The episode of the same name from the anthology "Star Wars: Visions" will soon become a separate series.
Polygon, citing Lucasfilm's Vice President of Animation Development, Josh Rimes, reports that Lucasfilm has significantly expanded its involvement in the production of the new anime series "The Ninth Jedi." The project will be an independent work based on the short film of the same name and its continuation from the anthology series "Star Wars: Visions."
According to Rimes, creating the series has become a "major undertaking" for the studio. He emphasized that Lucasfilm accompanied the work of Japanese Production I.G "from the early stages of development, design, and production," as "The Ninth Jedi" will be the first full-fledged anime series in the "Star Wars" universe.
The original 2021 short film was chosen for development due to the scale of the idea and its potential. The plot unfolds a thousand years after the film "The Rise of Skywalker." The Jedi have almost disappeared, and master weaponsmith Lah Zhima creates six lightsabers to revive the Order. After his abduction by the Sith, his daughter Kara sets out to find her father and allies.
Rimes noted that the ideas of director Kenji Kamiyama and Production I.G "naturally" evolved into work on a larger project, so the choice of "The Ninth Jedi" as the basis for a separate series was "obvious."
The sequel, "The Ninth Jedi: Child of Hope," released in October as part of the third volume of "Visions," continued Kara's story and laid the foundation for the future series, filling the gap between it and the episode from the first release of the anthology.
The premiere of "The Ninth Jedi" series is expected in 2026 on Disney+.
