Interview: A Deep Dive into the Creation and Philosophy of The Ninth Jedi
Shortly after the release of Star Wars: Visions Presents - The Ninth Jedi, Anime New Network had the opportunity to speak at length with three of the men responsible for Production I.G's Star Wars anime: Supervising Director Kenji Kamiyama (Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex), Series Director Shunsuke Tada (Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These), and Producer Hitoshi Itō (Attack on Titan The Final Season). Over the course of three hours, we dove deep into the origins of the color-changing lightsabers, the philosophy behind the series, what sets this team's interpretation of Jedi apart from those that came before, and so much more.
Tell me about your history with Star Wars. What was your first introduction to Star Wars? Where did you go from there?
Producer Hitoshi Itō: So now I'm forty-one years old. I watched the original trilogy on TV and VHS. But actually, for the first time watching in the theater, that was when I watched Episode I: The Phantom Menace in eighth grade.
Supervising Director Kenji Kamiyama: I watched Episode IV when I was twelve years old. I remember myself thinking, "One day I want to become someone who works on Star Wars." And since then, every time the new film came out, I've been watching with a lot of expectation and excitement. You know, “What will they do next?” Star Wars is both my favorite series as a fan and, at the same time, it's my foundation as a filmmaker.
Series Director Shunsuke Tada: My first encounter with Star Wars was Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. I was around 13 or 14 years old, and completely captivated. Since then, I've been watching all the films in theaters.
Did you ever go beyond the films before you started working on The Ninth Jedi? Did you watch any shows or read any of the books or comics or play the games?
Supervising Director Kenji Kamiyama: I'm a big fan of films, and I usually don't play games, so I haven't played any Star Wars games or read the novels either. But I'm a big fan of the Star Wars films! I've also been watching the live-action shows. So no games, no novels, but I've been watching the TV shows—recently, I watched The Mandalorian.
Series Director Shunsuke Tada: I won't say I've seen everything, but I've been watching most of the shows on Disney+.
Producer Hitoshi Itō: So when the Clone Wars animation was released, I was still a child. I watched it, but I lost my memory of it. So I rewatched it when I started working on The Ninth Jedi. I also played the Star Wars Outlaws game because I wanted to refresh my feel for the Star Wars universe.
Directors and screenwriters, they all have their own knowledge of and vision for Star Wars. As a producer, I also want to have a full-scale Star Wars universe. So my textbooks were Clone Wars and the Star Wars Outlaws game.
When The Ninth Jedi project started, did you get into any other Star Wars media to prepare for making it?
Producer Hitoshi Itō: As a fan, I've been watching everything from Ashoka to The Acolyte to The Mandalorian. I've watched everything as a fan, but in preparation for The Ninth Jedi, mostly just Clone Wars—the 3D version—and the Star Wars Outlaws game. I personally love Andor so much.
Series Director Shunsuke Tada: Rather than going back to older entries, I'm more interested in what the new directors are doing: The Acolyte, Ahsoka, Andor—those shows by new directors with new visions. I've watched those shows because I was interested.
Supervising Director Kenji Kamiyama: I was aware there are many different world settings in the Star Wars universe, but I decided to stick to the nine films and also my own interpretation, inspiration, and visions that I had from those nine films. I intentionally didn't do research into other Star Wars media.
One of the big features of The Ninth Jedi is that the lightsaber blades change color. Where did that idea come from?
Producer Hitoshi Itō: This question is also a really good question for Kamiyama-san. When we started working on the first short—the Visions short—Kamiyama-san said, “You know, I want to make the lightsabers a main motif.” And the idea actually came from a misunderstanding of Kamiyama-san's—but you can ask Kamiyama-san about that in more detail.
But at the beginning, Kamiyama-san mentioned that even if this is just a 20-minute short, you have to have a surprise for the audience—have a punchline—and treat it as just like a one-off film. So the lightsaber did that job to create drama. That was probably a good thing to put into our short.
Supervising Director Kenji Kamiyama: The idea of a lightsaber that changes color actually originated from my own misunderstanding. When I first watched Star Wars, I thought the lightsaber's color changed based on the Force and the user. For Darth Vader, his lightsaber is red because he's using the Dark Side. A Jedi's lightsaber is blue because they are using the Light Side. When I saw a lightsaber beam, I thought it was the Force made solid.
So when I watched Episode V, when Han Solo held up Luke's lightsaber, I thought, “He can't use it because he doesn't have the Force!” But actually, he used the lightsaber just fine. At that time, I realized that a lightsaber is not use the Force—and now I know it's due to Kyber crystals and such. However, that misunderstanding became the idea of color-changing lightsabers.
In the Japanese worldview, there is something like the Force. It's not an object, but something that you acquire through spiritual training. It's like Bushido or Samurai spirit. It's an energy acquired through spiritual training. I misunderstood and thought that kind of power was what made a lightsaber work when it actually was not. But then I decided to use that misunderstanding for this new world of Jedi Knights.
And to be clear, can all lightsabers change color, or is it only the ones made by Zhima?
Series Director Shunsuke Tada: In our setting, it's only the lightsabers made by Zhima that change color. Therefore, the ones that were made in the past and remain—those don't change color. That's something we decided upon. So Nawaam's original lightsaber—the one that Reno Tsutara had when he was killed by Zhima—and Geno's lightsaber don't change colors because they were made in the past.
We see several different colors of lightsaber blades in the anime. Red is obvious—it's linked to negative emotions like hate, anger, and fear. Silver, on the other hand, represents being void of emotions. But the other Jedi have blue, green, and purple blades. What do these colors stand for?
Producer Hitoshi Itō: During pre-production, when choosing lightsaber colors for the new Jedi, I had a lot of discussions with Supervising Director Kamiyama-san, Series Director Tada-san, and Scenario Writer Sakai-san. Kamiyama-san mentioned Kara is based on Luke—you know, a nameless girl who starts a journey and realizes her power just like Luke. So naturally, Kara started with green.
As for the color blue, Director Tada-san actually has a lot of ideas about different colors of blue. Even when all the blades are blue, there's a color variation. Like, at the end when everybody holds up their lightsabers, several people have blue blades, but they're slightly different. [...] That's kind of a fun point for you to enjoy.
And purple is held by homen. Actually, at the beginning of the Visions short, he was a Sith, but he came to the light side and became companions with Kara. So he's holding purple, which is a mixture of red and blue. So that's the idea behind the lightsaber colors.
Series Director Shunsuke Tada: When I was discussing this with Kamiyama-san, we intentionally didn't specify what each color represents because these lightsabers change color depending on the user's connection to the Force and their emotional state. So we didn't specify which color stands for what—our only real rule was to clearly distinguish between red and the other colors.
[As for the variations in a single color that Producer Hitoshi spoke of], it wasn't so much about assigning specific personality traits like kindness or strength based on a color. Rather, since the colors are determined by or altered by The Force, I felt it would be better if the colors appeared slightly different for each character—reflecting their unique inner selves. With that in mind, I crafted the colors to ensure they didn't just end up as identical shades of blue or green. That said, I didn't specifically define personality traits based on the intensity of the color—like saying a darker blue means one thing and a lighter blue means another. I just used the colors to express the fact that every individual is different; I used them to create distinction.
Did you do any research into the previously established meanings of lightsaber colors in other Star Wars media?
Producer Hitoshi Itō: I did a little research as a producer, but I intentionally didn't mention that knowledge to the directors and writers because this series is non-canon with fresh ideas—and I wanted them to start thinking outside of the box.
Getting into the weeds a bit, Juro's lightsaber, and only his lightsaber, has a circular ring of energy that acts like a hand guard. But when Nawaam uses that same lightsaber, the hand guard is missing. Why is that?
Series Director Shunsuke Tada: That feature—which has been present since Juro's very first appearance in Visions—is what we call a “tsuba” on a traditional Japanese sword. It's a part specifically designed to catch or parry an opponent's blade. You're absolutely right that only Juro has one. To be honest, I never actually asked Director Kamiyama why he chose that specific design for this lightsaber back in that short.
However, in casual conversations with Kamiyama-san, the topic came up that Zhima handcrafts each lightsaber individually. I imagine he was experimenting with different ideas—thinking things like: "Let's try this approach for the next saber." So, it's possible he created something special specifically for Juro. Rather than focusing on why the others’ sabers don't have one, I've always viewed it as Juro's saber being unique simply because they were all handmade.
Where did the idea for the “State of Nothingness” come from?
Producer Hitoshi Itō: As I remember, as a producer, this idea came to fruition when we were working on the series proper. It had to do with the lightsabers changing color and what it means to be a master. In Japanese history and culture, we have samurai and bushi—those kinds of masters go into a real-world version of the “State of Nothingness.” They focus on something to the point that they don't hear or see anything else. So that's the idea I discussed with Kamiyama-san.
Supervising Director Kenji Kamiyama: When a samurai—someone mastering the sword within the way of Bushido—reaches that State of Nothingness…. Well, if you call it "nothingness," it sounds like a complete void, which isn't quite right.
The State of Nothingness involves casting aside all distracting thoughts. To put it very simply, it's like a technique for achieving an incredibly heightened level of concentration. I imagine it's a realm that even those who have mastered Bushido find difficult to reach. But if you look at athletes, for instance, there are times when their concentration becomes so intense that they stop hearing the sounds around them or they stop seeing other things around them—that's the kind of state I'm talking about. We drew inspiration for this from the mental state a samurai reaches through rigorous self-discipline.
The State of Nothingness that Nawaam, Kara, and Zhima attain seems to be the ideal that the Old Republic Jedi were pursuing—i.e., ignoring emotions. Philosophically, is this series a counterargument to the Old Republic Jedi and their goal?
Producer Hitoshi Itō: That's a difficult question. The silver color is used by a master, and it represents, of course, the State of Nothingness. But the State of Nothingness can be interpreted in multiple ways.
Of course, you can see no emotion, but at the same time, the State of Nothingness is in the middle—not the light side, not the dark side, but in the middle. So, in this series, Kara leans towards the light side and Nawaam a bit towards the dark side, even though they are both in the State of Nothingness. So maybe Nawaam's standpoint is close to something like the Old Republic Jedi idea. And then Kara is more on the compassion and kindness side of things.
We didn't intend to make it a counterargument for that idea. But of course, seeing Nawaam and seeing Kara, that interpretation works in the Star Wars universe, in my opinion. But the State of Nothingness can be interpreted differently in different contexts.
Supervising Director Kenji Kamiyama: There are probably two ways to see the State of Nothingness. To me, the Old Republic's Jedi ideology of nothingness is kind of close to the one you see in monks. Like you don't have any feelings—no hate, no love, no desire. That's the monk kind of nothingness to me.
And then there's the other nothingness—the samurai's nothingness. It's selfless, self-sacrificial—the samurai's nothingness. And that's what makes more sense to me. I didn't feel like I was trying to make a counterargument, but my interpretation of nothingness is closer to the samurai's. And maybe there's a difference in there between East and West—or maybe this is unique to the Japanese—but to me, a real sense of justice is one of self-sacrifice, compassion, and selflessness.
I want to share a story about an experience I had before. When I was working on a different project with an American friend, we had this kind of discussion. We were talking about Japanese samurai spirit, self-sacrifice, and always saving people in need—people in a weak position. That's samurai bushido and samurai spirit.
When we were talking about that, my US friend said, "In America, if you have a traffic accident, you should never apologize, because if you apologize, you're going to lose in court. So don't apologize. That's rule number one. And once you win in court, then you can start thinking, 'Are you okay? You didn't get hurt?' Because you are now in a safe position, you can be more compassionate to others.” And I thought that was sad.
While it might be realistic, I couldn't quite get past the idea of a protagonist who prioritizes their own self-interest first and only shares with others after they've already benefited themselves. It didn't feel like a true hero to me. That's why, to me, the heroes found in samurai films represent a universal archetype of heroism. So, what I wanted to do was not exactly negate the old Jedi Order, but rather overwrite it with this kind of ideal.
The way I personally interpreted the State of Nothingness was that it shows you the quickest way to your goal, whether that's winning a fight or bringing peace to the galaxy. That's why, for Nawaam, the quickest way to bring peace to the galaxy is through overwhelming power. For Kara, her goal is to save people. Her quickest way to do that is to kill Nawaam. But in the end, her compassion overpowers that—and she chooses the path of kindness and redemption.
Producer Hitoshi Itō: Your interpretation is good. I also want you to ask the same question to Kamiyama-san and Tada-san, but to me, justice is not one single thing. There are multiple kinds of justice—justice is diverse. Considering the wars going on in the real world, we all feel like there are different kinds of justice depending on where you are.
And in terms of The Ninth Jedi, Nawaam has his own sense of justice because his goal is peace, but the way he chooses is different from Kara's choice. Everybody has a different choice—they all are aiming for peace or justice, but they just have a different sense of it and have made a different choice in how to attain it.
We wanted to portray those different types of justice and the choices that stem from them. It comes from the characters and their emotional state—not from the Jedi Order's rules, regulations, or restrictions. It's from the characters and their own personalities.
Supervising Director Kenji Kamiyama: What you're saying you felt is very close to what I intended, and I agree with you. For Nawaam, being powerful is everything. And it's probably close to the example that I mentioned about the traffic accident earlier, and also the state of society and the world right now: power is everything. It's both the goal and the pathway to the goal.
I'm not trying to make a counterargument, but the Jedi Order indeed created Darth Vader. I felt maybe there was something missing that Kara could add. I'm not denying the Jedi Order, but rather making it stronger—bringing it a little bit forward. And instead of killing Nawaam, it's about saving Nawaam's spirit with compassion and kindness. I always told my team that real justice brings fairness and equality. Those are the characters that can be called heroes.
And maybe the Jedi Order—every Jedi in the order—didn't fully have that fairness or equality. And that's why I wanted to portray Kara in this way. Kara chooses a difficult way—a longer way—because she has the patience and resilience. And of course, she has the strength, but she chooses to be compassionate and kind—taking the longer path to peace. But that's something that I wanted to ask Kara to be. And that's my vision of a true hero.
Series Director Shunsuke Tada: To me, the silver saber—the State of Nothingness—is essentially a transitional form one passes through on the way to discovering what is truly important to them. You see, for those aspiring to advance as Jedi, reaching that silver saber is an inevitable step. In that sense, the silver saber—that state of Nothingness—is the same for everyone. It isn't about anger, kindness, or compassion; it's about the mindset required to become the strongest. In Japanese martial arts, we speak of casting aside "selfish intent"—discarding impure thoughts or the ego—and reaching that state turns the blade silver.
However, that state isn't the ultimate peak of strength. If one evolves further—as Kara does—one reaches the "true path" of the Jedi, represented by green, blue, or blue-green blades. Nawarm's red blade, on the other hand, doesn't signify reaching the ultimate Jedi state; rather, it shows that anger led him astray. I view it as a regression from the silver state. So, I see the silver saber as a waypoint that everyone passes through on their journey to mastering the ultimate technique.
What are the themes, morals, or messages you wanted viewers to think about when watching The Ninth Jedi?
Producer Hitoshi Itō: Everything that we talked about up until now is something that we wanted the audience to feel. And also, there are a lot of wars going on right now in the real world, just like in the world of The Ninth Jedi.
There are a lot of regulations, rules, and laws, but we are starting to question all those things in real life and also in the world of The Ninth Jedi. Thinking about that, we wanted to portray the idea that we needed a new generation of Jedi not bound by blood, genes, fame, or status—those who could think for themselves and make their own choices.
And even though Kara's taking on some of the ideas, personality, and power from Juro and Zhima, she is always honest about her own decisions and feelings. My favorite showing of this is in episode six when Kara was asked by Bee'-Toh, "Okay, so is this the choice of the Jedi Order?" And she said, "No, this is my own choice." And I really like that scene. We wanted the audience to feel that everybody can make their own choices even with the current state of the world.
Series Director Shunsuke Tada: My message to the audience—what I want the audience to feel—is that these Jedi, our Jedi Knights, are not operating because of the Jedi Order. Again, they are fighting for a better life with their families and friends. To pursue that, to become that kind of Jedi, you go through the silver state and then go into your own color. That's something that I wanted to tell the audience. Like, everybody goes through the silver state, and then you find your own color to shine and coexist with important people in your life.
Also incorporated into our new definition of Jedi is a bit of inspiration from Akira Kurosawa's samurai films, which both Kamiyama-san and I love. The samurai in Kurosawa films, for example, are not always doing good things. Of course, they help the weak and people in need, but to do so, they kill bad people. And I wanted to emphasize that, even in reality, people have this duality.
To do good, sometimes you have to be bad. It's difficult to be human—it's complicated. That's why sometimes Kara's lightsaber becomes red, and sometimes it goes to silver, because that's how being human works. We all have this complexity and duality. That's the new definition of the Jedi we came up with.
One theme that stood out to me was the idea that being a good person is more important than power in the Force—to the point that several of the nine Jedi seem not to have Force powers at all. Where did this idea come from?
Producer Hitoshi Itō: At the beginning of this whole project, Kamiyama-san also mentioned his inspiration was Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai. Of course, those samurai are all specialists, but they're also a team of nameless samurai. So The Ninth Jedi takes inspiration from that idea. Kamiyama-san also mentioned that he wanted to make something to remind people that anybody can be a Jedi—and not that you have to be from a family of Jedi or follow a specific route. Anybody can be a Jedi.
To us, the Force exists as a universal energy, but in our interpretation of The Ninth Jedi world, it also represents the strength to fight for others—to be kind to others.
Supervising Director Kenji Kamiyama: When I was creating this world of Jedi who are good people, I realized my idea of Jedi is probably close to a Japanese shogun—and a Japanese shogun or samurai is a little different from that of a Western knight or soldier. In English translation, “shogun” becomes “general.” It gives off the feeling of a military leader—the strongest, most physically powerful person. But in Japan, a shogun is the leader of the country or region. He's someone whose work is political. It's not just about winning battles.
The position of shogun isn't about dictatorship or oppressing others—not about making people follow them. The most important work for a shogun is making people happy—making sure they're not suffering. I know that George Lucas also got inspired by Japanese culture—history and samurai culture—and I hope my ideas are close to his own.
I've been dreaming of my Jedi—the heroes of my Star Wars world. They're people who work not based on regulations, rules, or orders, but more on virtues, morals, and ethics. They are always thinking about the people. Those are my dream Jedi—and while I'm not denying previous interpretations of the Jedi, I wanted to put my ideal Jedi into this project.
While there are aliens in The Ninth Jedi, why did you choose not to use recognizable alien races from Star Wars?
Series Director Shunsuke Tada: That's a great question because it's a very important point for me as a director. Again, this is our reinterpretation, and this is non-canon. That's why I put special attention into not bringing in familiar-looking characters—because if we have that, then that's what the fans’ attention goes to. Like, “Why does this look different from how it looked in the nine Skywalker saga films?” I didn't want fans to think about that. So intentionally, I didn't bring in familiar faces, but at the same time, I love Star Wars too much, and it was so hard for me to completely ignore things from the canon.
For example, one little homage is in the spaceship of former Jedi Dunbai, the leader of Makoma Ko. His spaceship has a seat inspired by Admiral Ackbar's in Episode VI. So I incorporated those kinds of Easter eggs secretly because I love Star Wars too much, and it was hard for me to just completely avoid it.
Among the aliens seen in The Ninth Jedi, there are two races that seem pulled from fantasy rather than sci-fi; Kwana is basically a dwarf while Tafflah appears to be an elf. How did this come about?
Series Director Shunsuke Tada: As fantasy races, elves and dwarves are familiar to Japanese people. Kwana is a miner on an asteroid, for example, so I wanted to portray him like a dwarf. Similarly, Tafflah was written as a character with an exceedingly long life in the screenplay—and elves have longer lives than humans. As a Japanese person, as soon as you see an elf, you expect that character to have had a long life.
Another reason is that in episodes five and six [of the Ninth Jedi], it's technically very hard to differentiate between so many characters unless you pay special attention to facial expressions and the like. If you don't, you feel like it's just a bunch of the same animals or characters. So those “fantasy aliens” were easy for us to add facial expressions and emotions to—to dramatize them. That is the technical reason that we leaned more towards “fantasy aliens.”
We haven't properly named Kawana or Tafflah's races yet. If fans want to know these names—or want to voice their suggestions on what they should be called—we are open to the idea. But we don't have names for them at this point.
Just like with the aliens, you didn't reuse any ship designs from other Star Wars media. How did you go about designing ships that were both new and looked like they were from Star Wars?
Series Director Shunsuke Tada: Well, regarding Nawaam's military warships specifically, to be perfectly honest, we did emulate the design lines of the Imperial Star Destroyers. However, if we had simply used the same triangular shape, people would have just thought they were identical. So, to differentiate them, we decided to incorporate Japanese-style elements. That was our design philosophy: keeping the familiar silhouette while creating something that feels uniquely original to The Ninth Jedi.
Much like with the Admiral Ackbar chair I mentioned earlier, we did have a habit of sneaking in things that were virtually identical to elements from other works. For instance, there's the ion cannon used by the Rebel Alliance in Episode V; we equipped Dunbai's space fleet with weapons that look almost exactly like it.
What was your greatest challenge or problem you encountered when making The Ninth Jedi?
Series Director Shunsuke Tada: That actually touches on the point raised in the earlier questions. We really struggled to establish—as much as possible—that this isn't a universe inhabited solely by humanity. Visually speaking, this was particularly challenging because characters like Kwana and his clan, as well as Tafflah's people, look so much like humans. We had to work hard to craft a portrayal that felt like a Star Wars-style space saga.
For instance, in the first episode—specifically for the scenes on Makoma Ko—we featured a wide variety of aliens from different planets to trade. We also made sure that Nawaam's army wasn't just made up of troopers; it included humans alongside aliens—though even those aliens generally had limbs like humans. The overall impression might have been that there were a lot of humanoid types, like Kwana and Tafflah. However, since I'm a fan of Star Wars myself, I put a lot of effort and care into making the setting feel like a vast galaxy teeming with diverse species.
In the end, we managed to avoid the pitfall of making it look like a universe inhabited solely by humans. That said, if we'd had a few more episodes, I would have liked to show more worlds inhabited by non-humanoid beings. Personally speaking, I really wanted to see more of that kind of world myself.
Producer Hitoshi Itō: I have to be honest, I was under a lot of pressure. This is a new series. It's original and non-canon. So there was a lot of pressure.
For pre-production alone, we had been working for like three years between the Japan side and the Lucasfilm side. And of course, there is a big difference between Japan and the US in terms of storytelling, culture, and production style.
And I think the biggest challenge was the writers’ room. In America, they usually have a writers’ room, and all the writers focus on the project and get it written in a short amount of time—so everything goes really fast. But in Japan, usually the director and writer meet once a week to discuss—and it takes a year or two to do the pre-production. So we had to “close the gap” to do that kind of speed.
So I asked the main writer, Sakai-san, and Production I.G to create a writers' room only for Star Wars pre-production. So the writers were focusing only on that project. That was the biggest challenge. And also, without that writers' room, this series might not have happened.
Supervising Director Kenji Kamiyama: I can't say there were difficulties, but there certainly was pressure. When I was creating the original short, I was having fun freely—making my vision real. There were no real restrictions, and Lucasfilm gave us a lot of freedom for our creativity. I remember I was having fun—knowing that I was working on a series that would be watched by fans all around the world.
But all those fans have their own interpretation of and deep love for Star Wars. So there was pressure, but the Lucasfilm team gave us a lot of information, encouragement, and suggestions. They acted as the fans’ voice—showed us what fans saw as the official canon. And so we learned a lot from them, but I would say that kind of pressure was probably the most difficult part going into the series.
The only real criticism I personally had with The Ninth Jedi was that, outside of Nawaam, Kara, and Zhima, the supporting characters don't really have their own story arcs. They do important things, but they don't grow or change as people. What are your thoughts about this?
Producer Hitoshi Itō: The idea of this series was that it would be a limited series with eight episodes, 30 minutes each. So Kamiyama-san and I were thinking this was going to be like a long, three-hour feature film. We knew we actually couldn't do many things—probably only do two or three main stories or ideas. So we focused on Kara, Zhima, and Nawaam.
But then the Lucasfilm team said, "But isn't this a story where you gather nine Jedi?" and we're like, "Yeah." So we showed those characters, but couldn't dig into everyone. If we had tried to do so, the story would have been very shallow and superficial. We had to focus on something—make choices and decisions. And that's probably why you felt how you did. And I think Kamiyama-san intentionally gave Ethan a bigger role in the story because he doesn't have a very deep background. I'm a little sorry for homen, though.
Supervising Director Kenji Kamiyama: This is The Ninth Jedi, so we had to gather nine Jedi—and Lucasfilm made sure we did so. We found all nine Jedi.
When thinking about this limited series with eight episodes of thirty minutes each, we knew it would be about three hours long. Recent Star Wars films are around that length. So this was almost like one feature film. However, in a TV series, every episode has to have some kind of climax and punchline. So that's why we had to make things very dense and short.
Then there were the new characters like Dunbai, Kwana, and Tafflah. We had to have those characters. So we used three episodes to introduce them. So yeah, I have to admit, somebody like homen kind of got the short end of the stick, and he didn't get a lot of screen time—but that's because of the format.
Did you write up backstories for Ethan, homen, and Gennoh, and the other supporting characters even if they weren't used in the anime itself?
Supervising Director Kenji Kamiyama: Yes, and I can share a little bit about Ethan and homen. When I created the Visions short, I built some background for those characters. As for Ethan, he's not a sword master yet, but he's probably the purest person—he's a good person who always cares about fairness. To me, he's the face of this new Jedi Order. But once you start digging into Ethan's character, you see it's very similar to Kara's and would take some time to develop. So that's why Ethan is portrayed as he is for now.
As for homen, the Force is strong with him. As a knight, he's very powerful. But emotionally, he's not mature enough and easily swings between the dark side and the light side. Moreover, he's not quite understand what this new Jedi Order is and is still learning from his team. And maybe when we start digging into homen, we'll see he's going to be a little similar to Nawaam. So that's why we portrayed him in this way for now. Those are the backgrounds that I loosely built when I started making the original Visions short.
Are you interested in continuing The Ninth Jedi? Or would you rather tell an unrelated story somewhere else in the Star Wars timeline?
Producer Hitoshi Itō: For The Ninth Jedi, of course, as a fan and also as a producer, if there's an opportunity, I would love to tackle a sequel because I love Star Wars and I'm always excited to see all kinds of stories in Star Wars. And if there are fans who want to know what happens after this to Nawaam—want to know what's going on with other characters we would like to show more of their backgrounds. If we hear those voices from fans, we'd love to continue the story. And personally, I am also involved in “The Bounty Hunters,” a different short from Star Wars: Visions Season 3. I'm very excited, and I'm open-minded about telling different kinds of stories in the Star Wars universe too.
I also feel like during pre-production, we had to make choices as to what kind of show we were going to do. I have the feeling that Kamiyama-san has all kinds of ideas that he didn't use that he's still holding on to in his mind.
Series Director Shunsuke Tada: I'm saying this without consulting with Kamiyama-san, so this is my personal desire, but I couldn't make everything I wanted to in only eight episodes. So I would like to continue The Ninth Jedi.
I know all directors in the world always feel this way—the feeling that there was more that we could do. And I also feel that audiences would want to see more. For example, we didn't portray Tafflah using her lightsaber as a Jedi in this limited series, so you'd want to see that. Or you want to see a lot more aliens or continue the main plot. So there are a lot of things to do—a lot of room to grow. So personally, I want to pursue The Ninth Jedi more.
Kamiyama-san might think we did everything we wanted, but to me personally, The Ninth Jedi limited series is only Episode IV of our saga. Luke's story has three episodes: Episodes IV, V, and VI. There are a lot more stories left to tell. That's how I feel.
Supervising Director Kenji Kamiyama: I'm very open and very interested in both. I want to keep living in the world of Star Wars as a creator. There are things that I could bring my creativity to. To me, Star Wars is the coming-of-age story that moved me back when I watched Episode IV. [...] I know there are a lot of politics with the Empire versus the Rebellion, and it's a story with a massive scale, but to me the origin of it all is Luke's coming-of-age story.
If my vision or ideas match what new fans want to watch in the Star Wars universe, that's something I'm open to pursue. So yes, if there's an opportunity, I'm very open to whatever comes.
Do you have anything you'd like to say to fans of The Ninth Jedi?
Producer Hitoshi Itō: I'm very happy. I see the voices from the fans on X and other social media. "Oh, The Ninth Jedi. This is really Star Wars!" And also, “I've never seen something like this. This really is new Star Wars!” Those voices make us happy. And we want those fans to spread the word to the younger generation of fans as well—those who became fans of the Star Wars universe with The Mandalorian and Grogu. We want to reach them as well.
Series Director Shunsuke Tada: Even though this is an animated series rather than a live-action one and features a new cast of protagonists with no direct link to the established canon, Director Kamiyama and I always approached what we were making as Star Wars. We view it just as previous Star Wars directors have: as events taking place within the same Star Wars universe. I really hope Star Wars fans won't dismiss The Ninth Jedi as just a spin-off that relies on a gimmick to offer a fresh angle. I want them to see it and recognize that it is, at its core, Star Wars. I truly hope we can convey that.
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