Disney+’s New 8-Episode Star Wars Series Officially Brings Back Prequel-Era Duels [Exclusive]

](/author/maggie-lovitt/)

Published Jul 27, 2026, 12:00 PM EDT

Star Wars: Visions is returning in a big way this summer, and not in the way some fans may expect. After three critically acclaimed seasons of the animated anthology series, the latter of which broke new ground with several sequel episodes, the series is now getting its first official spin-off with Star Wars: Visions Presents — The Ninth Jedi. As the title implies, the series will chronicle the continuing adventures of Lah Kara (Kimiko Glenn/Chinatsu Akasaki) as she and her friends attempt to rebuild the Jedi Order in this offshoot storyline.

While it would be easy to say, “What’s the point of this?”, if the story isn’t considered canon to the wider Star Wars universe, the beauty of Star Wars: Visions is how it gives a veritable playground to its creators without having to be too constrained by pre-existing ideas from the franchise. That helped The Ninth Jedi’s two standalone episodes in Star Wars: Visions stand out a great deal, with the idea of kyber crystals changing color based on the user’s moral compass being just one of many brilliant ideas that some fans would easily argue should be integrated into the main timeline.Of course, the prior Star Wars films also influenced the creators of the new series in more ways than one, and Collider’s Maggie Lovitt has the chance to speak with directors **Kenji Kamiyama **and Shunsuke Tada, as well as producer Hitoshi Itô, about some of the show’s biggest inspirations. Kamiyama listed Star Wars: Episode V — The Empire Strikes Back as one major influence, particularly pointing to how Han Solo (Harrison Ford) briefly wielding Luke’s lightsaber despite not being a Jedi changed his perspective on the legendary weapon:

“My biggest inspiration was actually Star Wars when I watched it for the first time when I was 12 years old. That time, I had a big misunderstanding, which was that I thought the lightsaber reflects the user’s heart and emotion, so when I watched Episode V, and the scene with Han Solo trying to rescue Luke, I thought, ‘Oh, you’re not a Jedi, so you’re not going to be able to use a lightsaber.’ But that was not the case. So I realized, ‘Oh, I was misunderstanding this whole time,’ and this was a big hint and big motivation to make this story.”

However, Itô also pointed out that his two colleagues are from the generation that grew up with the original trilogy, while he and many of the other writers on the upcoming show are younger and are more familiar with the once-derided and now-beloved Prequel Trilogy of films. In a show that’s packed to the brim with lightsaber duels, it makes sense that the prequels had a hand in inspiring The Ninth Jedi’s creators, as those movies are widely credited with having the franchise’s best fight scenes. Itô drew particular attention to The Ninth Jedi’s fourth episode having a sequence that was directly inspired by Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) and Obi-Wan Kenobi’s (Ewan McGregor) final battle in Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith.

“Kamiyama-san and Tada-san are a generation from the original trilogy, and there are a lot of younger writers in the writers’ room, including myself. We are the prequel trilogy generation, so we remember strongly about Episode 4 and the battle between Anakin and Obi-Wan. So, it depends on that episode. We have that influence, too.”

The scores below reveal how the Force sees you. Your highest number is your true alignment. Read on to understand what that means — and what it will cost you.

Disciplined, compassionate, and deeply attuned to the living Force, you have walked the path long enough to understand its demands — and accept them. You lead not through authority alone, but through example. You have felt the pull of the dark side and chosen otherwise, every time. That is not certainty. That is courage.

You are earnest, powerful, and brimming with potential — and you know it, which is both your greatest asset and your most dangerous flaw. You act before you think, trust your gut over your training, and sometimes confuse impatience for bravery. The Masters see something in you, though. The question isn’t whether you have what it takes — it’s whether you’ll be patient enough to find out.

You are not simply dangerous — you are certain, and that is worse. You have decided what the galaxy needs, and you have decided you are the one to deliver it. Your power is genuine and formidable, earned through sacrifice that would have broken lesser beings. But examine your victories carefully. Every Sith believed their cause was righteous. The dark side’s cruelest trick is that it agrees with you.

You were forged in fire and reshaped by those who found you at your lowest. You serve, because service gave you structure when you had none. Your allegiance is not to an ideology — it is to survival and to the master who gave you purpose. But there is something buried beneath the conditioning. The Jedi you hunt? You recognize them. Because you remember what it felt like before the choice was taken from you.

You have looked at the Jedi Code and the Sith Code and found both of them incomplete. You walk the line not out of indecision but out of conviction — you genuinely believe both extremes miss something essential. The Jedi don’t fully trust you. The Sith think you’re wasting your potential. They’re both partially right. But so are you.

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