Where ‘The Ninth Jedi’ Fits in the ‘Star Wars’ Galaxy’s Distant Future

‘Star Wars: Visions Presents — The Ninth Jedi‘ has arrived, and with it comes one of the most exciting and far-reaching timeline placements in the entire franchise. For fans who fell in love with the original animated short back in 2021 and followed its sequel into ‘Star Wars: Visions Volume 3,’ the expanded series answers a question that has been swirling around since Kenji Kamiyama first introduced Lah Kara and Margrave Juro’s story.

That question, simply put, is when. The eight-episode limited series is set roughly 1,000 years after the events of ‘The Rise of Skywalker,’ following Lah Kara, the Force-sensitive daughter of legendary lightsaber smith Lah Zhima, in a distant future where the Jedi Order has nearly disappeared and the galaxy is left vulnerable to powerful dark forces. It is a setting with no precedent in live-action Star Wars storytelling, and that is a large part of what makes it so compelling.

The ‘Star Wars’ Timeline and Where ‘The Ninth Jedi’ Lands

To understand the scale of that leap forward, some context helps. The furthest that Star Wars canon had ever previously ventured from the Skywalker Saga was through the High Republic era, set around 232 BBY. ‘The Rise of Skywalker,’ the story’s temporal anchor point, is dated to 35 ABY by ‘Star Wars: Timelines,’ meaning the events of ‘The Ninth Jedi’ must take place long after that benchmark.

Director Kenji Kamiyama addressed the timeline directly in a 2021 interview with IGN while promoting ‘Visions Volume 1,’ saying that he wondered after the events of the final sequel film whether the galaxy had settled into peace, and that his story explores what became of the Jedi Knights after the film series ended. That creative question has now grown into an eight-episode series that dares to answer itself.

A Future Where Lightsabers Are Lost to the Galaxy

One of the most striking elements of this far-future setting is what it means for the weapons most associated with Star Wars. Because lightsabers appear in ‘The Rise of Skywalker’ but have become lost to the galaxy entirely by the time of this story, the events of ‘The Ninth Jedi’ and its sequel series must unfold long after that film’s 35 ABY setting. This is not a minor narrative flourish. It is a world-building choice that reshapes what the galaxy looks and feels like at its most fundamental level.

Viewers of the original short were introduced to a far-flung corner of the Star Wars timeline where the Jedi have all but disappeared and are hunted by Sith acolytes and their Jedi hunters, with Jedi Master Margrave Juro intent on uniting the galaxy’s remaining masterless Jedi and reforming the Order, enlisting sabersmith Lah Zhima to forge new lightsabers for his assembled allies. The expanded series picks up directly from that premise and runs with it across eight full episodes.

In the new series, Lah Kara continues to train under Jedi Master Margrave Juro, who is slowly attempting to reassemble the Jedi Order, while the warlord Nawaam, who has kidnapped Zhima, is determined to stop the rise of a new Jedi Order and take over the galaxy with his fledgling empire. That central conflict gives the show its emotional stakes and its forward momentum.

A Non-Canon Story With Enormous Timeline Significance

The series occupies a genuinely unique space within the Star Wars franchise, and that distinction matters for understanding how its timeline placement works. Though the new series is set roughly 1,000 years after the events of ‘The Rise of Skywalker,’ it should be noted that the production is technically non-canon, sitting outside the main Disney continuity.

The ‘Star Wars: Visions Presents’ label is designed to function somewhat like the existing Star Wars Legends distinction, separating Disney’s confirmed canon projects from stories that occupy their own corner of the galaxy, and because Production I.G’s version includes elements that diverge from established canon rules, particularly around how lightsabers work, the series occupies a somewhat unique space within the franchise despite being set in the galaxy’s far-off future.

Despite that non-canon status, Screen Rant noted that ‘The Ninth Jedi’ officially took Star Wars further into the future of the galaxy far, far away than ever before, and that the franchise is now set to explore this new era in far greater detail. For many fans, that distinction between canon and non-canon matters far less than the creative ambition the setting unlocks.

Production Legacy and the Creative Team Behind the Series

The team responsible for bringing this distant-future galaxy to life carries serious pedigree. The eight-episode limited series was produced by Production I.G in collaboration with Lucasfilm, directed by Shunsuke Tada and written by Mitsuyasu Sakai, with Kenji Kamiyama serving as supervising director, giving the expanded series a direct link back to the original 2021 short’s creative origins.

Production I.G, the acclaimed studio behind ‘Ghost in the Shell,’ brings this chapter of Kara’s story to the screen, and the series marks a notable step for the franchise as a whole. Supporting characters like Ethan and Homen, both introduced as Jedi who answered Juro’s call in the first short, return as part of Kara’s traveling fellowship. The continuity between the shorts and the expanded series makes the timeline feel lived-in and earned rather than arbitrarily chosen.

Screen Rant called the series an absolute triumph, describing it as a gorgeous blend of traditional Star Wars storytelling and inventive new lore, and awarded it an eight out of ten. That reception suggests the gamble of setting a story this far beyond the Skywalker Saga has paid off, at least among critics who have spent time in this unfamiliar corner of the galaxy.

What This Era Means for the Future of Star Wars Storytelling

The timeline placement of ‘The Ninth Jedi’ is not just a curiosity for lore enthusiasts. It is a signal about where the franchise’s most adventurous creative voices want to take things. Like many major franchises, Star Wars has been cautious about stepping outside familiar territory, mostly sticking to recognizable eras and well-known characters, and ‘The Ninth Jedi’ stands as a massive exception to that pattern, offering a bold new take set in an era the story can completely claim as its own.

The project was first formally announced at the April 2025 Star Wars Celebration, when Lucasfilm senior vice president James Waugh confirmed that ‘Star Wars: Visions’ would begin producing standalone spinoff series to tell longer-form stories that had originated as shorts in the anthology format. That announcement signaled a genuine institutional commitment to the far-future setting rather than a one-off experiment. Whether this distant era of the galaxy eventually bleeds into canonical Star Wars projects, or remains its own creative sandbox, may be the most interesting question ‘The Ninth Jedi’ leaves behind — what does it mean to you that Star Wars is finally building a future a full millennium beyond anything we have seen before?