Disney+ makes double order for ‘Star Wars’ animation

Star Wars Tales Of The Jedi

Disney+ is boosting its animated Star Wars offering, with two news shows heading to the streamer, Tales Of The Jedi and The Young Jedi Adventures.

Tales Of The Jedi will be the first of the pair to land on the service, in fall 2022, and is an anthology of shorts, with each story following a Jedi characters from the prequel era of the Star Wars universe.

Set around the time of the films The Phantom Menace, Attack Of The Clones and Revenge Of The Sith, the shorts will follow characters such as Count Dooku, Qui-Gon Jinn (voiced by a returning Liam Neeson), Mace Windu and Ahsoka Tano, whose own live-action Disney+ series is launching next year, with Rosario Dawson in the role.

This will be the second Star Wars animated anthology series to launch on Disney+, following last year’s Star Wars Visions, in which seven Japanese anime studios created shorts set in the sci-fi universe.

Dave Filoni, who worked on previous animated Star Wars shows The Clone Wars and Rebels, as well as the live-action The Mandalorian and the upcoming Ahsoka series, will serve as writer and executive producer.

Speaking at the four-day Star Wars Celebration 2022 in Anaheim, which featured a preview of one of the shorts from the show, Filoni said the series would allow him to expand upon characters in a way I couldn’t do in Clone Wars.”

The Young Jedi Adventures, meanwhile, is the first full-length Star Wars animated series created for preschoolers, early grade schoolers, and their families.

Launching on Disney+ and Disney Junior in spring 2023, the series is set in the High Republic era of the franchise and follows very young Jedis as they begin their training.

Michael Olson will serve as showrunner and exec produce alongside James Waugh, while Elliot Bour is supervising director and Lamont Magee is attached as consulting producer.