Star Wars Celebration in London offered up a hefty bounty for fans on the hunt for exciting new animated content set in the Lucasfilm universe. Panels featuring filmmakers and cast from Star Wars: The Bad Batch, Star Wars: Visions Volume 2, Star Wars: The Clone Wars and more offered updates, including a new trailer and full cast list for Visions, the official trailer and first two episodes of Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures and orders for Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi Season 2 and The Bad Batch Season 3 (Finale).
On Saturday, host Krystina Arielle, executive producer James Waugh and showrunner Michael Olsen welcomed fans of all ages to a special screening of Sta
Set 200 years before The Phantom Menace, during the High Republic era, the animated series follows Jedi younglings as they study the ways of the Force, explore the galaxy, help citizens and creatures in need and learn valuable skills needed to become Jedi along the way. The series also stars Jamaal Avery, Jr. as Kai Brightstar, Juliet Donenfeld as Lys Solay, Emma Berman as Nash Durango, Jonathan Lipow as RJ-83, Piotr Michael as Master Yoda, Trey Murphy as Taborr Val Dorn and Nasim Pedrad as Master Zia.
Produced by Lucasfilm in collaboration with Wild Canary for Disney+ and Disney Junior, Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures is executive produced by Lucasfilm’s Waugh, Jacqui Lopez and Josh Rimes. Olson (Puppy Dog Pals) is showrunner and executive producer. The show releases on Disney+ and Disney Junior, where available, on May 4.
Later that day, fans were treated to a panel celebrating the 15th anniversary of the Emmy Award-winning series Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Moderated by Amy Ratcliffe, the panel included executive producer Dave Filoni, VP Animation Production Lucasfilm Animation Athena Portillo, sound editor Matthew Wood and art director Kilian Plunkett, as well as cast members Dee Bradley Baker, Ashley Eckstein, Matt Lanter and James Arnold Taylor as they reminisced on how the series came to be.
Filoni ended the panel with the announcement that he had so much fun creating the first season of Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi, a second season is currently in production.
On Monday, there was a panel for the acclaimed series Star Wars: The Bad Batch, which just wrapped its second season as the Bad Batch continued their journey navigating the aftermath of Order 66 and the rise of the Empire.
Host Amy Ratcliffe welcomed The Bad Batch executive producer and supervising director Brad Rau, executive producer and head writer Jennifer Corbett, executive producer Athena Portillo, actors Dee Bradley Baker, who voices The Bad Batch, and Michelle Ang, the voice of Omega, to discuss highlights from the second season.
Executive producers Rau, Corbett and Portillo announced that the show will return for a third and final season in 2024 to finish telling this part of the story. Fans in the room were treated to a special Season 3 teaser, sharing a sneak peek at what is to come including the return of Ming-Na Wen’s fan-favorite bounty hunter, Fennec Shand.
To close out Star Wars Celebration’s animation panels, on Monday afternoon there was a Star Wars: Visions panel. The panel was filled with an abundance of reveals ahead of the series’ May 4, release — including first story details for all nine shorts, the full cast list, the trailer and key art.
The second anthology will continue to push the boundaries of Star Wars storytelling, with nine new shorts from nine studios from around the globe. Employing an array of animation styles from a variety of countries and cultures, the Volume 2 offers a dynamic new perspective on the storied mythos of Star Wars.
To kick off the panel, host Amy Ratcliffe introduced executive producers of the Emmy-nominated series, Josh Rimes, James Waugh and Jacqui Lopez, who discussed the success of the show’s first season and its unique concept featuring a collection of animated shorts that stretches beyond any one form of animation and serves as a broader framework for Star Wars storytelling.
The Vol. 2 cast list includes:
- “Screecher’s Reach”: Eva Whittaker
- “I Am Your Mother”: Maxine Peake, Charithra Chandran
- “Journey to the Dark Head” (English Dub): Ashley Park, Eugene Lee Yang
- “The Bandits of Golak”: Suraj Sharma
- “The Pit”: Daveed Diggs
- “Aau’s Song”: Cynthia Erivo
After revealing the cast, Ratcliffe introduced the series’ filmmakers, who took to the stage in groups of three to reveal the first details about each of their shorts:
- Rodrigo Blaas, writer/director of El Guiri’s “Sith” from Spain
- Paul Young, director of Cartoon’s Saloon’s “Screecher’s Reach” from Ireland
- Gabriel Osorio, writer/director of Punkrobot’s “In the Stars” from Chile
- Magdalena Osinska, director of Aardman’s “I Am Your Mother” from the United Kingdom
- Hyeong-Geun Park, director of Studio Mir’s “Journey to the Dark Head” from South Korea
- Julien Chheng, director of Studio La Cachette’s “The Spy Dancer” from France
- Milind Shinde, founder of India’s 88 Pictures and executive producer of “The Bandits of Golak”
- LeAndre Thomas, writer/director/executive producer of “The Pit”
- Arthell Isom, founder of D’ART Shtajio and executive producer of “The Pit”
- Nadia Darries and Daniel Clarke, co-directors of Triggerfish’s “Aau’s Song” from South Africa
Panelists shared how they incorporated their country’s history and culture into their stories and created original characters that fit into the Star Wars galaxy and cast local talent to bring these characters to life. At the end of the panel, attendees were also treated to a surprise early screening of Aardman’s short “I Am Your Mother.”
More information about all of the animation announcements out of Star Wars Celebration can be found at StarWars.com.
