First Look At Visions Volume 3 Panel Announces Release Date And Anime Spinoff At Star Wars Celebration Japan 2025 - Live Blog

We're here early for the final Star Wars Celebration panel we'll be covering here on CinemaBlend. It's bittersweet, but I'm excited for this one. Stay tuned.

Visions executive producer James Waugh has come on stage to talk about the critically-acclaimed anthology. He said the idea of Visions came together due to a "passion" for the animated medium, and they especially wanted to give Japanese anime a spotlight. Waugh is sharing how volume one's success led to them to go for a more "globe-trekking" Volume 2. For Volume 3 though, it's all about Japanese anime again!

It's been announced that nine different anime studios are teaming up with Lucasfilm this time around for Volume 3. Here they are:

Waugh also revealed that Volume 3 will actually be continuing the stories for some of the best and most beloved shorts from Volume one: The Duel, The Village Bride and The Ninth Jedi. They are switching to Japanese, to talk to the filmmakers (and the translations are limited) so hang with me a bit.

The Duel sequel will be called The Duel: Payback, and in the short, Ronin will be back!! They showed us some incredible drawings from the short, with the highlight being a Japanese style AT-AT. So cool, we can't wait for this sequel. It will be directed by Takanobu Mizuno from anime studio Kamikaze Douga.

Now they are talking about The Village Bride sequel set to be called The Lost Ones from Hitoshi Haga of Kinema Citrus.

Naoyoshi Shiotani of Production IG will directThe Ninth Jedi sequel is called Child of Hope!. The character of Kara will be on a journey to find her father this time around.

Now they are moving on to talking about a fresh story called Yuko's Treasure from Masaki Tachibana of anime studio Kinema Citrus, which is in the Kawaii style. It's about a caretaker droid named Billie that looks like the cutest bear with a microwave in his chest. He takes care of an orphan boy named Yuko. They showed us a snippet that I absolutely loved of Billie pulling Yuko after going a little too fast on his vehicle.

Director Masahiko Otsuka has come on stage to talk about his short called The Smuggler. It follows a new character, who is a female smuggler who reminds the filmmaker of Han Solo.

We're also learning about an original called The Bounty Hunters. The director calls it a short that's a buddy feature with a female bounty hunter and a droid.

Then there's the Song of Wings. The director is showing us a gorgeous scene of more AT-AT's in a snowy scene with an Auroras. It's more of a realistic animation style than some of the others.

Another one of the shorts will be called The Bird of Paradise. The director, Tadahiro Tady Toshihira, wanted to make a short for Star Wars that "no one has seen yet" and decided to take inspiration from Japanese mythology, particularly through "sacred trees'". This one is 3D animation, and the detail is insane.

They are now talking about one called Black, directed by Shinya Ohira, which seems to be focused on Stormtroopers. The main character is a Stormtrooper. The clip they showed showcased some really unique animated textures as a Stormtrooper flew through space to a lively jazz soundtrack. It seems to not have dialogue, which is a super interesting change of pace for the series.

The executive producer is back on stage to share the Vision: Volume 3 release date. October 29, 2025! They showed an amazing sizzle real of all the shorts they've been talking about, and wow, does this Volume seem to have it all.

The last thing being announced is something called Star Wars Visions Presents, which will allow these anime filmmakers to delve deeper into these stories. They've brought on Kenji Kamiyama of The Ninth Jedi. It will be its own series exploring the origins of lightsabers. It's coming in 2026!

Well anime fans, what a great panel!! We can't wait to see the next volume this spring.