Just earlier today, Star Wars fans were treated to a new trailer for the upcoming series Star Wars: Visions. But the news didn’t stop there, as the cast list for the English dub of the series was also released, and I couldn’t possibly be more excited.
The cast left me speechless and they did not hesitate to lean into Asian talent (rightfully so). People like Lucy Liu, George Takei, Simu Liu, Henry Golding, Jamie Chung, Karen Fukuhara, and on and on and on. It is fantastic to see names like this, people who could be considered royalty, involved in the very first Star Wars project to embrace its Asian influence to the max.
Beyond even just the Asian talent involved, they additionally brought on plenty of other recognizable actors: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Neil Patrick Harris, Alison Brie, David Harbour, Jordan Fischer, and even Temeura Morrison as Boba Fett. The show has a ton of potential just based on all of the talents they brought on, but at this point, the talent is just the cherry on top of the beautifully animated sundae.
Simu Liu, Henry Golding, Jamie Chung, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Lucy Liu, Temuera Morrison, Karen Fukuhara, David Harbour, Jordan Fisher, James Hong, Kimiko Glenn and George Takei are among the cast for the English dub of ‘STAR WARS: VISIONS’. pic.twitter.com/eCE5KlM41S
— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) August 17, 2021
By far the coolest part of the show is the anthology aspect. That aspect is only deepened and strengthened by the choice to have multiple studios brought on to create different stories. They have Production IG, who are responsible for huge titles like Ghost in the Shell, Haikyu!!, and a couple of Neon Genesis Evangelion films. They also have Geno Studio, which hasn’t made a single project that I’ve heard of.
The varying scale and types of projects from these studios mean that we could essentially expect anything from these episodes. Just looking at the trailer you can see that these studios didn’t hold back. You can recognize the softer edges that Studio Trigger uses so well, and you can recognize the borderline 3D animation that Kamikaze Douga used for Batman Ninja. These studios bring distinct styles and stories to the table, and I cannot wait to finally see them brought to life.
This trailer in question does raise a lot of eyebrows. They show so many substantially different stories and styles, that I’ve begun to wonder about the canon of the show. While I don’t think that it matters whether the show is canon or not in the grand scheme of things, I think it’s important to know what to expect.
The trailer presents things like Boba Fett and the pod racing arena on Tatooine, but it also shows a black and white samurai-inspired story that doesn’t seem connected to any piece of the canon we know. I am more excited for the idea of a samurai story than the Boba Fett episode, but the mere fact that Disney let these studios off the hook to just create whatever they want gets me more excited than anything else.
So what’s the downside? One or two episodes might be bad, but that’s just whatever. If one or two episodes aren’t good, we can just move on and that’s the beauty of anthology series. But really — what’s the downside? Well, there isn’t one. This show is about as safe of a bet there has ever been. Best case scenario? The show is exceptionally great and the Star Wars universe starts to take further risks in the movies and television shows. A lot can happen, but as of right now, I am just really excited to see this show when it releases.
Star Wars: Visions releases weekly on Disney Plus starting on September 22.
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