The third volume of Star Wars: Visions brought in new stories from new creators putting their own spin on a galaxy far, far away, but it also continued the stories of some of the characters from the first season. Volume 1’s “The Ninth Jedi” not only got a follow-up short, “Child of Hope”, but is set to have a full anime series, a first for Lucasfilm, to continue the story even further next year. Production I.G. and Lucasfilm spoke to Polygon about developing the sequel short while also discussing the continuation of the story with Lucasfilm set to be more heavily involved than in the production of Visions.
Star Wars: Visions allowed animation studios to develop Star Wars stories without needing to conform to the canon of the Skywalker Saga and surrounding media. This led to some very ambitious and unique storytelling, which caught the eyes of both the fandom and Lucasfilm executives. According to Lucasfilm VP Josh Rimes, the shorts themselves were the inspiration behind expanding into further volumes and a full series.
“It’s really a testament to the shorts and their storytellers that so many gave us such lived in worlds and such vivid and exciting characters and adventures.”
A scene from Lucasfilm’s STAR WARS: VISIONS VOLUME 3, exclusively on Disney+. Photo courtesy of Lucasfilm. © 2025 Lucasfilm Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
“The Ninth Jedi” had a powerful and original premise that had fans hooked from the get-go. Jumping the timeline forward a thousand years into the future, where the Jedi are all but extinct and the Sith have again risen to power, it tells the tale of Kara, daughter of the last sabersmith and her mission to restore the Jedi. Lucasfilm was as eager as the est of us to find out more, and they asked for a sequel short in the new season. Here’s how Josh Rimes explained it:
“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. We were just excited to hear their enthusiasm about Kara’s journey to find her father and her quest to restore the Jedi Order and how those two missions might dovetail or even come into conflict.”
Kara’s story continued in the Volume 3 episode “The Ninth Jedi: Child of Hope”, which saw her stranded in space with a mysterious droid, which was inspired by the droids director Naoyoshi Shiotani met while queuing for the Star Tours ride in Tokyo Disneyland. Siotani also discussed the design of the mysterious ship Kara finds herself on which took inspiration from H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulu to build the idea of an aquatic sentient species which had built it. The creators were also inspired to continue to explore Kara’s emotional journey as she takes her next steps.
“We saw Kara lose her father and set out on this journey with her new companions in the last short, but deep down, she still carries the heaviest trauma of all: not knowing where her father is. Precisely because she is such a positive and optimistic character, she struggles to open up to her friends about what she’s really going through. She has been bottling it all up in her own child-like way.”
In developing Visions, Lucasfilm took a hands-off approach, giving the production studios carte blanche to tell their own stories. It seems that, with the story spinning out into a full series, titled Star Wars: Visions Presents — The Ninth Jedi, Lucasfilm have become more involved from an early stage to support the team at Production I.G. in telling a larger story in a unique Star Wars setting.
“It was such a big endeavor — the first full on anime Star Wars series, so we would support the team from early pitch stages through designs and production as the story was built out. It truly is coming together in spectacular fashion and we can’t wait for the world to experience it next year.”
The Ninth Jedi limited series is set to release on Disney Plus sometime in 2026. In the meantime, you can check out our review of Volume 3 here.
A teacher from Wales in the UK, Aled has loved Star Wars ever since that Star Destroyer flew over his head and blew his mind.