Star Wars: Visions is a multinationally-produced animated shorts collection created by Lucasfilm that aired on Disney+ on September 22, 2021. It is a series of original animated short films with a new and distinct cultural perspective to Star Wars, created by various leading animation studios around the globe. Volume 1 was produced by 7 Japanese anime studios. The initial release of this anthology series was announced to have ten episodes, but this was changed to nine, as the fifth episode, "The Ninth Jedi", was originally envisioned as two episodes.[1][2]
A second season named Volume 2 was released on May 4, 2023, and will feature animation from Spain, Ireland, Chile, United Kingdom, South Korea, France, India, Japan, and South Africa.[3]
Presenting all-new, creative takes on the galaxy far, far away, Star Wars: Visions will be a series of animated short films celebrating Star Wars through the lens of the world’s best anime creators. The anthology collection will bring [9] fantastic visions from several of the leading Japanese anime studios, offering a fresh and diverse cultural perspective to Star Wars.[4]
It was not required by the filmmakers to set their episodes anywhere in the Star Wars canon timeline. This was so they could have free creativity over how to tell their stories. Nevertheless, some of them are given actual places in the timeline, such as "Lop & Ochō" and "The Twins" while some take place in alternate universes, such as "The Duel".
For the first season, the majority of the voice cast is composed of Asian-American actors. This was done most likely, out of respect, for the series' Japanese roots. Despite this, not all of the voice actors are directly of Japanese descent.
Temuera Morrison is of Māori, Scottish, and Irish descent, Lorraine Toussaint is of Trinidadian-English descent, and Jordan Fisher has an incredibly diverse background consisting of Nigerian, Cambodian, English, Polynesian (Tahitian), Italian, Greek, and Scandinavian descent.
The rest of the cast is mostly white.
For the second season, the voice cast is intended to once again pay respect to the cultural background of each respective studio.
El Guiri is from Spain (Sith).
Cartoon Saloon is from Ireland (Screecher's Reach).
Punkrobot is from Chile (In the Stars).
Aardman is from the United Kingdom (I Am Your Mother).
Studio Mir is from South Korea and is the only one to feature two separate dubs, considering the studio was based in Seoul but only focused on American animated series (Journey to the Dark Head).
Studio La Cachette is from France (The Spy Dancer).
88 Pictures is from India (The Bandits of Golak).
Triggerfish is from South Africa (The Pit).
While D'art Shtajio is from Japan, the voice cast is confirmed to be American, most likely due to the studio founder also being American rather than Japanese (Aau's Song).
Season 1 is the first Disney anime series/special not to be produced by Madhouse.
Also, this is the first Production I.G. anime project to be exclusively released by Disney+ in all/certain markets, followed by Aoashi (Asian markets) and Heavenly Delusion (Global).
