Amidst the many Disney projects Star Wars have been releasing, Star Wars: Visions was the most consistent. By embracing all these different cultures and animation houses, Visions showed fans the true scope of what Star Wars could be beyond the main shows and movies. That has since continued over two more Visions anthologies, with a few of the more popular stories even getting sequels.
But now, one of those stories has broken out. After two shorts during Visions, Star Wars: Visions Presents — The Ninth Jedi is its own standalone limited series.
In Star Wars: Visions season 1, episode 5, “The Ninth Jedi,” viewers are introduced to a far-flung part of the Star Wars timeline when Jedi have been hunted by Sith acolytes. One Jedi Master, Margrave Juro, is intent on uniting the galaxy’s remaining masterless Jedi and reforming the Jedi Order. He enlists the help of a sabersmith named Lah Zhima to forge lightsabers for his new allies, whom he’s summoned to an old temple.
When two Jedi hunters arrive on Zhima’s doorstep, he tasks his daughter, Kara, who is strong with the Force but untrained, with bringing the completed lightsabers to the Margrave. Though reluctant to leave her father, she eventually makes it to the temple after deftly defeating her pursuer with one of her father’s blades. The truth comes to light when the summoned “Jedi” turn on their lightsabers for the first time: of the seven who answered the Margrave’s call, five are Sith acolytes. Their lightsabers turn red the second they ignite the plasma blades.
Kara’s lightsaber becomes green as the fight continues, signaling her strengthening connection with the Force. After the Sith are defeated, the remaining four Jedi, including Kara, become intent on saving her father and scouring the galaxy for the five remaining Jedi the Sith acolytes impersonated. As such, Kara becomes the titular “Ninth Jedi.”
Here’s how Lucasfilm described this whole thing. “Part of an all-new Star Wars: Visions Presents banner, which will be used to tell longer-form Star Wars: Visions stories, the limited series picks up not long after the events of the Visions shorts: ‘The Ninth Jedi’ and ‘The Ninth Jedi: Child of Hope.’ In the new series, Lah Kara continues to train in the ways of the Jedi under Margrave Juro. Kara goes on an epic journey of self-discovery as she and Juro’s small fellowship of Jedi-in-training embark on a quest to save her father.”
Two things jump out to us from that official description. One is that the Star Wars: Visions banner will be used to tell more long-form stories in this manner. So, The Ninth Jedi is just the beginning. But, more than that, Visions allows its creative team (which includes supervising director Kenji Kamiyama, director Shunsuke Tada, and producer Hitoshi Ito) to tell stories Star Wars filmmakers would never, ever be allowed to do.
“The Ninth Jedi” debuts on August 5 on Disney+ and runs for eight half-hour episodes.
