When Star Wars: Visions debuted in 2021, it was justly celebrated for how it allowed some of Japan’s greatest anime studios carte blanche to create their own, well, visions of how the Star Wars galaxy could look. The results were frequently stellar, but season two will be made beyond just Japan. The next series has been announced, and its nine shorts will come from around the world.
Nine different international studios from nine different countries will be offering their, er, ahem, visions of Star Wars for season two. Here they are, along with the titles of their shorts (which are all we know for now):
• Aardman, “I Am Your Mother”—Makers of the claymated Wallace & Gromit series
• Cartoon Saloon, “Screecher’s Reach”—An Irish studio responsible for The Secret of Kells, Wolfwalkers, and The Breadwinner
• D’Art Shtajio, “The Pit”—A Japanese anime studio who’ve helped out on many an anime series, but also created alt-country singer Sturgill Simpson’s absolutely wild Sound & Fury film (you can currently watch it on Netflix)
• 88 Pictures, “The Bands of Golak”—An Indian studio that made Guillermo del Toro’s kids series Trollhunters for Netflix
• El Guiri Studios, “Sith”—A Spanish studio led by Rodrigo Blaas, who worked on several Pixar films
• Punkrobot, “In the Stars”—A Chilean animation house responsible for many kids series I have not heard of, but look pretty neat
• Studio La Cachette, “The Spy Dancer”—A French studio that animated Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal series
• Studio Mir, “Journey to the Dark Head”—The excellent Korean studio behind The Legend of Korra, The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf, and DOTA: Dragon’s Blood
• Triggerfish, “Aau’s Song”—Makers of several BBC shorts, based in South Africa
It’s sort of weird. While I love the idea of Visions expanding its scope to get, goddammit, visions of Star Wars from all across the globe, I’m simultaneously a bit bummed that we’re not getting more Star Wars anime. It was such good stuff!
Of course, that’s not to say these shorts won’t be as good, and we honestly won’t have long to see what these nine studios have cooked up. The second season of Star Wars Visions premieres on Disney Plus on May 4, presumably as god intended.
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