Star Wars Tales (TV anthology)

• 1. Introduction

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  Star Wars Tales was first glimpsed not by the public but by Lucasfilm employees. In December 2021, the logo for Tales of the Jedi appeared on holiday gifts sent to the studio's staff. It sat alongside logos for other upcoming film and television projects, with no announcement to the outside world. The name raised an immediate question. Was this connected to the comic series that Dark Horse Comics had published under the same title in the 1990s? It was not. What Dave Filoni had been developing was an animated anthology for Disney+, unlike anything else in the franchise's television lineup. Across three installments released over three years, it would grow into a recognized strand within the Star Wars universe. What guided its shape, how it was made, and why critics responded to it so warmly are the questions this documentary sets out to answer.

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• 2. Road Notes to Series

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  While traveling to work on The Mandalorian, Dave Filoni began writing short stories about Jedi from the Star Wars prequel trilogy era. Carrie Beck, Lucasfilm's senior vice president of development and production, discovered what he was working on. She asked whether he wanted to build the material into a series. Filoni compared the moment to Beck 'finding the money' to revive The Clone Wars. That earlier animated series had run from 2008 to 2020 and received a concluding season on Disney+.

  Lucasfilm confirmed the anthology in May 2022, when announcing the schedule for Star Wars Celebration Anaheim. During a dedicated panel at that event, Filoni revealed that each installment would consist of six shorts, each running around 15 minutes. Five of the Tales of the Jedi shorts were written by Filoni himself. The sixth came from The Clone Wars writer Charles Murray with Élan Murray. Filoni also served as creator, supervising director, and executive producer, alongside Athena Yvette Portillo and Beck as fellow executive producers.

  At Star Wars Celebration London in April 2023, Filoni announced a follow-up to Tales of the Jedi. A year later, that second series was revealed as Star Wars: Tales of the Empire. Lucasfilm described it as part of what it was calling the 'Tales franchise'. Its six shorts were written by Amanda Rose Muñoz, Matt Michinovetz, and Nicolas Anastassiou from stories by Filoni. Tales of the Underworld was announced in April 2025 and described as the third installment in the anthology. All six of its shorts were written by Michnovetz.

  Each installment was structured around what Filoni called 'two paths and two choices'.

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• 3. Tone Poems and Paths

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  Hayao Miyazaki's works and the filmmaking of Star Wars creator George Lucas, whom Filoni described as his mentor, shaped the approach he took with the anthology. Filoni called the shorts 'a series of tone poems', slower paced than The Clone Wars and more reliant on visual storytelling than dialogue.

  Filoni's original idea for the Ahsoka arc was to show how Plo Koon brought her to the Jedi Order. He changed direction after concluding there had not been many stories in Star Wars about, as he put it, 'moms being moms'. The first episode showed Ahsoka's first hunting trip with her mother instead. Filoni felt it was important that Ahsoka's first experience of someone saying 'Don't be afraid' came from her mother rather than a Jedi. He warned that, beyond the happy ending of that first episode and its 'adorable baby Ahsoka', the series would not simply offer 'fun, happy stories'.

  Filoni described Count Dooku's arc as 'surprisingly tragic'. He attributed some of the darker episodes to being written during the COVID-19 pandemic. A key question for the Dooku arc was the Padawan relationship between Dooku and Qui-Gon Jinn. Filoni found Qui-Gon to be one of the most interesting Jedi because of his philosophy, which differed from the Jedi Council. He asked: 'where did Qui-Gon learn that, if not from his mentor, Count Dooku?'

  The final episode, 'Resolve', drew from the same outline Filoni had given Lucasfilm's publishing division for the 2016 novel Ahsoka by E. K. Johnston. Ashley Eckstein, who voices the character, said the novel was not discussed during the production of 'Resolve'. She described the episode as an extension of the novel and the start of 'that chapter' of Ahsoka's life.

  A day before Tales of the Jedi premiered on Disney+, Bryce Dallas Howard announced she would voice Yaddle, a character from the Star Wars films.

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• 4. Voices of the Galaxy

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  Liam Neeson reprised his role as Qui-Gon Jinn from the Star Wars films for Tales of the Jedi. His real-life son Micheál Richardson voiced a younger version of the same character. Filoni had approached Bryce Dallas Howard for the Yaddle role after they worked together on The Mandalorian. Howard was already a fan of the animated Star Wars series.

  In July 2022, Ashley Eckstein confirmed she was returning as Ahsoka Tano from The Clone Wars. Janina Gavankar, who had voiced Iden Versio in the 2017 video game Star Wars Battlefront II, voiced Ahsoka's mother Pav-ti. Corey Burton reprised Count Dooku, Ian McDiarmid returned as Darth Sidious, and TC Carson voiced Mace Windu. James Arnold Taylor voiced Obi-Wan Kenobi, Phil LaMarr voiced Bail Organa, and Dee Bradley Baker voiced Captain Rex and other clone troopers. Clancy Brown joined the cast as an Inquisitor.

  When Tales of the Empire was revealed in April 2024, Diana Lee Inosanto was confirmed as Morgan Elsbeth and Meredith Salenger as Barriss Offee. In the first short, Cathy Ang voiced a younger Morgan while Inosanto voiced Morgan's mother Selena. Lars Mikkelsen returned as Admiral Thrawn, Jason Isaacs as the Grand Inquisitor, and Matthew Wood as General Grievous. Warwick Davis reprised Rukh and Katee Sackhoff returned as Bo-Katan Kryze.

  For Tales of the Underworld, Nika Futterman reprised Asajj Ventress and Corey Burton returned again as Cad Bane. Clare Grant reprised her Clone Wars role as Latts Razzi. Barbara Goodson returned as Mother Talzin and Al Rodrigo voiced Quinlan Vos.

  All three Tales installments shared their visual style with The Clone Wars. That foundation would be extended and pushed further with each new series.

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• 5. Screen and Score

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  Joel Aron, the cinematography and effects lead at Lucasfilm Animation, made a deliberate decision when preparing Tales of the Jedi. He shifted the animation's lensing to the wide-screen anamorphic format used by many live-action films. One reference point was Lucasfilm's very first production, the 1973 film American Graffiti. The format allowed for what Aron described as 'a refined depth of field and ability to artificially add layers of film grain'. This approach then carried over into The Bad Batch. Working with animation provider CGCG, Inc., Aron said the team were 'pushing the limits of what we can do within our sandbox' to make each project as cinematic as possible.

  For Tales of the Empire, the team moved further into practical techniques. For an establishing shot on the planet Dathomir, a physical model of a mountain range was filmed in front of an oil-painted background. Computer-generated elements were added afterward by the animators.

  Kevin Kiner composed the music for Tales of the Jedi, returning from The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels (2014-2018), and The Bad Batch. He collaborated with his children Sean and Deana, as he had on those earlier series. Starting with Tales of the Empire, the two are credited as co-composers alongside him.

  Kevin began the Ahsoka shorts by revisiting his earliest material for the character. That material dated to the 2008 film Star Wars: The Clone Wars, nearly 16 years before Tales of the Jedi was in production. For Ahsoka's earlier years, he focused particularly on woodwind instruments. For Ahsoka's third short, Sean and Deana created a new variation on Kevin's Ahsoka theme to reflect her status as a ronin. Because Filoni drew on Studio Ghibli and Japanese cinema, the Kiners studied samurai film scores when building this new theme. They later expanded the ronin motif and Japanese influences in the score for the Ahsoka series, which began in 2023.

  For Count Dooku's arc, the Kiners created an entirely new theme, since film composer John Williams had never written one for the character. That theme grows progressively darker across Dooku's three shorts. When Yaddle appears in Dooku's final short, the Kiners returned to the synthesizer sounds they had used for the final season of The Clone Wars. They added what they described as 'experimental' vocal work alongside.

  A soundtrack album for Tales of the Jedi was released digitally by Walt Disney Records on the 26th of October 2022, the same day the series premiered. An album for Tales of the Empire followed on the 10th of May 2024, and one for Tales of the Underworld on the 9th of May 2025. Critics reviewing Tales of the Jedi had already named the animation and the musical score among its strongest elements.

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• 6. Critics and Awards

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  Tales of the Jedi ranked fourth among the most in-demand streaming shows in the United States during its first week on Disney+. That measurement came from Parrot Analytics, which tracks consumer engagement across streaming, downloads, and social media. Whip Media's TV Time placed it ninth among the most-streamed original series across all platforms for the week ending the 30th of October 2022.

  On Rotten Tomatoes, Tales of the Jedi achieved 100% from 22 reviews. The website's critics consensus praised Dave Filoni's stewardship of the project. It described the series as 'an absorbing expansion of Star Wars lore that will delight Padawan-level fans and encyclopedic Force scholars alike'. On Metacritic, it earned 78 out of 100 from 6 reviews, indicating generally favorable reception.

  Brian Young of /Film wrote that the quality of work from the writers, from Lucasfilm Animation, and from Kevin Kiner 'has never been better'. Kevin Fox Jr. of Paste gave the series 8.2 out of 10. Jamie Lovett of ComicBook.com awarded 4 out of 5, describing the episodes as 'beautiful, moving, and deceptively layered for their brevity'. Alex Stedman of IGN gave it 8 out of 10. Stedman called it 'a strong, tightly written showcase for two important characters in Star Wars lore'.

  In 2023, Tales of the Jedi was nominated for Outstanding Achievement in Sound Editing - Broadcast Animation at the Golden Reel Awards. A second nomination came from the Producers Guild of America for Outstanding Short-Form Program that same year. From Tales of the Empire, the short 'Devoted' was selected for the Television Films competition at the 2025 Annecy International Animation Film Festival.

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