New Star Wars: Visions Spinoff to Spotlight More Jedi Hunters

The anthology Star Wars: Visions returned in October with a third season that revisits several stories from its inaugural run. Three of the season’s nine episodes continue tales first introduced four years earlier, reconnecting viewers with characters such as the Sith‑hunting Ronin, the former Padawan F, and a sabersmith determined to rebuild the Jedi in a far future. The latter short — “The Ninth Jedi” — resonated strongly with fans and Lucasfilm alike, spawning a follow‑up episode and a limited series scheduled for 2026.

Josh Rimes, executive producer of Star Wars: Visions and Lucasfilm’s vice president of animation development and production, says expanding Visions beyond standalone shorts felt like a natural next step. He credits the filmmakers’ richly imagined worlds and compelling characters for making serialized storytelling possible.

The original “The Ninth Jedi” short is set roughly a millennium after Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, in an era when the Jedi have all but vanished. A sabersmith named Lah Zhima forges six lightsabers — one of which is for his daughter, Kara. When agents of the Sith capture her father, Kara brings the blades to what she believes is a gathering of Jedi, only to discover many attendees are actually Sith. After defeating them, she departs with the remaining Jedi to pursue her father’s rescue.

Rimes explains that the expansive scope and the open‑ended conclusion of the original short naturally invited further exploration. Conversations with director Kenji Kamiyama and Production I.G grew into plans that follow Kara on a longer, more complicated quest: to find her father while helping revive the Jedi Order — goals that might support each other or come into conflict.

The Visions season 3 episode titled “The Ninth Jedi: Child of Hope” takes place less than a year after the events of the first short, deepening Kara’s journey.

Director Naoyoshi Shiotani describes Kara as outwardly bright and hopeful, yet privately burdened by the unknown fate of her father. That contrast — a cheerful exterior masking deep emotional pain — shapes her interactions with new companions and complicates her ability to be vulnerable.

After her ship is disabled by Jedi hunters Anda and Unda — adversaries who foreshadow the dangers Kara and her allies will confront in the forthcoming series — Kara is pulled into space and later rescued by a service droid called Teto. Stranded amid an asteroid field, the pair set out to locate Teto’s master. The droid’s expressive, shape‑shifting eyes and distinctive personality reflect deliberate design choices intended to make it feel alive and relatable.

Some of the episode’s visual motifs draw on darker source material. Shiotani notes that the drifting starship sequences and the design of Teto’s master nod to the Cthulhu mythos — an influence the art director Kusamori Shuichi helped integrate by imagining aquatic species that evolved sentience and their own cultures.

This episode serves as a bridge between the original “The Ninth Jedi” short and the in‑production series, and Lucasfilm took a much more hands‑on role for the full series than it did for the initial shorts. Rimes says the project represents the studio’s first full‑length anime series for Star Wars, with Lucasfilm supporting the creative team from early pitches through design and production as the story expanded. He adds that the series is shaping up spectacularly and is slated for audiences in 2026.

Star Wars: Visions — Season 3 is streaming on Disney+.

Source: Polygon