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Star Wars Tales (TV anthology)
Group of American animated television series From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Tales, also known as Star Wars Tales,[a] is a collection of American animated anthology television series created by Dave Filoni for the streaming service Disney+. Each series consists of six shorts that explore characters from the Star Wars franchise. They are produced by Lucasfilm Animation with Filoni as supervising director.
Filoni began writing Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi while working on the live-action Star Wars series The Mandalorian (2019–2023). He revealed the first official details in May 2022. It explores Jedi from the prequel trilogy era and follows two "paths", one focused on Ahsoka Tano (voiced by Ashley Eckstein) and the other on Count Dooku (voiced by Corey Burton). Tales of the Jedi was released on Disney+ on October 26, 2022, and received critical acclaim, with praise towards its animation, writing, and musical score.
A second installment was announced in April 2023, and was revealed a year later to be titled Star Wars: Tales of the Empire. It explores characters related to the Galactic Empire and is again split into two arcs: one follows Morgan Elsbeth (voiced by Diana Lee Inosanto) and the other follows former Jedi Barriss Offee (voiced by Meredith Salenger). Tales of the Empire was released on May 4, 2024.
Star Wars: Tales of the Underworld, focused on bounty hunters active in the criminal underworld, was announced in April 2025. Like its predecessors, it is split into two arcs: one following Asajj Ventress (voiced by Nika Futterman) and the other following Cad Bane (voiced by Corey Burton). Tales of the Underworld was released on May 4, 2025.
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Premise
Tales of the Jedi tells short stories featuring Jedi from the Star Wars prequel trilogy era.[4] Its six episodes are split into two "paths": the first following Ahsoka Tano across various points in her life, and the other depicting a young Count Dooku before his fall to the dark side of the Force.[5][6] The second installment, Tales of the Empire, is set in different eras of the Star Wars timeline, with one path following a young Morgan Elsbeth and the other following former Jedi Barriss Offee.[7] The third installment, Tales of the Underworld, is focused on bounty hunters. One story follows Asajj Ventress on the run with a new ally, and the other follows Cad Bane as he confronts an old friend who is on the other side of the law.[2]
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Episodes
Tales of the Jedi (2022)
Tales of the Empire (2024)
Tales of the Underworld (2025)
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Production
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Development
While traveling to work on the live-action Star Wars series The Mandalorian (2019–2023), executive producer Dave Filoni began writing short stories about different Jedi characters from the franchise's prequel trilogy era. Carrie Beck, senior vice president of development and production at Lucasfilm, asked if Filoni wanted to turn these into a series, which he compared to her "find[ing] the money" to revive his animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008–2020) for a final season on the streaming service Disney+.[8] In December 2021, the logo for Tales of the Jedi was included on holiday gifts for Lucasfilm employees alongside logos for upcoming film and television projects at the studio. This was also the name of an unrelated comic book series published by Dark Horse Comics in the 1990s.[9] Lucasfilm confirmed the project when announcing the schedule for Star Wars Celebration Anaheim in May 2022.[10] Filoni discussed the animated anthology series in a dedicated panel, revealing that it consists of six shorts,[5] five of which were written by Filoni and the other by The Clone Wars writer Charles Murray with Élan Murray.[11][5] Each short is around 15 minutes long.[12][13] Filoni also served as creator, supervising director, and executive producer, with Athena Yvette Portillo and Beck also as executive producers.[11]
At Star Wars Celebration London in April 2023, Filoni announced that Tales of the Jedi would receive a second season.[14] Star Wars: Tales of the Empire was announced a year later.[7] Lucasfilm described it as the second installment of the "Tales franchise".[1][7][15] The second set of six shorts were written by Amanda Rose Muñoz, Matt Michinovetz, and Nicolas Anastassiou from stories by Filoni.[16] Star Wars: Tales of the Underworld was revealed in April 2025, and was referred to by Lucasfilm as "the third installment in the Tales anthology series" and a "third season of original shorts" after Tales of the Jedi and Tales of the Empire. Each of its six shorts were written by Michnovetz.[2] Disney+ created a Star Wars Tales collection for the three series.[3]
Writing
Filoni said the shorts were slower paced than episodes of The Clone Wars and called them "a series of tone poems" with less dialogue and more visual storytelling. This was inspired by the works of Hayao Miyazaki as well as Filoni's mentor, Star Wars creator George Lucas.[4][6] Each installment explores "two paths and two choices". For Tales of the Jedi, one path follows Ahsoka Tano and the other focuses on Count Dooku. Each character is explored in three different eras of their lives.[6] Tales of the Empire focuses on the characters Morgan Elsbeth and Barriss Offee,[7] while Tales of the Underworld focuses on Asajj Ventress and Cad Bane.[2]
Filoni's first idea for Tales of the Jedi was to show how Ahsoka was brought to the Jedi Order by Plo Koon, but he changed this to a story about Ahsoka's first hunting trip with her mother because there had not been many stories about "moms being moms" in Star Wars.[4][17] He felt it was important that "Ahsoka's first experience with someone telling her, 'Don't be afraid', is her mother".[6] Beyond the first episode, which has a happy ending and features the "adorable baby Ahsoka",[6] Filoni warned that the series would not just be "fun, happy stories" and he felt that Dooku's life in particular was "surprisingly tragic". He attributed some of the series' darker episodes to them being written during the COVID-19 pandemic.[4] An aspect of Dooku that Filoni wanted to explore was the relationship with his Padawan learner, Qui-Gon Jinn, whom Filoni found to be one of the most interesting Jedi due to his different philosophy from the Jedi Council. He asked, "where did [Qui-Gon] learn that, if not from his mentor, Count Dooku?"[6] The final episode of Tales of the Jedi, "Resolve", loosely adapts the events of the 2016 novel Ahsoka by E. K. Johnston. Filoni explained that he based "Resolve" on the same outline that he had given Lucasfilm's publishing side for the novel, which is why the two projects tell the same story.[18] Ashley Eckstein, the actress who voices Ahsoka, said the novel had not come into discussion while "Resolve" was in production but she regarded the episode to be an extension of the novel and the beginning of "that chapter" of Ahsoka's life.[19]
Casting
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Some casting was revealed with Tales of the Jedi's announcement in May 2022: Liam Neeson reprising his role as Qui-Gon Jinn from the Star Wars films; his son, Micheál Richardson, as a younger version of the character;[20] Matt Lanter reprising his role as Anakin Skywalker from The Clone Wars;[5] and Janina Gavankar, who voiced Iden Versio in the video game Star Wars Battlefront II (2017), as Ahsoka's mother Pav-ti.[6] In July 2022, Eckstein said she was reprising her role as Ahsoka from The Clone Wars.[21] A day before the series was released, Bryce Dallas Howard announced that she was voicing the Star Wars film character Yaddle in the series;[22] Howard, a fan of the animated Star Wars series, was approached for the role by Filoni after they worked together on The Mandalorian.[23] Also reprising their Star Wars roles in Tales of the Jedi are Corey Burton as Count Dooku, TC Carson as Mace Windu, Ian McDiarmid as Darth Sidious, James Arnold Taylor as Obi-Wan Kenobi, Phil LaMarr as Bail Organa,[24] and Dee Bradley Baker as Captain Rex, Jesse, and other clone troopers.[25] Clancy Brown voices an Inquisitor.[11]
When Tales of the Empire was revealed in April 2024, several voice actors were set to reprise their Star Wars roles: Diana Lee Inosanto as Morgan Elsbeth, Meredith Salenger as Barriss Offee, Rya Kihlstedt as the Fourth Sister, Wing T. Chao as Governor Wing, Lars Mikkelsen as Admiral Thrawn, Jason Isaacs as the Grand Inquisitor, and Matthew Wood as General Grievous.[7] In the first short, Cathy Ang voices a younger version of Morgan while Inosanto voices her mother, Selena.[16][26] Also reprising their Star Wars roles in Tales of the Empire are Xander Berkeley as Gilad Pellaeon, Warwick Davis as Rukh, Katee Sackhoff as Bo-Katan Kryze, and Baker as a clone trooper.[26] Darth Vader, Marrok, and the Inquisitor from Tales of the Jedi also appear.[27]: 17–18
For Tales of the Underworld, Nika Futterman and Burton reprise their respective roles as Asajj Ventress and Cad Bane. Other voice actors announced for the series were Artt Butler, Lane Factor, AJ LoCascio, Clare Grant, Dawn-Lyen Gardner, and Eric Lopez.[2] Grant reprised her role as Latts Razzi from The Clone Wars. Also reprising their Star Wars roles in Tales of the Underworld are Barbara Goodson as Mother Talzin and Al Rodrigo as Quinlan Vos.[citation needed]
Animation and design
The series use the same animation style as The Clone Wars;[4] work on Tales of the Jedi overlapped with the final season of The Clone Wars and the start of Star Wars: The Bad Batch (2021–2024).[28] Animation supervisor Keith Kellogg,[29] cinematography and effects lead Joel Aron,[28] and sound designer David W. Collins all returned from previous Lucasfilm Animation projects.[30] Charles Murray, Nathaniel Villanueva, and Saul Ruiz directed the Tales of the Jedi shorts,[11][31] Villanueva, Ruiz, and Steward Lee directed the Tales of the Empire shorts,[citation needed] and Villanueva, Ruiz, and Lee directed the Tales of the Underworld shorts.[32]
Aron said the Lucasfilm Animation team, working with animation provider CGCG, Inc., were "pushing the limits of what we can do within our sandbox" to make each new project as cinematic as possible. With Tales of the Jedi, Aron chose to change the "lensing style" of the animation to the wide-screen anamorphic format used by many live-action films, including Lucasfilm's first production American Graffiti (1973), which allowed for "a refined depth of field and ability to artificially add layers of film grain". This approach was then carried over to The Bad Batch.[28] After they successfully used some practical effects in the latter, the team did the same with Tales of the Empire: for an establishing shot on the planet Dathomir, a physical model of a mountain range was filmed in front of an oil-painted background. A computer-generated set was added later by the animators.[33]
Music
Kevin Kiner composed the music for Tales of the Jedi,[11] returning from The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels (2014–2018), and The Bad Batch.[34] As with the other animated Star Wars series, Kevin collaborated with his children Sean and Deana.[35] David Glen Russell and Peter Lam also provided additional music for Tales of the Jedi.[36][37] Sean and Deana are credited as co-composers with Kevin starting with Tales of the Empire.[38]
The Kiners started with the three Ahsoka shorts. For Ahsoka's younger years in the first two shorts, Kevin wanted to call back to his earliest material for the character in the film Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008). He had to review the original compositions because it had been nearly 16 years since he started working with the character, and put a particular focus on woodwind instruments.[39][40] For Ahsoka's third short, Sean and Deana created a new variation of Kevin's Ahsoka theme to represent her new status as a rōnin. Because Filoni was influenced by the works of Studio Ghibli and other Japanese cinema, they studied the music of samurai films when creating this new variation.[35][41] They later expanded on this rōnin motif and the Japanese influences in the score for Ahsoka (2023–present).[42][43] They did not try to repeat the Japanese influences for Dooku's shorts, but Kevin felt some of those sensibilities carried over. Because Star Wars film composer John Williams did not make a theme for Dooku, the Kiners created a new theme that represents his fall to the dark side of the Force. It gets darker across the three shorts. When Yaddle follows Dooku in his final short, they revisited some of the synthesizer sounds that they used for the final season of The Clone Wars, along with some "experimental" vocal work.[39][40]
A soundtrack album for Tales of the Jedi was released digitally by Walt Disney Records on October 26, 2022, alongside the series' premiere.[34] An album for Tales of the Empire was released on May 10, 2024,[44] and an album for Tales of the Underworld was released on May 9, 2025.[45]
All music is composed by Kevin Kiner:
All music is composed by Kevin, Sean, and Deana Kiner:
All music is composed by Kevin, Sean, and Deana Kiner:
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Marketing
Filoni revealed the first details about Tales of the Jedi at a Star Wars Celebration panel in May 2022, where a teaser was shown and the full first episode was screened.[4] Key art posters released for each installment feature a group of characters in front of a relevant symbol: for Tales of the Jedi, the symbol of the Jedi Order; for Tales of the Empire, the Imperial "cog" symbol; and for Tales of the Underworld, the "credit" currency symbol.[2] Tales of the Underworld's first episode was screened during a Lucasfilm Animation panel at Star Wars Celebration Japan in April 2025,[46] and its first two episodes were made available in the video game Fortnite from May 2–11.[47]
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Release
Tales of the Jedi was released on Disney+ on October 26, 2022, with all six of its episodes.[48] Tales of the Empire was released on May 4, 2024,[7] and Tales of the Underworld was released on May 4, 2025.[2]
Reception
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Viewership
According to Parrot Analytics, which looks at consumer engagement in consumer research, streaming, downloads, and on social media, Tales of the Jedi was the 4th most in-demand streaming show in the United States during the week of October 29, 2022, to November 4, 2022.[49] According to Whip Media's TV Time, Tales of the Jedi was the 9th most streamed original series across all platforms in the United States during the week ending October 30, 2022.[50]
Critical response
The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 100% for Tales of the Jedi, based on 22 reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "Under the reliable stewardship of Dave Filoni, Tales of the Jedi is an absorbing expansion of Star Wars lore that will delight Padawan-level fans and encyclopedic Force scholars alike."[51] On Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, Tales of the Jedi has a score of 78 out of 100 based on 6 reviews, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[52]
Brian Young of /Film asserted, "These episodes are full of pathos and interesting connections to the broader Star Wars lore. The quality of work from the writers, from Lucasfilm Animation, and the music of Kevin Kiner has never been better. My hope is that these mini-episodes are popular enough to spin more Jedi into the limelight for more tales."[57] Kevin Fox Jr. of Paste gave the series a grade of 8.2 out of 10, stating, "The overall result, as overseen by Dave Filoni, is surprising and strong. Tales of the Jedi succeeds by saying exactly what it means to and then making its exit, sure to have viewers ready for more. Whether it's ultimately a one-off season or the start of something greater, it's worth Star Wars fans' time to check it out."[58] Jamie Lovett of ComicBook.com gave the series a grade of 4 out of 5, saying, "These six Tales of the Jedi are beautiful, moving, and deceptively layered for their brevity while packing a few surprises and jaw-dropping moments along the way. Lucasfilm Animation managed to squeeze a lot of Star Wars magic into these shorts, and viewers will only be disappointed that there aren't more of them."[59] Alex Stedman of IGN gave the series a grade of 8 out of 10, writing, "Tales of the Jedi is a strong, tightly written showcase for two important characters in Star Wars lore: Count Dooku and Ahsoka Tano. Dooku in particular gets a good amount of meat added to his character's bones, while the other episodes feature a welcome look into Ahsoka at different points in her life. It's moody and methodical at times, while still managing to weave in some beautifully animated action. It may not be absolutely vital Star Wars content, but there are certainly worse ways to revisit these characters before Ahsoka gets her own series."[60]
For Tales of the Empire, Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 88% based on 24 reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "Star Wars takes a walk on the Dark Side in this fleet and filling animated series, which conjures just enough excitement to get fans' lightsabers rattling."[53] On Metacritic, Tales of the Empire has a score of 76 out of 100 based on 5 reviews, again indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[54] Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 100% based on 12 reviews for Tales of the Underworld.[55] On Metacritic, the series has a score of 70 out of 100 based on 5 reviews, once again indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[56]
Accolades
Tales of the Jedi was nominated for Outstanding Achievement in Sound Editing – Broadcast Animation at the 2023 Golden Reel Awards,[61] and for Outstanding Short-Form Program at the 2023 Producers Guild of America Awards.[62] The Tales of the Empire short "Devoted" was selected for presentation as part of the Television Films competition at the 2025 Annecy International Animation Film Festival.[63]
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Notes
- "The Sith Lord" takes place concurrently with the events of the film Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999)
- As depicted in the final season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2020)
- "Resolve"'s cold open takes place concurrently with the events of the film Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith (2005)
- As depicted in the Star Wars: The Clone Wars episode "Massacre" (2012)
- As depicted in the film Return of the Jedi (1983)
- As depicted in the fifth season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2012–13)
- As depicted in the novel Star Wars: Dark Disciple (2015)
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References
External links
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