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Star Wars Resistance will be the next animated Star Wars show

Star Wars Resistance will be the next animated Star Wars show

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The series will arrive on Disney this fall

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Image: Lucasfilm

Disney announced that it has begun production on a new animated Star Wars show, which will debut later this fall in the US on the Disney Channel. Star Wars Resistance will be set just before the events of The Force Awakens, and will follow a pilot named Kazuda Xiono, who is recruited into the Resistance movement.

The show is created by Dave Filoni, who was also behind Lucasfilm’s other two animated shows, The Clone Wars and Rebels. He notes that Resistance was inspired by “my interest in World War II aircraft and fighter pilots,” and says that the look of the show will be inspired by anime.

The show has cast Bobby Moynihan (Saturday Night Live), Christopher Sean (Hawaii Five-0), Suzie McGrath (Eastenders), Scott Lawrence (Avatar), Myrna Velasco (Elena of Avalor), Josh Brener (Silicon Valley), Donald Faison (Scrubs), Jim Rash (Community), and Rachel Butera (Family Guy). Alongside their new characters, we’ll see some familiar faces as well: BB-8, Poe Dameron, and Captain Phasma. Oscar Isaac and Gwendoline Christie will return to voice their respective characters.

There have been persistent rumors that Filoni has been at work on a third animated Star Wars show. At Star Wars Celebration last year, he revealed that Rebels’ fourth season would be its last, and that he wanted to end the show on a high note. Rebels and The Clone Wars have attracted considerable audiences on their own, and have been used to further expand the franchise, either by introducing elements from the now non-canon Expanded Universe such as Grand Admiral Thrawn, or brought in characters that we saw in some of the films, like Saw Gerrera from Rogue One. As Rebels tied in with Rogue One, we could very well see Resistance flesh out the events that preceded The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi.

The animated show will stream on the Disney Channel. It’s not the only TV project in the works: it’ll be joined by the live-action television series set in the Star Wars universe for Disney’s upcoming streaming service, and will be written by Iron Man’s Jon Favreau, which although it’s not clear whether the two will be connected. We’ll find out this fall.