What “Star Wars: Visions Presents The Ninth Jedi” Reminds Us in 2026

Back in 2021, Disney+ dropped Star Wars: Visions, an anime anthology that took all of the mythology and worldbuilding that we loved about the franchise and did something with it that felt impossible at the time: breathe life into the franchise. After the new trilogy tantalized us with The Force Awakens, attempted to muse on its own foundations in The Last Jedi, and made several baffling character and narrative decisions in The Rise of Skywalker that outweighed some of the visual spectacle and delight that occurred, I personally was burnt out on conventional Star Wars. The Mandalorian had somewhat offset this fatigue, but it was Visions that restored my fervor for the franchise because it was new and innovative. It took the core philosophies of the world and paired it with a new and unique visual dictionary that only anime could provide, and it was some of the coolest $#!& I’ve seen in a minute. Eight different stories with different feels, exploring underdeveloped aspects of a world that loved focusing on a particular era and a particular lineage. Visions shook that up in the best way possible. And one of the stories that stuck out the most in that first season was The Ninth Jedi.

While a “time where Jedi and Sith are nothing more than myths” is not a particularly unique premise in and of itself, what The Ninth Jedi offered was a compelling protagonist Kara, daughter of a sabersmith, who (spoilers for an animated anthology e…