Star Wars has had strong success jumping to the small screen to expand its universe through new TV shows on Disney+. The Mandalorian has easily been the service’s biggest breakout series to date and even opened the door for Boba Fett’s (Temuera Morrison) return through The Book of Boba Fett. There are even more upcoming live-action Star Wars series like Obi-Wan Kenobi, Ahsoka, and Andor, which will focus on Rouge One’s Cassian Andor’s (Diego Luna) adventures five years prior to the film. It’s been great to see Star Wars delve deeper into its world, but there was one new Star Wars series last year that presented even greater potential.
The animated Star Wars anthology series Star Wars: Visions was one of 2021’s most under-recognized shows as it presented some strong potential for the franchise to tread new ground. Each episode, created and animated by different prolific anime studios, offered new stories inspired by the Star Wars lore and imagery to create fresh takes on the Star Wars mythos. Fans were absolutely wowed by the ambitious stories in Visions and have been voicing their thoughts on why Visions’ stories should be made into something more.
Playing Outside the Traditional Canon
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Star Wars has lived and died by its singular canon and while it’s found some opportunity to delve into smaller stories within the Skywalker Saga, Visions featured stories that weren’t tethered to the canon.
Visions’ stories retained Star Wars’ distinct themes of hope and iconic imagery, but repurposed them to introduce new characters, locations, and storylines to further expand the lore in interesting new directions. Star Wars does not have to be based on one singular idea anymore and Visions proved that on multiple occasions.
Animation Offers a New Vision for 'Star Wars'
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The ever-changing anime styles for each story not only made Visions a feast for the eyes but opened greater opportunities to have fewer creative limitations.
The sheer potential for incredible visuals and more imaginative action increases immensely through animation and taking that route offers a new visual landscape for Star Wars that’s desperately needed as the live-action shows have struggled to stand out visually. Also, the success of Star Wars: The Clone Wars showed that fans are more than happy to see Star Wars animated stories.
Redefining The Sith
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For the most part, the Sith have simply been the evil Jedi that seek to spread darkness and rule the galaxy, but Visions gave them more complexity and blurred the lines between light and dark.
One of the breakout stories of Visions was Kamikaze Douga’s “Ronin” for how its mysterious Ronin (voiced by Masaki Terasoma/Brian Tee), a former Sith now hunting down other Sith, presented a Sith-centered storyline that broke the mold for Star Wars and even Trigger’s “The Twins” presented an interesting Sith spin on the Luke/Leia dynamic that would be amazing to see return in a grander fashion.
'Visions' Delivered the Wildest Lightsaber Battles
What Star Wars fans are always craving is epic lightsaber battles that’ll make jaws drop and create cinema-quality visual spectacles. Visions delivered that and so much more.
From the samurai-inspired battles in “Ronin” to the eye-dazzling sibling battle in “The Twins,” Visions delivered some of the most visually stunning lightsaber battles of the entire franchise and fans would be thrilled to see them expanded upon and made even more epic in a full series.
Imaginative Lightsaber Designs
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Visions expanded on the meaning and mythos of lightsabers in episodes like Production I.G.’s “The Ninth Jedi,” but it also showed some of the most inventive and imaginative designs.
“Ronin” blended Japanese and Star Wars imagery beautifully in showing the umbrella lightsaber and Am’s (voiced by Ryoko Shirashi/Alison Brie) multi-armed suit in “The Twins” totally rivaled General Grievous. Who knows what more fans could see if these stories got fleshed out?
New Stories in the Same Canon
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When Visions wasn’t offering new stories, it delivered original stories within the canon that provided interesting perspectives within major events.
Studio Colorido’s “Tatooine Rhapsody” excellently captured a smaller perspective in a post-Clone Wars story that had notable legacy characters weave through an original story of a rock band fighting to stay together. It proved that there are other stories in the canon that don’t need to star main Star Wars characters and broke open the potential to further expand the Skywalker Saga.
Japanese and Star Wars Imagery is a Perfect Combination
Star Wars has always shown some clear inspiration from Japanese culture through the aesthetics and characterization of the Jedi, but Visions took it to a whole new level.
Episodes like “Ronin” and Kinema Citrus’ “The Village Bride” blend Japanese and Star Wars imagery beautifully by placing all the incredible sci-fi visuals of Star Wars in Feudal Japan settings. It’s a winning combination that fleshes out the visual potential Star Wars stories can offer and opens greater opportunities for the kinds of stories that can be told.
'Visions' Showed Endless Story Potential
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The stories of Visions showed endless story potential with the characters and arcs presented that could easily be expanded upon in great ways.
It’s easy to see the Ronin’s adventure of hunting down the Sith continue for a Star Wars samurai story of redemption, the story of the android Jedi T0-B1 (voiced by Masako Nozawa/Jaden Waldman) unfold as he learns the Jedi ways, and it would be a blast to see the central band of “Tatooine Rhapsody” throw more concerts across the galaxy. There’s so much untapped story potential that could make for some of Star Wars’ best content to date.
A Strong, Diverse Voice Cast
In terms of the English version, Visions spared no expense in bringing together an incredibly diverse cast of talent that surpasses even what the films have offered.
If these stories got their own series, they would bring the likes of Neil Patrick Harris, Henry Golding, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, David Harbour, Jamie Chung, Jordan Fisher, George Takei, and many others to voice their respective characters. Now, how could we possibly miss out on that?
Finally, a New Direction for 'Star Wars'
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Star Wars has simply been one story going on and on for the longest time and even these new series are just spinoffs of that, but Visions’ stories are truly something new and could bring Star Wars in an ambitious new direction.
All these stories need is a little more care and support, which they’ve undoubtedly earned just from the short snippets we’ve gotten, and they can be some of the strongest stories of the franchise and offer a freshness this franchise desperately needs.