''Star Wars Forces of Destiny'' is a 2D animated

web series A web series (also known as webseries, short-form series, and web show) is a series of short scripted or non-scripted online videos, generally in episodic form, released on the Internet (i.e. World Wide Web), which first emerged in the late 1 ...

by Lucasfilm Animation released through

Lucasfilm Lucasfilm Ltd. LLC is an American film and television production company founded by filmmaker George Lucas in December 10, 1971 in San Rafael, California, and later moved to San Francisco in 2005. It is best known for creating and producing th ...

's YouTube channel. Set across multiple eras of the ''

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera media franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and Cultural impact of Star Wars, quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop cu ...

'' franchise, it is a collection of two- to three-minute shorts centering on female characters featured in previous ''Star Wars'' installments. The series premiered on July 3, 2017, beginning the daily release of a set of eight episodes; these episodes subsequently began broadcasting on

Disney Channel Disney Channel is an American pay television television channel, channel that serves as the flagship (broadcasting), flagship property of Disney Branded Television, a unit of the Disney Entertainment business segment of the Walt Disney Company ...

on July 9. An additional eight episodes were released in late 2017, and the second season of sixteen episodes was released in 2018. First announced and presented in April 2017 during '' Star Wars'' Celebration Orlando, ''Forces of Destiny'' is part of a franchise expansion initiative by

Disney Consumer Products and Interactive Media Disney Consumer Products, Inc. is the retailing and licensing subsidiary of the Disney Experiences segment of The Walt Disney Company. Previously, Consumer Products was a segment of Disney until 2016, then a unit of Disney Consumer Products and I ...

and includes a companion toy line by

Hasbro Hasbro, Inc. (; a syllabic abbreviation of its original name, Hassenfeld Brothers) is an American multinational corporation, multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment holding company founded on December 6, 1923 by Henry, Hillel and Herma ...

and a series of youth-aimed books. The series is the first 2D animated series produced by Lucasfilm since the 2003 '' Star Wars: Clone Wars'' series and the first 2D project by Lucasfilm Animation.

Premise

The animated micro-series anthology focuses on female characters such as Princess Leia Organa, Sabine Wren, Jyn Erso, Rose Tico,

Ahsoka Tano Ahsoka Tano (pronounced ) is a fictional character in the ''Star Wars'' franchise. She was introduced as the 14-year-old List of Star Wars species (P–T)#Togruta, Togruta Jedi Padawan of Darth Vader, Anakin Skywalker in the animated film ''Star ...

, Padmé Amidala, Hera Syndulla, and Rey.

Cast and characters

* Ashley Eckstein as

* Olivia Hack as Qi'ra * Felicity Jones (season 1) and Helen Sadler (season 2) as Jyn Erso * Vanessa Marshall as Hera Syndulla * Lupita Nyong'o as Maz Kanata * Daisy Ridley as Rey * Tiya Sircar as Sabine Wren * Catherine Taber as Padmé Amidala * Gina Torres as Ketsu Onyo * Kelly Marie Tran as Rose Tico * Shelby Young as Princess Leia Organa Matt Lanter and

Jim Cummings James Jonah Cummings (born November 3, 1952) is an American voice actor. Beginning his career in the 1980s, he has appeared in over 400 titles. Cummings has frequently worked with the Walt Disney Company and Warner Bros., serving as the offic ...

reprised the roles of Jedi Knight

Anakin Skywalker Darth Vader () is a fictional character in the ''Star Wars'' franchise. He was first introduced in the Star Wars original trilogy, original film trilogy as the primary Antagonist, antagonist and one of the leaders of the Galactic Empire (Star W ...

and space pirate Hondo Ohnaka from '' The Clone Wars'' and '' Rebels''. Tom Kane returned as Jedi Master

Yoda Yoda () is a fictional character in the ''Star Wars'' franchise. He is a small, green humanoid alien who is powerful with the Force. He first appeared in the 1980 film '' The Empire Strikes Back'', in which he is voiced and puppeteered by F ...

from ''The Clone Wars'', while Taylor Gray and Ritesh Rajan reprised the roles of Jedi Padawan Ezra Bridger and Mandalorian warrior Tristan Wren from ''Rebels''. Film actor John Boyega returned as defected First Order stormtrooper Finn, with Mark Hamill returning as Luke Skywalker and Anthony Daniels once again providing the voice of protocol droid . Other characters to appear include smugglers

Han Solo Han Solo () is a fictional character in the ''Star Wars'' franchise. He was introduced in the 1977 film ''Star Wars (film), Star Wars'', and later appeared in ''The Empire Strikes Back'' (1980), ''Return of the Jedi'' (1983), ''Star Wars: The F ...

and Chewbacca, the ewok Wicket W. Warrick, and droids R2-D2,

BB-8 BB-8 (or Beebee-Ate) is a Droid (Star Wars), droid character in the Star Wars, ''Star Wars'' franchise. He appeared in the three films of the Star Wars sequel trilogy, sequel trilogy, ''Star Wars: The Force Awakens'' (2015), ''Star Wars: The Las ...

and Chopper.

Production

''Forces of Destiny'' was announced on April 12, 2017, and a special preview of the series presented at ''Star Wars'' Celebration Orlando on April 14. The series is the first 2D animated series produced by Lucasfilm since the 2003 '' Clone Wars'' series and the first 2D animation project created by Lucasfilm Animation; previous 2D animated series such as '' Ewoks'', '' Droids'', and early installments of ''Clone Wars'' were created before the formation of the studio. The series is part of

's franchise expansion initiative. ''Forces of Destiny'' was created as a series of web shorts because it was felt to better appeal to children's watching patterns: "The way that kids are consuming content today, they're still watching linear television, but increasingly they're consuming content digitally, online. We've created a story format here that reflects that. It's a combination of digital and linear." Each episode is written by Jennifer Muro and directed by Brad Rau. The series' original score, opening theme, and closing theme was composed by Ryan Shore.

Episodes

Series overview

Season 1 (2017)

Season 2 (2018)

A second season of fifteen additional episodes was announced in September 2017. The episodes were released on March 19, 2018 online and aired on Disney Channel on March 25, 2018.

Distribution

''Forces of Destiny'' premiered on July 3, 2017, through Disney's YouTube channel, beginning the daily release of a set of eight episodes. It was initially announced that this release would culminate in the broadcast premiere of the eight episode set on

on July 9 as a thirty-minute special, but on July 9, Disney announced via Twitter that only two episodes were going to be broadcast. A second set of eight episodes was released in October 2017. It was subsequently announced that episodes will air in two half-hour specials on

on October 1 and 29. The series is available on the

Disney+ The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

streaming service, which launched on November 12, 2019.

Books

A series of youth books adapted the episodes. ''Daring Adventures: Volume 1'' adapted shorts about Sabine, Rey, and Padmé, and ''Daring Adventures: Volume 2'' adapted shorts about Jyn, Ahsoka, and Leia.

IDW Publishing IDW Publishing is an American publisher of comic books, graphic novels, art books, and comic strip collections. It was founded in 1999 as the publishing division of Idea and Design Works, LLC (IDW) and is recognized as the fifth-largest comic ...

published ''Star Wars: Forces of Destiny'', a weekly all-ages five-issue comic book miniseries that ran from January to May 2018.

Merchandising

Alongside the initial series announcement, Lucasfilm also announced a related toy line from

and an apparel line. The toy line features a new class of figures, adventures figures fill the space between action figures and dolls. These 11-inch articulated figures of the six core female characters and smaller paired figures of other characters launched on August 1, 2017 alongside accessories such as lightsabers. Other characters, including Luke Skywalker and Kylo Ren, are intended to be released.

Reception

SyFy Wire calls ''Forces of Destiny'' "a great concept in search of a far better execution. ... What could have been a female-centric version of

Genndy Tartakovsky Gennady Borisovich "Genndy" Tartakovsky (; born January 17, 1970) is a Soviet-born American animation, animator, screenwriter, film producer, and film director, director. He is best known as the creator of various animated television series on ...

's ''Clone Wars'' shorts from 2003 is instead a series of disconnected stories tied to a singular visual aesthetic ... As fun as it is to watch these female characters get a bit more screentime, it's still not enough."

Awards

References

External links

* * *
Inside ''Forces of Destiny'' and ''Star Wars'' Animation
on the ''Star Wars'' official YouTube Channel * {{Dave Filoni Works based on Star Wars 2017 American animated television series debuts 2018 American television series endings 2010s American animated television series 2010s American anthology television series 2010s American children's television series 2010s American science fiction television series 2017 web series debuts 2018 web series endings American animated web series American children's animated action television series American children's animated space adventure television series American children's animated anthology television series American children's animated science fiction television series YouTube original programming Films scored by Ryan Shore Television series by Lucasfilm