After years of courting, Star Wars and anime style finally came together. A few hours ago, Lucasfilm dropped the Star Wars: Visions nine-part anthology on Disney+, from seven Japanese anime studios that brought some fresh stories into the mix. The show brought back the iconic Boba Fett and Jabba the Hutt, but mostly featured all-new characters and storylines. Producers had this project in mind for several years, but ultimately it was Disney+ that allowed the two different cultural expressions to merge.
“It took Disney Plus, really, to give us the opportunity for a platform that changed the way we were thinking about Star Wars storytelling,” executive producer James Waugh said while talking with Variety. “Then it was just a matter of how do we do it in a way that was going to be as authentic as possible, and really let the studios own the storytelling as unique expressions of Star Wars — which we just hadn’t explored within the creative strategy we were working through at the time. That’s what unlocked the Visions framework.”
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Many fans are wondering if the stories are part of the canon. The short answer is that they aren’t. At least, not all of them. “[I]f we have to stay in canon, we’re going to be completely directing it,” said executive producer Jacqui Lopez, vice president of production at Lucasfilm Animation. While Waugh didn’t take a clear position on which stories are and aren’t to be considered canon, he did state that “The Twins,” for one, was more of an alternate take.
“We never said it should be here or there,” he added. “We wanted it to be a pretty blank canvass. Are these things part of the overall saga? I think some of them are. Things like ‘The Twins’ clearly are an amazing remix celebration of Star Wars.”
Have you watched Star Wars: Visions? If so, what do you think of it? Let us know in the comments.
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