Disney Plus’s eight-part anime series Star Wars: Visions Presents — The Ninth Jedi has received strong early reviews, which Polygon presents as a potential model for reviving the wider Star Wars franchise. Its success matters because it arrives after the reported underperformance of The Mandalorian and Grogu in cinemas, at a time when Lucasfilm is balancing new projects with familiar Skywalker-era stories.

Produced by Production I.G., the series expands a 2021 Visions short and follows Lah Kara and Jedi Master Margrave Juro as they try to rebuild the Jedi Order and find Kara’s missing father. Set outside the main Star Wars canon, it reworks established ideas including lightsaber colours and what qualifies someone as a Jedi; it launched with 100% on Rotten Tomatoes before falling to 95%.