Disney+'s upcoming Star Wars anthology series, entitled Star Wars: Visions, won't necessarily be canon to the mainline Star Wars continuity. The series was first revealed in December of last year as a part of Disney's massive slate of Star Wars announcements, where it was revealed that the series would be a collaboration between Lucasfilm and several renowned Japan-based anime studios. Because of Star Wars: Vision's unique development and production compared to other in-house Lucasfilm projects, fans have been speculating about whether the various stories would be consciously integrated into canon or whether they would exist as standalone projects.
The series will consist of nine short films produced by seven total production studios – most notably Production I.G (Ghost in the Shell series) and Studio Trigger (Kill La Kill). In the recently released Star Wars: Visions sizzle reel, the producers stressed how each of these stories were intensely personal for the storytellers involved with little mandated direction from Lucasfilm. Because the storytellers were given so few restraints, it was necessary to free the stories from the confines of pre-established Star Wars lore.
In a recent post from StarWars.com, it was revealed that "Star Wars: Visions storytelling didn’t have to fit in the timeline." Executive producer James Waugh further elaborates on this decision, saying that Lucasfilm "wanted to give these creators a wide creative berth." You can read the full excerpt below:
Star Wars: Visions storytelling didn’t have to fit in the timeline. In developing the series, Lucasfilm made the decision to let creators tell the stories they wanted to tell — whether they featured established or original characters — without a need to tie into the larger chronology. “We really wanted to give these creators a wide creative berth to explore all the imaginative potential of the Star Wars galaxy through the unique lens of anime,” James Waugh said. “We realized we wanted these to be as authentic as possible to the studios and creators who are making them, made through their unique process, in a medium they’re such experts at. So the idea was, this is their vision riffing off all the elements of the Star Wars galaxy that inspired them — hopefully to make a really incredible anthology series, unlike anything we’ve seen before in the Star Wars galaxy.”
Given the scope of the Star Wars franchise, it can oftentimes be difficult to keep track of what is or isn't canon. After the resetting of the Expanded Universe continuity following Disney's purchase of Lucasfilm in 2012, Lucasfilm announced that all subsequent stories (for the most part) would fall into the same cohesive Star Wars timeline as overseen by the Lucasfilm Story Group. There have been a few exceptions here and there, but Star Wars: Visions is the highest-profile project to exist outside of the mainline continuity. This raises questions about the canonicity of future tie-in materials for Visions, such as the Star Wars Visions: Ronin novel that is set to release in October. Perhaps aspects of the series may make their way into the canon over time.
As the first collaborative animated Star Wars project since 2003's Star Wars: Clone Wars microseries from Genndy Tartakovsky, Visions presents an exciting new opportunity for the future of Star Wars storytelling. Franchises such as Star Wars or the Marvel Cinematic Universe often get trapped within the confines of pre-established canon which limits the scope of future projects to tell unique and convention-breaking stories. If Star Wars: Visions is received well, hopefully Lucasfilm will venture into more experimental projects that break away from the confines of continuity.
Star Wars: Visions premieres September 22 on Disney+.
Source: starwars.com