Lucasfilm's Star Wars: Visions is headed to Anime Expo.
The anime anthology series will debut its first-look footage during a panel at the event, per an official announcement. Described as "Star Wars through the lens of the world's best anime creators and storytellers," the Visions sneak peek promises to "leave you excited for this all-new vision of the galaxy far, far away!"
Anime Expo's Star Wars: Visions panel will take place on Saturday, July 3 at 3:00 p.m. PT. The panel will be hosted by Chastity Vicencio and feature appearances by Vice President of Franchise Production, Lucasfilm Animation, Jacqui Lopez, along with executive producers Josh Rimes and James Waugh, producer Kanako Shirasaki and co-executive producer Justin Leach, the CEO of Quibic Pictures.
Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy announced the project at Disney's Investor Day presentation in Dec. 2020, describing Star Wars: Visions as "a series of animated short films celebrating the Star Wars galaxy through the lens of the world's best anime creators. This anthology collection will bring ten fantastic visions from several of the leading Japanese anime studios, offering a fresh and diverse cultural perspective to Star Wars."
Visions is the latest addition to the animated side of the Star Wars franchise. The first official Star Wars cartoon, The Story of the Faithful Wookie, originally aired as part of the notorious Star Wars Holiday Special in Nov. 1978 and became famous for marking the first on-screen appearance of the bounty hunter Boba Fett. A pair of animated Star Wars series, Droids and Ewoks, released in the mid-1980s but are no longer considered canon. They're now available to stream with The Story of the Faithful Wookie as part of the Star Wars Vintage collection on Disney+.
More recent additions to the animated Star Wars continuity include the CG Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels, along with the ongoing Clone Wars followup series Star Wars: The Bad Batch. Lucasfilm Animation is also collaborating with Industrial Light & Magic on A Droid Story, a show that will "introduce us to a new hero, guided by legendary duo R2-D2 and C-3PO," per its synopsis.
Star Wars: Visions has yet to receive an official release date on Disney+. Anime Expo takes place from July 3-4.
Source: Anime Expo