By George & Josh Bate
After Visions Volume 2 featured shorts produced by animation studios from around the world, the critically acclaimed series returns to Japan in Volume 3, making Star Wars Celebration Japan the perfect place to offer fans a first look (and even announce a spin-off).
Visions executive producer James Waugh hit the ground running during the panel by confirming that Volume 3 will feature sequels to beloved shorts from Volume 1 – “The Duel,” “The Village Bride,” and “The Ninth Jedi.”
“The Duel: Payback”
Once again created by anime studio Kamikaze Douga, “The Duel: Payback” serve as the sequel to “The Duel” from Volume 1.
The popular short starred The Ronin, a former Sith Lord who is drawn into conflict with a bandit leader. Blending the aesthetic of Star Wars with feudal Japan, “The Duel” instantly won over audiences, spawning a novel by Emma Mieko Candon, two prequel one-shot comics from Marvel Comics, and an amazing Hasbro Black Series figure. With Volume 3, the story of The Ronin will continue to unfold.
“The Duel: Payback” director Takanobu Mizuno proudly proclaimed “The Duel” will receive a sequel when he arrived onto the Celebration Stage and shouted into the microphone, “The Ronin is back!”
Mizuno shed some light on the plot of “The Duel: Payback.” “Since [“The Duel”], the Ronin has continued to pursue and defeat numerous Sith,” Mizuno explained. “This time, a Jedi Grand Master stands in his way.”
Some concept art from “The Duel: Payback” was shown off at Celebration. Check it out below.
A trailer for Visions Volume 3 (which you can see below) showcases some shots from “The Duel: Payback” and preview a new Sith Lord with a unique lightsaber that rivals the craziness of anything we’ve seen from a lightsaber before.
“The Lost Ones”
Kinema Citrus Co. crafted a beautiful, slow-paced, graceful, and intimate short with “The Village Bride” in Visions Volume 1 and will soon return to this world with a sequel called “The Lost Ones.”
F, the lead character of “The Village Bride,” will return in “The Lost Ones.” The story will seemingly follow F as she visits a new village marked by the mysterious disappearances of children.
Director Hitoshi Haga also confirmed that the short will explore what it is like for family members of Order 66 victims to cope with loss.
“The Ninth Jedi: Child of Hope”
Arguably the most shocking of the shorts from Vision 1, featuring a plot twist only Star Wars could pull off, was “The Ninth Jedi” from Production I.G. Now, in Volume 3, fans will get to see the continuation of this story with “The Ninth Jedi: Child of Hope.”
This sequel will once again star Lah Kara, this time as she tries to find her father and fulfill her destiny as the titular ninth Jedi.
Unlike “The Ninth Jedi,” the sequel will be directed by Naoyoshi Shiotani, who takes over directing duties from Kenji Kamiyama.
That wasn’t the only news about “The Ninth Jedi,” which we’ll get to later on….
“Yuko’s Treasure”
There was cuteness overload with the first original short in Volume 3 discussed during the panel. Also hailing from Kinema Citrus Co., “Yuko’s Treasure” adopts a decidedly different tone than “The Lost Ones.”
The short takes place in Mos Eisley and follows an orphan named Yuko, who is raised by a droid named Billy. Billy was all the rage at the panel, generating all sorts of excitement from the crowd. Reminiscent of a teddy bear, Billy has an odd design compared to other Star Wars droids. He’s also the first droid (to our knowledge) to have a microwave oven in his stomach.
A brief clip from “Yuko’s Treasure” was shown to the crowd. In the clip, Yuko is running in the busy streets of Mos Eisley as Billy tries to catch her. Eventually, Yuko runs into some boxes, angering a nearby collection of Jawas.
“The Smuggler”
Masahiko Otsuka then came on stage (with a Jedi robe and a lightsaber!) to discuss the new Visions Volume 3 short “The Smuggler.”
Otsuka revealed that the short is “a completely new story and not a continuation” about a rogue thief akin to Han Solo.
The location “The Smuggler” takes place on was designed to resemble nothing like we have on Earth. Check out some designs below.
“The Bounty Hunters”
It wouldn’t be Star Wars without bounty hunters, a more seedy corner of the galaxy that Junichi Yamamoto and Wit Studio will explore in the new Visions short “The Bounty Hunters.”
“The Bounty Hunters” will focus on a duo of (you guessed it) bounty hunters. They can be seen in concept art and stills from the trailer below.
“The Song of Four Wings”
Project Studio Q and director Hiroyasu Kobayashi were up next with a short that explores the more mechanical corner of the Star Wars galaxy.
“The Song of Four Wings” includes a princess named Frane and focuses on droids and machines, including AT-ATs. The trailer for Volume 3 showed AT-ATs emerging from underneath ice, the moment that arguably got the most reaction from the Celebration crowd.
“The Bird of Paradise”
The new original short that most caught our attention was “The Bird of Paradise” from Polygon Pictures.
The short follows Nakime, a mysterious character who also has a dark side counterpart.
“Black”
Perhaps the most unique of all the Visions Volume 3 shorts previewed during the panel was “Black.” The short from David Production focuses on stormtroopers, a “side character” of the Star Wars universe that the team wanted to propel into the spotlight.
A clip from “Black” was shown at Celebration and looked markedly different than anything we’ve seen from Star Wars before. The art work was so unique and almost had a stuttering, stop-motion quality to it. The footage was set to lively 1940s-ish music that further made “Black” standout.
Star Wars Visions Presents The Ninth Jedi
We said that wasn’t the only piece of “The Ninth Jedi” news this panel had to offer…..
The big surprise announcement of the panel came when executive producer James Waugh announced the creation of a new series called Star Wars Visions Presents that will allow creators to further explore the worlds and characters of certain Visions shorts in more long-form storytelling. That is, this new show will follow a single narrative, as opposed to the anthology approach of the main Visions series.
First up in this spin-off series is “The Ninth Jedi” from Production IG. Star Wars Visions Presents The Ninth Jedi will be overseen by supervising director Kenji Kamiyama, who wrote and directed “The Ninth Jedi.”
“I think it will be a story where secrets will be told,” Kamiyama remarked.
Release Dates + Trailer
Visions Volume 3 premieres October 29, 2025 on Disney+.
Check out the trailer for Visions Volume 3 shown at Star Wars Celebration Japan below.
Star Wars Visions Presents The Ninth Jedi premieres in 2026 on Disney+.