly escapes with the few true Jedi survivors, embarking on a new quest to find her father. The new Season 3 short, “Child of Hope,” picks up less than a year later, with Kara being attacked by the Jedi hunters Anda and Unda, a direct preview of the threats she will face in the new series, before being rescued by the service droid Teto.
Star Wars: Visions premiered on Disney+ in 2021 and became an immediate hit. A second season followed in 2023, garnering even higher critical acclaim with nine new animated hits. The current season not only continued Kara’s story but also that of Ronin’s from “The Duel” and F’s from “The Village Brode.”