Executive producer James Waugh says audience's reactions will be the deciding factor for a potential Star Wars: Visions season 2 entering development. The anthology collection is comprised of nine short films exploring new and diverse perspectives on Lucasfilm's galaxy far, far away through the lens of anime. The films were produced by some of the biggest Japanese animation studios, including Ghost in the Shell's Production I.G and Kill la Kill's Studio Trigger.
Development on Star Wars: Visions was first announced during 2020's Disney Investor Day in which 10 films were planned to release, though would later decrease to nine as two were ultimately combined into one. Unlike most other recent projects in the franchise, the short films were confirmed to not be beholden to the larger Star Wars canon, allowing the creative teams more freedom to explore the range of the universe. With the collection now streaming on Disney+, those behind the series are opening up about its potential future.
In an exclusive interview with Screen Rant, Waugh discussed the potential future of Star Wars: Visions. Expressing the studio's delight over the newly released shorts and their being made during the pandemic, the executive producer notes that the audience's reaction to season 1 will be key in determining a potential season 2. See what Waugh had to say below:
"That’s a great question. It’s all new, it’s burgeoning and I think we want to see how this one lands. We love this, we are very happy internally with how the shorts came out and given the difficulty of COVID, I think in many ways this is sort of a miracle and getting them to be so special. It’s such a breath of fresh air and is amazing. Now, we’re biased, though, so now it’s time to kind of get it out to the world and let’s see what the world says, let’s see what the audience says. If the demand is there, and people want to see more of this, those conversations would pick up very quickly internally and we’ll see. You know, I mean, anything’s possible."
From a numbers perspective, the likelihood Star Wars: Visions becomes a viewership success for Disney+ is very high given the large fanbase the franchise holds, though Waugh's note regarding their actual reaction to the series is an important one to keep in mind. Since the launch of the prequel trilogy, Star Wars fans have become some of the most infamous on the Internet for the large divide and animosity amongst them regarding every opinion possible. While something existing outside of canon such as the anime collection would seem immune to such criticisms to the general public, those familiar with the dark corners of the fanbase know all too well nothing is truly sacred to many Star Wars audiences' vengeful opinions.
That being said, Star Wars: Visions certainly has all the makings of bringing the franchise's fanbase and anime audiences together for a celebration of the groundbreaking property. With some of the most celebrated minds and artists of the genre behind the various short films, early reviews celebrating the full-circle nature of George Lucas' Japanese-inspired vision for the franchise and Disney+ building its roster of animated projects with new seasons of Star Wars: The Bad Batch and Marvel's What If...? in the works, it seems prime to receive future outings. Only time will tell how audiences feel with Star Wars: Visions now streaming on Disney+.