New 'Star Wars' animated series to feature Oscar Isaac, Gwendoline Christie, and of course, BB-8
It was only a matter of time until BB-8 starred in his own cartoon. Disney announced this morning that production has begun on Star Wars Resistance, a new animated series about a young Resistance pilot named Kazudo Xiono, his “top-secret mission” to spy on the First Order, and his friendship with everyone’s favorite spherical droid. The series, premiering on the Disney Channel this fall, takes place prior to the events of The Force Awakens and will feature appearances by Oscar Isaac as Poe and Gwendoline Christie as Captain Phasma.
Star Wars: Resistance was created by Dave Filoni, already well known to Lucasfilm Animation fans for his work on Star Wars Rebels and The Clone Wars. In the press release, Filoni says that the series was inspired by World War II fighter pilots — which also happens to have been one of George Lucas’s influences for the original Star Wars film.
“My grandfather was a pilot, and my uncle flew and restored planes, so that’s been a big influence on me,” Filoni says in a statement. “There’s a long history of high-speed racing in Star Wars, and I think we’ve captured that sense of excitement in an anime-inspired style, which is something the entire team has been wanting to do for a long time.”
Filoni has experience working on an anime-style show, having been an animator on the acclaimed 2005 Nickelodeon series Avatar: The Last Airbender.
The main cast of Star Wars Resistance includes Donald Faison (Scrubs), Bobby Moynihan (SNL), Jim Rash (Community), Scott Lawrence (Legion), and a number of seasoned voice actors. After its Disney Channel premiere, the show will move to Disney XD and then presumably to the Disney streaming service that will launch sometime in the not-too-distant future.
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