STAR WARS: VISIONS Volume 2 directors, animation studios and premiere date revealed

Disney + and Lucasfilm announced it Star Wars: Visions Volume 2 will premiere on May 4, 2023. I really enjoyed the first season of the series, which included various anime shorts set in the Star Wars universe, but they are not canon. The idea behind the series was just to let the directors imagination run wild, and the results have been fantastic!

The next volume of shorts “will continue to push the boundaries of Star Wars storytelling, featuring nine new shorts from 9 studios from around the world. Employing the most captivating animation styles from a variety of countries and cultures, the second volume offers a dynamic new perspective on the legendary Star Wars mythos.

The new short films included in Volume 2 were made by the following international animation studios: El Guiri (Spain), Cartoon Saloon (Ireland), Punkrobot (Chile), Aardman (United Kingdom), Studio Mir (South Korea) Studio La Cachette (France), 88 Pictures (India), D’art Shtajio (Japan) and Triggerfish (South Africa). D’Art Shtajio’s short film was made in collaboration with Lucasfilm Ltd. (USA).

James Waugh, Star Wars: Visions executive producer and Senior Vice President of Franchise Content & Strategy at Lucasfilm said in a statement:

“The reaction to the first volume of ‘Star Wars: Visions’ blew us away. We were delighted that this project has inspired and resonated with so many people. Executive Producer of Star Wars: Visions and Senior Vice President Franchise Content & Strategy at Lucasfilm. “We have always seen Star Wars: Visions as a framework for celebratory expressions of the franchise by some of the best creators working today. Animation is in a global renaissance and we are constantly baffled by the amount of creativity propelling the medium forward. With Volume 1, the imaginative minds of the Japanese anime industry were on full display. With Volume 2, we’ve expanded our canvas to take audiences on a global tour of some of the most talented creators from around the world. We are so proud to be able to reveal the line-up of studios we have assembled. Each short is incredible, filled with the heart, scope, imagination, and values ​​that make the stories distinctly ‘Star Wars’, all while opening up bold new ways to see what a ‘Star Wars’ story can be.

Lucasfilm also revealed the segment titles for Star Wars: Visions Volume 2 along with each of the filmmakers working on them:

Title: Sith

Studio: El Guiri

Writer-director: Rodrigo Blaas

Rodrigo Blaas is an Emmy Award®-winning director who has spent more than 20 years in animation. After co-founding Stromboli Animation in 1997, Blaas joined Blue Sky Studios in 2000, working on the film “Ice Age” before moving to Pixar Animation Studios. There he worked on projects such as “Finding Nemo” (2003), “The Incredibles” (2004), “Ratatouille” (2007) and “Wall-E” (2008) and on the Oscar® nominated short film “The Moon ” (2011). Most recently, Blaas has collaborated with Guillermo del Toro to develop the award-winning “Trollhunters” series, served as creative director for Mikros Animation Paris and, in 2021, created El Guiri Studios in Madrid with his partner, Cecile Hokes. He also wrote and directed the award-winning 2009 short film “Alma”.

Title: Screecher’s reach

Studio: Salon of cartoons

Director: Paul Young

Paul Young is co-founder of Cartoon Saloon, an IFTA winner and nominated for an Oscar®, Emmy® and BAFTA. He has produced the animated films “My Father’s Dragon”, “WolfWalkers”, “The Secret of Kells”, “Song of the Sea” and “The Breadwinner”. as well as award-winning TV series including ‘Puffin Rock’, ‘Dorg Van Dango’ and ‘Viking Skool’.

Title: In the Stars

Studio: Punkrobot

Writer-director: Gabriel Osorio

Gabriel Osorio graduated in Fine Arts at the Universidad de Chile, later specializing in 3D animation. After working in commercials, films and television series, he founded Punkrobot Studio. Since 2008 he has directed children’s television projects, including “Flipos”, “Muelin y Perlita”, “Soccer Girls” and TV commercials. In 2016, his short film “Bear Story” became the first Latin American project to win an Oscar® in the animated short category.

Title: I’m your mother

Study: Aardmann

Director: Magdalene Osinska

Magdalena Osinska is an award-winning director who has been working with Aardman for eight years. She has directed stop-motion, CGI, 2D and live-action commercials including “The Great Sofa Caper” and Wallace & Gromit’s “Share the Orange.” Osinska led the development of the children’s series “Joyets” and also directed such films as “Spirits of the Piano” and “Zbigniev’s Cupboard”. A graduate of the National Film and Television School in Beaconsfield, UK, the Polish Film School in Lodz and the Art College in Warsaw, Osinska is currently developing the feature film “Jasia”, based on her grandmother’s memories of WWII Poland .

Title: Journey to the Dark Head

Studio: Studio Mir

Director: Hyeong Geun Park

Rising star Hyeong Geun Park had already made a name for himself when he entered the Korean animation industry in 2017, thanks to his strong sensibility in drawing and animation. He has directed the animation for dozens of cinematic game trailers and has since branched out into animated series, working on projects including ‘Dota: Dragon’s Blood: Book 3’ (2022) and ‘Lookism’ (2022). “Journey to the Dark Head” is the first title he executive produced from start to finish.

Title: The dancer spies

Studio: Studio La Cachette

Writer-director: Julien Cheng

Julien Chheng is CEO of Studio La Cachette, an Emmy Award®-winning French animation studio that he co-founded in 2014 with Gobelins school alumni Oussama Bouacheria and Ulysse Malassagne. Chheng studied visual development at Disney and worked as a character animator on the acclaimed 2D animated films “The Rabbi’s Cat,” “Mune” and the Academy Award®-nominated film “Ernest and Celestine.” In 2021, he won an Emmy Award® as an executive animation producer on “Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal,” for which he also served as animation supervisor. In 2022, Chheng directed the Cesar-nominated film Ernest and Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia with Jean-Christophe Roger.

Title: Golak Bandits

Study: 88 images

Director: Ishan Shukla

Ishan Shukla started his career as a CG artist in Singapore. For more than a decade, he has spearheaded projects ranging from TV commercials to series and music videos. His 2016 animated short, “Schirkoa,” was long-listed at the Academy Awards® after receiving dozens of awards and playing at 120 international festivals, including SIGGRAPH Asia, where it was named Best in Show. He then set up his own animation studio to work on animated feature films for adults, including a feature-length version of “Schirkoa,” set to hit festivals in the summer of 2023.

Title: The pit

Studios: D’art Shtajio and Lucasfilm Ltd.

Writer-Director-Executive Producer: LeAndré Thomas

Co-director: Justin Ridge

LeAndre Thomas is an award-winning screenwriter and director from Oakland, California whose most recent film won Best Director at the Pasadena International Film Festival. In addition to his independent films, Thomas is part of the Lucasfilm Ltd. franchise studio team, where he worked for more than 11 years, credited on recent titles such as ‘Light & Magic’, ‘The Mandalorian’, ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi ,” “Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi” and many others.

Justin Ridge served as executive producer on the Emmy® nominated series “Star Wars Endurance.” His credits also include “Star Wars Rebels”, “Storks”, “The Cleveland Show”, “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” and “Avatar: The Last Airbender”.

Title: Aau’s song

Study: Triggerfish

Writers-directors: Nadia Darries AND Daniel Clarke

Nadia Darries is a director, animator and co-founder of Goon Valley Animation, with a passion for songwriting. Born in Cape Flats South Africa, Darries has worked in high-end animation and motion design films as an animator, project manager, creative director and director since 2015. Her experience includes animating at Triggerfish Animation Studios on the award-winning films of the BBC ‘Stick Man’, ‘Revolting Rhymes’ and ‘Highway Rat’.

Daniel Clarke is a Cape Town-based filmmaker and artist working in animation, film and illustration. He began his animation career in 2008 at Triggerfish Animation Studios, where he worked as a production designer, art director and director on projects such as the feature film ‘Khumba’, the BBC’s ‘Stick Man’ and ‘The Snail and the Whale’. In 2018, together with James Clarke and Daniel Snaddon, he completed the graphic novel “Kariba”.

Star Wars: Visions Volume 2 streams exclusively on Disney+ starting May 4, 2023.