Studio Ghibli releases a new Star Wars project

Studio Ghibli–the highly-acclaimed animation studio behind classics like Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, and Howl’s Moving Castle–teased a new project in conjunction with Lucasfilm earlier this week.

The animated short, Zen – Grogu and Dust Bunnies, released on Disney+ this weekend. It is a short, hand-drawn original straight from the studio.

Studio Ghibli, led by visionary Hayao Miyazaki, has a long history of producing some of the most iconic animated films in the past few decades. It’s not the first time that the studio has worked alongside of Disney. Pixar has handled some of the English dubs of Studio Ghibli movies in the past, and Disney would handle US distribution. However, more recently, HBO has been the home of the Studio Ghibli catalog when it comes to streaming.

Originally, fans speculated this announcement was teasing Visions Season 2. Star Wars: Visions is an anthology series of animated Star Wars shorts, from a variety of studios. Season 1 featured a wide variety of classic, Japanese anime studios. Season 2 was announced at Celebration Anaheim, and it is going to feature animation studios from all over the world: Japan, India, UK, Ireland, Spain, Chile, France, South Africa, and California. It is currently set to release in Spring 2023. No other news has come out since Celebration.

Visions Season 1 also led to several other spinoff projects. The Duel received a one-shot comic and the novel Ronin by Emma Mieko Candon. There was also an art book for the full season that was released this week. T0-B1 also received an adaptation via a children’s book. Hopefully we get similar development to the stories told in Season 2.

Zen – Grogu and Dust Bunnies is now available to stream exclusively on Disney+.

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