After the positive reception of Star Wars: Visions on Disney+, it looks like Lucasfilm is ready to lean in on the idea of collaborating with more anime studios. Now they’ve just announced a team-up with one of the biggest studios in anime today.
As per an official post, Lucasfilm is official teaming up with Studio Ghibli (Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro) for an upcoming project. Here’s the announcement:
— スタジオジブリ STUDIO GHIBLI (@JP_GHIBLI) November 10, 2022
No details were released alongside the announcement, but everyone is already guessing that Ghibli could be working on a Star Wars project. SW has very core themes of embracing nature (or The Force) over technology, which is pretty much in line with other Ghibli works.
Then again, Lucasfilm does own other franchises that have a ton of potential for exploration. With the Willow series premiering this month, I think that world could be something that Ghibli would feel very comfortable in. Since it’s not that fleshed out as well, there’s a lot of room to explore and expand on Ghibli’s part.
Personally, I am hoping for a theatrically released animated film. I think Ghibli is a big enough studio to boost enough interest; combined with an IP like Star Wars, and we could have the same level of hype that a Pixar of Walt Disney Animation film could generate. With Star Wars being gone from the cinemas for so long, I would love them to try something more experimental outside of the safety of the Disney+ umbrella.
No release date has been announced for the Ghibli/Lucasfilm project.
