Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi Appears To Be the Next Major Animated Series

Lucasfilm is doing its best to slowly expand the Star Wars universe in live-action and animation. The latter medium is able to do some things the former is not, on a considerably smaller budget. The Mandalorian and Ahsoka producer Dave Filoni even started out on the animation side of Lucasfilm. Current and upcoming shows consist of Galaxy of Adventures shorts, The Bad Batch, Star Wars: Visions, and the kid-focused Galactic Pals. 

Now it seems there’s another animated show on the horizon. The panel schedule for Star Wars Celebration Anaheim went up earlier today and as noted by Gizmodo, one panel mentioned an animated series called Tales of the Jedi. The panel description listed Filoni as an attendee, pointing to the series being another show under his purview. That schedule listing has since been scrubbed from the site. 

We don’t know what the series will entail. It’s unlikely that it’s another anime anthology series like Visions. “Jedi” is a pretty broad concept, meaning the show could take place anywhere in the Star Wars timeline. It could take place in the Old Republic, the High Republic, the Clone Wars era, or even after The Rise of Skywalker. 

The name potentially points toward the show perhaps jumping around through the timeline. Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi was the title of a Dark Horse Comics series that began in 1993. It was one of the many Expanded Universe projects, telling stories involving various mythical Jedi. Many of the stories were set during the Great Sith War in the Old Republic, involving the fall of Jedi Ulic Qel-Droma, the saga of his great love Nomi Sunrider, or the evil Sith Lord Exar Kun. 

The comic series was the direct inspiration for the Knights of the Old Republic video games and the subsequent comics of the same name. Despite this, their spot in canon is of a dubious nature, given Disney wiping the Expanded Universe from its ongoing story. That said, it’s entirely possible that a Tales of the Jedi animated series could work like many modern Lucasfilm projects, re-canonizing the best parts of those old comics. 

We won’t know the full scope of Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi until Star Wars Celebration. The convention is taking place at the Anaheim Convention Center from May 26-29, 2022. We’ll certainly hear about Tales of the Jedi and all the other upcoming Star Wars projects there. 

If you have yet watch any of the Star Wars animated shows, you should probably get on that. Not only is The Clone Wars some of the best Star Wars storytelling around, but it’s increasingly clear that characters from the animated projects are continuing to make the transition to live-action. Anakin’s Padawan Ahsoka Tano appeared in The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett played by Rosario Dawson, with her own upcoming Disney+ series on the way. Likewise, the Mandalorian warrior Bo-Katan Kryze made the jump to live-action in the second season of The Mandalorian.

Mike Williams is a freelance writer at IGN.