For Star Wars fans of the early 2000s, the name Visions would have carried a potent impact. Much like 2003’s Animatrix and 2008’s Batman: Gotham Knight, Star Wars: Visions is a bold storytelling anthology concept set in the galaxy far, far away.
Released in 2005, written and illustrated by the army of artists who had been working on Revenge of the Sith, Visionaries was a non-canon bound anthology comic published by Dark Horse. Much like its animated counterpart today, the tales within Visionaries was free to conform or exist beyond established continuity (then) and instead portrayed the ideas from the minds of the many talented artists who worked on it.
So popular were the stories within, that some eventually found their way into canon–both pre-Disney, and post. One tale in particular, Old Wounds, has caused more of a ripple than any would have expected, introducing the idea of a resurrected Darth Maul (with cybernetic legs) encountering the watchful Obi-wan Kenobi on Tatooine… only to meet his end at the hands of Uncle Owen.
Sure, it isn’t exactly the Maul we’ve met and loved in The Clone Wars and Rebels series, but it is certainly the foundation of the idea–one inspired by the freedom of not having to conform to any strict idea of continuity.
And that seems to be the spirit of Disney+’s Star Wars: Visions. Produced by Lucasfilm Animation, the series consists of nine short films, each produced by one of seven Japanese animation studios, Kamikaze Douga, Twin Engine’s Studio Colorido and Geno Studio, Trigger, Kinema Citrus, Production I.G, and Science SARU. Every instalment is a standalone original story inspired by the Star Wars universe.
And they’re glorious.
Star Wars: Visions is now on Disney+ and is a must-watch for fans of Star Wars, anime, or just damn good story-driven action pieces!