If you’re both a Star Wars fanatic and an animation nerd, get ready for Lucasfilm to make your wishes come true – the animation studios handling episodes of the next batch of Visions have just been announced, and there’s plenty to look forward to. The anthology series (telling not-necessarily-canonical stories in the Star Wars universe) initially centred on studios from Japan, but Season 2 of Visions is broadening the scope to showcase animation houses from around the world – including ones from the UK and Ireland.
Now, we know that the UK studio is none other than Aardman – behind the likes of Wallace And Gromit and Chicken Run – and that the Irish studio is Cartoon Saloon, the geniuses behind Song Of The Sea, WolfWalkers and more. Let that sink in for a second: Aardman and Cartoon Saloon are doing Star Wars shorts! Aardman’s episode is titled ‘I Am Your Mother’, and is directed by Magdalena Osinska, while Cartoon Saloon’s is titled ‘Screecher’s Reach’ and will be directed by Paul Young. Other studios contributing to Season 2 will be Spain’s El Guiri, Chile’s Punkrobot, South Korea’s Studio Mir, France’s La Cachette, India’s 88 Pictures, Japan’s D’art Shtajio, and South Africa’s Triggerfish.
“We always saw Star Wars: Visions as a framework for celebratory expressions of the franchise from some of the best creators working today,” says Visions executive producer James Waugh. “Animation is in a global renaissance, and we’re constantly staggered by the amount of creativity pushing the medium forward. With Volume 1, the imaginative minds of Japan’s anime industry were on full display. With Volume 2, we expanded our canvas to take audiences on a global tour of some of the most talented creators from around the world. We’re so proud to be able to reveal the line-up of studios we’ve assembled. Every short is incredible, full of heart, scope, imagination, and the values that make stories distinctly Star Wars — all while opening up bold new ways of seeing what a Star Wars story can be.”
The new series of Visions will be hitting Disney+ on Star Wars day itself, May the 4th – and we’ll be skipping straight to the Aardman short first. Cracking Jedi mind-trick, Gromit!