‘Star Wars: Visions Presents – The Ninth Jedi’ Release Date and Time

Kara’s long road back to the galaxy far, far away officially ends this week. ‘Star Wars: Visions Presents – The Ninth Jedi’ is set to premiere on Disney+ and Hulu on August 5, 2026, marking the franchise’s first full length anime series and the debut project under the new Visions Presents banner.

The eight episode limited series continues the story first told in the beloved Visions shorts, and after months of teasers, a trailer drop, and an early convention screening, fans finally have a complete picture of what to expect when the show lands this week.

‘Star Wars: Visions Presents – The Ninth Jedi’ Release Date

The series is scheduled to be released in its entirety on Disney+ and Hulu on August 5, with all eight episodes dropping at once rather than on a weekly schedule. The show will pick up shortly after the events of the fan favorite ‘Star Wars: Visions‘ shorts ‘The Ninth Jedi’ and ‘The Ninth Jedi: Child of Hope.’

Ahead of its full streaming debut, the series had already premiered at Anime Expo on July 1, 2026, giving convention attendees the first taste of the story before the wider release. That early look built significant buzz heading into the official launch, with fans attending Anime Expo getting an exclusive first look at the opening episode in Japanese with English subtitles.

‘Star Wars: Visions Presents’ itself was first announced during the April 2025 Star Wars Celebration, when James Waugh revealed the anthology would begin spinning off standalone series to tell longer form stories that began as shorts. ‘The Ninth Jedi’ was the natural choice to lead that charge given how well its original short and its 2025 sequel were received.

‘The Ninth Jedi’ Story and Cast Preview

Set roughly 1,000 years after the events of ‘The Rise of Skywalker,’ the series follows Lah Kara, the Force sensitive daughter of legendary lightsaber smith Lah Zhima. In this distant future, the Jedi Order has nearly disappeared, leaving the galaxy vulnerable to powerful dark forces.

According to the official series description, Kara continues to train in the ways of the Jedi under Margrave Juro, and she goes on an epic journey of self discovery as she and Juro’s small fellowship of Jedi in training embark on a quest to save her father and stop a mysterious Sith leader from unleashing darkness upon the galaxy. Kara and her ragtag Jedi crew also seek out worthy Jedi to fight against an increasingly powerful warlord.

The English dub brings back much of the original voice cast, including Kimiko Glenn as Lah Kara, Andrew Kishino as Juro, Masi Oka as Ethan, Patrick Seitz as Homen, JP Karliak as Gramps, and Simu Liu as Lah Zhima. On the Japanese side, the voice cast revealed in July 2026 includes Chinatsu Akasaki, Tetsuo Kanao, Hiromu Mineta, Hinata Tadokoro, Chō, and Shin-ichiro Miki.

Behind the camera, the series is directed by Shunsuke Tada and written by Mitsuyasu Sakai, with Kenji Kamiyama serving as supervising director. Executive producers include James Waugh, Jacqui Lopez, Josh Rimes, Justin Leach, and Mitsuhisa Ishikawa, with Hitoshi Ito and Kanako Shirasaki producing and Caroline Keller serving as co-producer.

‘The Ninth Jedi’ Trailer and What Fans Can Expect

The rollout for ‘The Ninth Jedi’ has leaned heavily on trailers to build anticipation. The initial announcement was accompanied by the first trailer, giving audiences a preview of the anime’s stunning visuals and action packed lightsaber battles.

A final trailer arrived just days before launch as a reminder that the show was about to hit streaming. As Gizmodo’s Cheryl Eddy put it in her preview of the series, the long awaited return of Star Wars to the big screen might have been met with a shrug, but the galaxy far, far away is still capable of being creative, especially when it comes to its more offbeat projects, and ‘The Ninth Jedi’ looks very promising as the franchise’s first full anime series.

Production I.G, the studio behind the project, brings a pedigree that should excite longtime anime fans. The acclaimed studio behind ‘Ghost in the Shell’ brings this new chapter of Kara’s story to the screen in collaboration with Lucasfilm. That partnership is a big part of why ‘The Ninth Jedi’ has been treated as such a significant expansion of the ‘Visions’ universe rather than just another anthology entry.

Everything Coming with the ‘Visions Presents’ Banner

‘Star Wars: Visions Presents – The Ninth Jedi’ is the first limited series under the new Visions Presents branding, a spinoff of the animated anthology series ‘Star Wars: Visions.’ The series continues the story of the short films from Volume 1 and Volume 3 of ‘Visions,’ which were written by Kenji Kamiyama and produced by Production I.G.

For fans who want to catch up before pressing play, the original short ‘The Ninth Jedi’ remains where the story began. That animated short premiered on Disney+ on September 22, 2021, and was made by Production I.G, written and directed by Kenji Kamiyama. Its sequel, ‘The Ninth Jedi: Child of Hope,’ picked things up years later and set the stage for exactly the kind of extended story the new series now delivers.

With eight episodes releasing all at once, ‘The Ninth Jedi’ gives fans room to binge Kara’s next chapter in a single sitting, something the anthology format never allowed for. Whether Lucasfilm continues expanding the Visions Presents banner with other beloved shorts will likely depend on how this first outing lands with both critics and longtime Star Wars anime fans.

Now that Kara’s fellowship is finally assembling on screen, are you planning to binge all eight episodes of ‘The Ninth Jedi’ the moment it drops, or savoring them one at a time?