It turns out that might not be the case for all of them. Sure, Star Wars: Visions is a bold, standalone take on the franchise. But according to the executive producers who oversaw the whole project, at least one of the stories will live to see a new entry. That’s not too shabby considering the amount of creative freedom Disney granted each of the different anime studios who worked on the series. However, those producers still did a lot to bring all of these different ideas together in a way that fits them into the Star Wars universe.
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James Waugh and Kanako Shirasaki, who served as executive producers for the well-reviewed Star Wars: Visions, recently spoke about their experience working on such an influential franchise. They were proud to say that even though the point of the project was for each episode to largely be its own self-contained story, one of the studios created a world engaging enough to warrant its own continuation in novel form. “The character of Ronin is actually really being richly explored in a novel right now,” Waugh said in an interview with Collider, “so continuing the storytelling of “The Duel” in a Del Rey novel by a really, really interesting, first time Star Wars author, Emma Mieko.” So there’s plenty more of that Kurosawa-style action coming soon in book form.
While the idea for the series came from Lucasfilm themselves, everything else was totally up to each of the studios themselves. Waugh and Shirasaki were basically there just to help things fit into the already rich lore of the Star Wars universe. “They came with the concepts and they had a real point of view,” Waugh explained. “And then we, at Lucasfilm, are story editors from a Star Wars perspective and help them realize their vision, and do so in a way that feels like it rings true to a Star Wars storytelling value. So, strip the Star Wars out of it. What is the human story you’re trying to convey? Great. Now, we can help you find the Star Wars in it.”
Waugh and Shirasaki are also a big part of the reason why the stories translated so well across different cultures. “Because the idea’s coming from different cultures, so sometimes you need to decode what’s the meaning behind or what the story they’re trying to achieve,” Shirasaki said. “But once we have a discussion between creators and we get to understand that, oh, okay, so we understand at the core, you want to tell the family story.” It must have been one heck of a task finding the balance between keeping things lore-friendly while still allowing each studio’s creativity to shine, but they found a way.
Star Wars: Visions is an intriguing new twist on the franchise, and hopefully it sets an example for how much freedom creators are given in the future. Rian Johnson took similar liberties with The Last Jedi, making it one of the best Star Wars movies since The Empire Strikes Back, so maybe that combined with this new project is enough to convince the higher-ups that thinking outside the box can be a real boon for a galaxy far, far away.
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Source: Collider
