Star Wars Forces of Destiny

• 1. Introduction

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  Star Wars Forces of Destiny began on the 3rd of July, 2017. Lucasfilm started releasing one two- to three-minute short every day through its YouTube channel. The eight-episode set was built as an anthology, each vignette returning to a character introduced somewhere else in the Star Wars saga. Nearly all of those characters share one trait: almost every short centers on a woman. That premise invites a handful of questions. Why did Lucasfilm choose this short, serialized format instead of a conventional series? Who ended up voicing characters pulled from films and shows spanning decades? And how did the results land once critics and fans actually watched them?

• 2. Eight Women, Many Eras

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  Princess Leia Organa, Sabine Wren, Jyn Erso, Rose Tico, Ahsoka Tano, Padmé Amidala, Hera Syndulla, and Rey make up the anthology's roster of leads. Each pulls from a separate corner of the franchise's timeline. Padmé and Ahsoka come from the prequel era. Leia comes from the original trilogy, while Hera and Sabine come from Rebels. Jyn comes from Rogue One, Rose from the sequel trilogy, and Rey from its central cast. That structural choice, mixing timelines instead of following one, shaped how tightly or loosely critics felt the shorts hung together.

• 3. The Voice Cast

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  Ashley Eckstein reprises Ahsoka Tano, a role she has voiced since The Clone Wars. Ten more actors fill out the lead cast. Olivia Hack voices Qi'ra, and Felicity Jones plays Jyn Erso in the first season, with Helen Sadler stepping into the role for season two. Vanessa Marshall voices Hera Syndulla, Lupita Nyong'o gives voice to Maz Kanata, and Daisy Ridley returns as Rey. Tiya Sircar plays Sabine Wren, Catherine Taber returns as Padmé Amidala, and Gina Torres voices Ketsu Onyo. Kelly Marie Tran plays Rose Tico, while Shelby Young takes on Princess Leia Organa.

  Matt Lanter and Jim Cummings return as Anakin Skywalker and the pirate Hondo Ohnaka, roles carried over from The Clone Wars and Rebels. Tom Kane reprises Jedi Master Yoda, another Clone Wars carryover. Taylor Gray and Ritesh Rajan bring back Ezra Bridger and Tristan Wren from Rebels.

  Film actor John Boyega returned to voice Finn, the defected First Order stormtrooper from the sequel trilogy. Mark Hamill voices Luke Skywalker, and Anthony Daniels again provides the voice of protocol droid C-3PO.

  Smugglers Han Solo and Chewbacca also appear, alongside the ewok Wicket W. Warrick. Droids R2-D2, BB-8, and Chopper round out the supporting cast. Steering this ensemble through every short fell to a small, consistent crew who worked across both seasons.

• 4. Reviving Two-Dimensional Animation

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  Lucasfilm announced Forces of Destiny on the 12th of April, 2017, with a preview screened on the 14th at Star Wars Celebration Orlando. The series marked the studio's first 2D animated project since Star Wars: Clone Wars ended in 2003. It was also Lucasfilm Animation's very first 2D production. Earlier 2D efforts, including Ewoks, Droids, and the earliest Clone Wars episodes, had all been made before Lucasfilm Animation existed as a studio.

  The people behind the series explained their reasoning for the short, web-first format this way: "The way that kids are consuming content today, they're still watching linear television, but increasingly they're consuming content digitally, online. We've created a story format here that reflects that. It's a combination of digital and linear."

  Jennifer Muro wrote every episode, with Brad Rau directing throughout both seasons. Ryan Shore composed the series' score, along with its opening and closing themes.

  The project also slotted into a larger Disney Consumer Products and Interactive Media franchise expansion effort. That effort would soon extend well beyond the animated shorts themselves.

• 5. From Screen To Broadcast

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  Disney's original plan called for a thirty-minute television special on the 9th of July, 2017, broadcasting the entire opening batch on Disney Channel. Instead, Disney announced through Twitter that same day that only two episodes would actually air.

  A second batch of shorts followed in October 2017, airing across two half-hour Disney Channel specials on the 1st and the 29th of that month. A second season of sixteen episodes came next. It was announced in September 2017, reached the internet on the 19th of March, 2018, and aired on Disney Channel on the 25th of March.

  Forces of Destiny later found a home on Disney+, the streaming service that launched on the 12th of November, 2019. That same streaming shift eventually put the shorts alongside adaptations already circulating in print.

• 6. From Screen To Page

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  Daring Adventures: Volume 1 adapts three of the animated shorts, focusing on Sabine, Rey, and Padmé. A companion volume, Daring Adventures: Volume 2, adapts shorts about Jyn, Ahsoka, and Leia instead. IDW Publishing added a five-issue comic book miniseries titled Star Wars: Forces of Destiny. It ran as an all-ages weekly release from January through May of 2018.

  These print adaptations arrived while a toy line built around the same characters was already reaching store shelves.

• 7. A New Toy Line

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  Hasbro's toy line launched alongside the series' initial announcement, paired with an apparel line built around the same characters. The figures introduced a new category Hasbro called "adventure figures," positioned between action figures and dolls. Six core female characters received 11-inch articulated figures, while other characters got smaller, paired figures. These launched on the 1st of August, 2017, alongside accessories such as lightsabers. Hasbro also planned figures of Luke Skywalker and Kylo Ren, among others, for future release.

  Whether that reach into toy aisles translated into praise for the shorts themselves was a separate question critics would soon answer.

• 8. Critical Reception And Recognition

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  SyFy Wire summed up the series as "a great concept in search of a far better execution." The outlet compared it to Genndy Tartakovsky's 2003 Clone Wars shorts. It called Forces of Destiny instead "a series of disconnected stories tied to a singular visual aesthetic." Even so, the review conceded it was "fun... to watch these female characters get a bit more screentime." It called that alone "still not enough."

  Recognition came from elsewhere in 2019. Ryan Shore won Top Cable Television Series at the ASCAP Screen Music Awards for his work on the score. That win stands as one of the clearest signs that, whatever critics made of the storytelling, the music found its own audience.