STAR WARS: VISIONS Producer James Waugh Discusses the Anime Series and Teases Volume 2
I loved most of the anime shorts that were a part of Star Wars: Visions Volume 1. Some fans didn’t really seem to understand what this series was trying to do, but I was a big fan of it and the awesome stories and art styles that it presented.
The shorts in Star Wars Visions are beautifully crafted and tell wonderfully unique stories that are inspired by the universe that George Lucas created. Seven Japanese anime studios were asked to bring their unique talent and perspective to the universe.
Each Star Wars: Visions short “bears a unique Japanese sensibility, which in many ways aligns with the tone and spirit of Star Wars storytelling. From the beginning, stories told in the Star Wars galaxy have counted Japanese mythology and the films of Akira Kurosawa among their many influences, and these new visions will further explore that cultural heritage through the unique animation style and perspective of each anime studio.”
Executive producer James Waugh recently sat down for an interview with Deadline. He talked about the series, its creation, and teases what is coming for Volume 2. When talking about what inspired the series, he said:
“We’ve always been big fans of anime at Lucasfilm. We were all watching a lot of anime and it became sort of a like lingua franca in a way, like shorthand between people in the animation department with the way we referenced it since we loved the medium. We always talked about how we could do that, and how we could honor the creative development processes, which are very different in Japan. I was looking at ways to find an outlet that could let really amazing creators come in and celebrate Star Wars in their own way. There was a book George [Lucas] did where he hired all these incredible artists to do their own unique paintings using Star Wars as an influence. The breadth of cool, interesting looks of Star Wars that came out of that was just really inspiring. None of this would fit into a typical Star Wars story, but without that framework, you wouldn’t have gotten that great art. So, these ideas sort of dovetailed at that point and the emergence of Disney+ really allowed us to experiment in a way. I think a lot of the power of Star Wars storytelling is that integrated timeline, but we asked if there was a way to try out different expressions of Star Wars. So that’s where it came from ultimately.
Waugh went on to tease what’s next for Star Wars: Visions saying:
“We announced that we’re gonna do of Visions volume two. The first anthology is anime because we all loved the style of it, but personally my intention for Visions was to always let it be a more broad palette, because there’s so much great animation work going on in the world. There’s so many interesting voices in all sorts of other mediums that are really focused on animation right now. And we really wanted it to be, in a way, a ‘sub-brand’ that allowed for different creators to come celebrate Star Wars from their own unique cultural perspective. And so Visions volume two is sort of a global tour of some of the most interesting animation studios on a global level. We have studios from South Africa, Chile, England, Ireland, France, India… and the guiding light there was that we wanted their storytelling to be a reflection of what Star Wars meant in their culture, but also a reflection of the myths and stories that could only come out of their cultural context. Spring next year is currently where we’re targeting and I think it’s an absolutely beautiful anthology.
I’m looking forward to seeing what kinds of new Star Wars stories this next volume brings us! If you haven’t watched Star Wars: Visions yet, you should check it out!