Star Wars has confirmed that its next Disney+ show will debut next week, and the first look arrives somewhere other than on the streaming service. Since Disney acquired Star Wars, it has churned out multiple Disney+ shows, with some being sensational while others were misses. However, the most recent entry, Maul – Shadow Lord, was excellent, leaving fans itching for more content. They won't have to wait long, as the next series from Lucasfilm is just around the corner.
That show is Star Wars: Visions Presents - The Ninth Jedi, the first full-length series to spin out of the acclaimed Star Wars: Visions anime anthology. Production I.G, the studio behind the original short, returns to expand one of the anthology’s most loved entries into a longer story.
Lucasfilm and Production I.G will screen the first episode of The Ninth Jedi at Anime Expo 2026 in Los Angeles on Thursday, July 2, the convention’s opening day. The presentation will take place in the JW Marriott Diamond Ballroom from 6 p.m. to 7:20 p.m. local time. This screening will also be paired with a panel featuring the show’s creative team.
Fans in the room will see the opener before anyone else, ahead of the full series release on Disney+ this summer. It also means the first real footage from one of the year’s most anticipated Star Wars projects will come from Anime Expo rather than a trailer.
The Ninth Jedi continues a story that started as a short in the first volume of Star Wars: Visions in 2021 and picked back up in The Ninth Jedi: Child of Hope in Volume 3. It follows Kara, a Force-sensitive young lady searching for her lightsaber-smith father while she works to help rebuild the Jedi Order.
The setting reaches far into the future of the timeline, long after The Rise of Skywalker, in an age when lightsabers and the Jedi have nearly faded from the galaxy. Lucasfilm first revealed the project at Star Wars Celebration Japan in 2025 and has yet to pin down a firm streaming date beyond the summer window. However, they will likely announce a Disney+ release date at Anime Expo.
The Ninth Jedi is one of several reasons the months ahead look promising for Star Wars. A few highly anticipated Disney+ and big-screen projects will arrive after The Ninth Jedi, and they are packed with many exciting elements.
Lucasfilm’s Slate of Upcoming Star Wars Projects Is Exciting and for Good Reason
Content Beyond the Sequel Trilogy
Shawn Levy’s Star Wars: Starfighter will take the franchise somewhere its films have never gone. The movie is set around five years after The Rise of Skywalker, making it the first Star Wars film to push the on-screen story past the sequel trilogy. Levy calls it a standalone adventure, not a sequel and not a prequel, with a cast of mostly new characters and room for a few familiar faces to return.
Ryan Gosling leads a group that also includes Flynn Gray, Matt Smith, Mia Goth, Amy Adams, and Aaron Pierre. Production wrapped in December 2025, and the film hits theaters on May 28, 2027. For most of the past decade, Lucasfilm has circled the same eras a jump into fresh territory feels like a much-needed change. The Simon Kinberg trilogy that former Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy announced before she left office is also likely to give Star Wars fans more unique content beyond the sequel trilogy.
The Full Force of Thrawn
Grand Admiral Thrawn slipped back into the main galaxy in the closing moments of Ahsoka Season 1, and the second season looks ready to turn him loose. For much of the first season, he stayed a distant threat, stepping on screen only near the end. Season 2 should finally let his full impact register.
Series creator Dave Filoni wrote all eight episodes, and he has teased a large naval battle that pits Thrawn against Admiral Ackbar. The season also gives more screen time to Ezra Bridger, who rejoins the New Republic to face the fallout of Thrawn’s escape, and to Anakin Skywalker, whose role runs deeper this time. Disney confirmed at its 2026 Upfronts that Ahsoka Season 2 streams in early 2027.
The Arrival of Darth Talon
The first season of Maul – Shadow Lord ended in May with a Jedi Padawan taking her first real step toward the dark side. Devon Izara, a red-skinned Twi’lek voiced by Gideon Adlon, agreed to train under Maul after Darth Vader cut down her master, and she left the finale gripping half of Maul’s red lightsaber.
Fans have long predicted that arc as the origin of Darth Talon, a Sith figure from Star Wars Legends. The name also traces back to George Lucas’s scrapped plans for the prequel trilogy, where Maul ruled as a crime lord with a Twi’lek apprentice called Talon. The show still has not said the name out loud, and supervising director Brad Rau stayed coy about it when asked about the fan theories. Sam Witwer and Lucasfilm have confirmed a second season, expected in 2027, and that is where Devon’s turn should fully take shape.
Geraldo Amartey is a writer at The Direct. He joined the team in 2025, bringing with him four years of experience covering entertainment news, pop culture, and fan-favorite franchises for sites like YEN, Briefly and Tuko.
