Disney + Originals
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Since getting the brand, Disney has been pumping out Star Wars originals on their personal streaming service like their lives depended on it. The first and most popular of these is The Mandalorian, but there have been plenty of others since. Some are hits, some are misses, some are both. This page lists them all in detail.
Star Wars: The Bad Batch
"Good Soldiers Follow Orders."
- – Crosshair after putting an insubordinate soldier in line.
See here. TL;DR, not too bad. It shows a nice take on the Empire’s hiring process, as scenes with conscripted troopers who try to be good soldiers get punished for their insubordination. Dee Bradley Baker is back playing all the main characters, and giving most of them a unique accent to discern between them, such as the heroic Hunter, the cyborg Echo, strong man Wrecker, techsavvy Tech, and the villainous Crosshair. The first season released in 2021, and the second is coming the year after that.
LEGO Shorts
Initially, it just seemed like the idea was to do a Star Wars Holiday Special that doesn't make you question your status as a Star Wars fan and/or want to claw your eyeballs out. But it has since become clear that Disney+ has opted to do these as a sort of "seasonal" thing, with a follow-up short based around Halloween (called "Terrifying Tales"), and another based on Summer Vacation (creatively titled "LEGO Star Wars: Summer Vacation"). Not terrible for what they are, but being both LEGO and Disney, they can't have the same satirical bite that, say, the Family Guy Star Wars parodies do. Tellingly, the second of these managed to do more with the Knights of Ren than the actual Sequel Trilogy movies did.
Star Wars: Visions
Basically, the prayers of every Anime fan with even a passing interest in Star Wars were finally answered. And even if you aren't an Anime obsessive, Star Wars: Visions is still Awesome. A series of shorts, all of which are decent to great, they managed to do well with both critics and audiences, proving that it is still possible for Star Wars products that don't have Baby Yoda in them to do that. The shorts are:
Season 1
- The Duel: Where most of the shorts are meant to be neither clearly canon or non-canon, first one, The Duel, is the exception. It explicitly takes place in a kind of "Elseworlds" Star Wars universe that is basically if Kurosawa (one of George Lucas' main inspirations) had done Star Wars himself. This short in particular borrows heavily from Yojimbo (morally gray ronin anti-hero fights a bunch of thugs in a suffering town). One of the characters has a lightsaber umbrella (trust us, its much less stupid than it sounds).
- Tatooine Rhapsody: About a Jedi survivor of Order 66 who finds a new life as the singer in a band that also includes a young Hutt who is on the outs with Jabba. Temura Morrison guest-stars voicing Boba Fett. Despite that, this is still the one short where you almost definitely want to watch it in Japanese, unless you want to suffer some horrible bad singing.
- The Twins: Takes place some time after Episode IX, and deals with a couple of super powerful, Force-Sensitive twins who aren't Luke and Leia. Takes full advantage of its being Anime to have some truly crazy, over-the-top action (as in, the title characters fighting on top of a Star Destroyer in outer space without space-suits and somehow being able to breath), and not-Luke slicing through a Star Destroyer with a fucking giant lightsaber. Villain's design is like a blend of Darth Vader, General Grievous and Satsuki Kiryuin from Kill la Kill.
- The Village Bride: A more slow-paced, low-energy short focusing on a low-tech village under the heel of some local dickheads that a mysterious masked Jedi fends off at the end. Has a "beauty of nature" type feel.
- The Ninth Jedi: Takes place an undetermined amount of time after Episode IX. It's an era where lightsaber construction has become a lost art...which is why what Jedi and Sith are left all want a piece of one of the few folks left who can make them. Notably, the lightsabers in this short change color to match the alignment of whoever is wielding them...leading to one heck of a plot twist towards the end. One of the most popular and beloved of the shorts.
- T0-B1: A droid living with his master in isolation with dreams of becoming a Jedi. Basically Astro Boy meets Star Wars, going for a very similar art-style and protagonist to the former.
- The Elder: Set before Episode I, it centers on a Jedi Master/Apprentice duo who cross paths with an elderly Dark Sider who isn't a Sith (though might have been once). Moody and slow-paced and one cannot really even tell that it is from the same studio as The Twins.
- Lop and Ocho: Centers on a rabbit girl alien who gets taken in by a father and daughter pair. The latter joins the Empire later, forcing Lop to combat her. Believe it or not, not the first time Star Wars has had rabbit people.
- Akakiri: Short loosely based off of the Kurosawa movie "The Hidden Fortress" (a major inspiration for Star Wars). Ends on a notably downer note compared to the rest of the shorts.
Season 2 Coming Soon!
The Book of Boba Fett
"You’re going soft in your old age"
- – Cad Bane
"We all do"
- – Boba Fett right back at him
Basically a spin-off/midquel to The Mandalorian, centering on Boba Fett and his efforts to succeed Jabba the Hutt as Tatooine's Corleone/Soprano overseer. Naturally, fan expectations were high, but at this point we should all know what tends to happen next.
Of the stuff released after the end of the sequel trilogy, it has been the least beloved thus far, though nowhere near to the point of the Sequel Trilogy. Currently one of Youtube Video reviewers' favorite whipping boys along with Kenobi (as shown below), with over a dozen different videos as of this writing bashing it. It has its moments, but the show is still probably most remembered for a very slow chase scene involving neon-colored scooters going 5mph at best.
You can probably compare it to the Prequel Trilogy: cool fanservice and good actors, actually coherent character progression (in theory), and shaky execution at various-to-most points, and probably amplified by stratospheric expectations for the fan-favorite character in the hands of well-regarded showrunners which made the flops bomb harder. Basically, it had good intentions of worldbuilding and character growth, but didn't quite stick the landing. That, and the hardline fans wanted their Fett to be a stone-cold badass crushing his opposition instead of trying to grow out of it and try negotiation to inspire loyalty and respect or a green armored nice guy. Also a popular point of mockery/criticism was in how two whole episodes focus on Din Djarin instead of Boba Fett himself, leading to Fett getting effectively upstaged in his own mini-series. A second season might be coming, so hopefully the writers can course-correct.
Obi-Wan Kenobi
"Goodbye...Darth."
- – Obi-Wan after his rematch with Vader and leaving him alive to kill more people. (also somewhat meta, given that this is the last time James Earl Jones will ever voice Darth Vader)
Live-action series featuring the return of Ewan McGregor as the titular character set 10 years after Revenge of the Sith. Hayden Christensen also has returned with voice over work from James Earl Jones, albeit with possible digital voice de-aging assistance like Mark Hamill received. Released May 27th 2022 (around the time of the 45th anniversary of the franchise) and ran as a six-episode mini-series. Went for sort of a "Logan" style tone according to the director, having a 10 year old child serve as a foil to a reluctant hero forced out of hiding.
Unfortunately, where Logan was/is universally adored, Obi-Wan Kenobi...less so. To be clear, this mini-series nearly rivals the Sequel Trilogy in terms of pure Skub, Flame-Wars, and Rage generated which resulted in this page’s creation. In this case, largely due to a mix of plot holes fixed vs ones that were caused, with jarringly bad/mediocre writing for a franchise older than people today.
The highlight would be the performances from the actors, and especially the relationship between Obi-Wan and Anakin. Its ideas, in a conceptual vacuum, are popular ideas on most fans' wishlists of material to adapt: More time spent in the Prequel Era, role reprisals by actors like Ewan McGregor, Hayden Christiansen, and Liam Neeson, Obi Wan Kenobi protecting Luke Skywalker as the last of his order, being a wanted man hunted by the rest of the Galaxy, more fleshing out for the Inquisitors, and so on. But, y'know...execution.
Its biggest source of skub by far is the Third Sister, Inquisitor Reva. As a survivor of Order 66, she vowed revenge against Anakin by joining the Inquisition and attempting to get close enough to stick a saber into him. Unfortunately, the writing for her character is too hammy to take seriously, and her actions are far too inconsistent and insubordinate for the audience to immerse properly, especially when her violent actions speak louder than her true motives. This isn't helped by the fact that Jedi: Fallen Order featured a very similar, but much less skubtastic, character of Trilla Suduri aka the Second Sister, and a few other concepts such as the Fortress Inquisitorius that are also present in the series. While there are toxic individuals who become hateful against the actor, the response by Disney and Stans tarring all critics with the same brush and using the same buzzwords to dismiss legitimate criticisms and hatred didn't go over well. Naturally, this made having a civilized discussion about the character almost impossible, even on this wiki.
In the end, this show wasn’t well received by its main audience, who proceeded to talk down and nitpick it into oblivion. It got a rather tepid response from critics as well. The most pointed flaws were the previously mentioned Reva, as well as Young Leia, on account of various super-slow chase scenes throughout the show, and a lot of folks not buying her overly-precocious characterization.
Still, it promised us "the rematch of the century", and it did give that. But general consensus is that the show never quite explains why it needed to exist apart from that one idea. Ultimately, Kenobi had the chance to end Vader’s life by the 6th episode, but walks away, causing him to continue being a Sith Lord that will eventually kill him and many more like him. Though, it also lets Vader live long enough to redeem himself, save his son, and kill Palpatine. Somehow Palpatine Returned.
Notably, unlike with a lot of these other ones, earlier drafts of the story were leaked, so we have a sense of ideas that were considered before being dropped. These included an actual plot involving Luke Skywalker, Reva's death, and Obi-Wan having a vision of fighting a grown-up Dark Side Luke on Mustafar. Darth Maul's inclusion was also considered at one point, but the writers felt it would be too much to have Vader and Maul. It also seems that the mini-series had been intended more as a movie than a mini-series, and given the amount of fat that could have been trimmed from the final product, this may have been the better way to go.
Andor
Series centering on Rogue One's Cassian Andor before the events of that movie. Despite (or perhaps because of), focusing on a more minor character who's less of a household name than Obi-Wan and Boba, its done well for itself review-wise, with many appreciating its darker, grimier, more morally gray take on the Rebel Alliance and their fight with the Empire. So Star Wars for cynics basically. The series is also set far enough from the frontlines that one does not even see a stormtrooper until episode 7 and even then it is almost a cameo.
It starts in the Corporate Sector Authority: basically the area of the galaxy in which Capitalism has been allowed to run rampant and megacorps dominate, an old Legends idea that has been given new life. The first episode starts on the Blade Runner-esque world of Morlana One, home to the Preox-Morlana corporation (the current rulers of the CSA at the behest of the Empire). Cassian is (unsuccessfully) looking for his sister, who he last saw on his homeworld, the jungle planet (and Republic/Imperial strip mine) of Kenari during the Clone Wars. He gets shaken down by some Pre-Mor mall cops who he met in a brothel while looking for his sister, and Cassian guns the poor schmucks down. This attracts the attention of a turbo-sperg working for the Pre-Mor machine, Deputy Inspector Syril Karn, who can't seem to take the hint from his superior (Inspector Hyne) to ignore the two corrupt thugs who just died. This eventually leads to a police raid where he gets most of his squad killed.
Cassian returns to his current home, the scrapyard planet of Ferrix. He's completely disillusioned with the state of things. His biological parents were killed for being Separatist sympathizers, the tribe of feral children he and his sister joined were killed when a warship crashed near their camp, his adoptive father Clem was hanged shortly after the rise of the Empire for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. All he has is his adoptive mother (Maarva) and their droid B2. He's in debt to almost everyone in town, barely scraping by on salvage and theft from the Empire for both the money and due to low-key resentment against them.
During all this, we also have Mon Mothma, who is going from sympathetic senator to the overall leader of the Alliance. Genevieve O'Reilly reprises her role from Revenge of the Sith and Rogue One, and surprisingly shows us why Lucas chose her for that role, for those who never saw the scenes cut from that film. After that, it moves to a planet populated by shepherds being low key oppressed by the Empire. Andor teams up with some Rebels to pull off a heist from an Imperial Base. This leads to galaxy-wide crackdowns from the Empire, (which is revealed to be the main goal behind the heist, as said crackdowns would lead to more joining the Rebellion) which Cassian ends up on the wrong side of, ironically just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Afterwards he ends up in an Imperial Factory Prison and leads a mass escape. Mon has to launder the stolen credits.
All the while we follow ISB Lieutenant Dedra Meero who's involved in the crack-down against anti-Imperial activity and eventually looks into Andor himself and Syril Karn who stays fixated with Andor, living with his mom and being a creep to Dedra (so basically an Incel). Surprisingly, this works. In particular the Narkina 5 prison is terrifying in its low key banality-of-evil way.
The finale is really good, involving an anti-Imperial riot on Ferrix. In general the series has slow build ups establishing characters, situation and settings and having them pay off in big dramatic ways.
For all that its been the best-received Star Wars thing since fellow Disney+ originals The Mandalorian and Visions, there is still some points of criticism. It is by far the least action-heavy Star Wars has ever been on screen and whole episodes are used to set up a later, more action-heavy episode. There is also considerably more focus on politics and bureaucracy than anything we have seen from Star Wars before give or take the first two Prequels. Some fans think all this makes it the best Star Wars series since the Mandalorian if not the best overall while others think its slowburn storytelling and lack of action most of the time makes it boring. Regardless, this is undoubtedly the most "adult" Star Wars series yet. Fun fact, the head writer was inspired by the October Revolution when writing Andor, with Stellan Skarsgård fitting into Lenin's role.
Tales of the Jedi
A six-episode animated series, with three episodes each focusing on Ahsoka Tano's early days, both as a child and after Order 66, and on Count Dooku's fall from compassionate Jedi Master to Sith Lord. Whether you like this or not most likely depends on how you feel about Dave Filoni's earlier productions and the Jedi. The Dooku episodes were well received, with people praising Dooku having legitimate grievances with the Jedi, and how it caused his Start of Darkness. The Ahsoka episodes were a bit more disconnected, showing how her Force Sensitivity was discovered, a training regimen she did during the Clone Wars, and how she wound up fighting for the nacent rebellion. To people who still like Ahsoka these were harmless, to people who never liked her or who are starting to feel she's overused it was more of the stuff they hate. Somewhat controversial in finishing retconning the Ahsoka novel and taking both the name and the logo from an Legends Comic Book series that precedes the Prequels, and therefore has nothing to do with the characters or the Clone Wars.
The Acolyte
To be released
The Skeleton Crew
To be released
| Star Wars | |
|---|---|
| About: | The Franchise, The Setting, The Movies, The Video Games |
| Television Shows: | The Clone Wars, Rebels, Resistance, The Mandalorian, The Bad Batch, Disney + Originals |
| Star Wars Games | |
| Miniature: | X-Wing, Armada, Legion |
| Tabletop: | Rebellion |
| Roleplaying: | FFG, WotC (d20), WEG (d6) |