TV Review: Kara Meets a New Droid Friend In "Star Wars: Visions" Volume 3, Episode 3 - "The Ninth Jedi: Child of Hope"
Today saw the release of Volume 3 of Lucasfilm’s animated anthology series Star Wars: Visions, and below are my thoughts on the third installment from this third batch of short films, entitled “The Ninth Jedi: Child of Hope” from Production I.G.
“The Ninth Jedi” was easily my favorite short film in Volume 1 of Star Wars: Visions, and I felt like it was certainly the one with the most potential to build out an expanded narrative of its own, which is why I was so excited when Lucasfilm announced that not only would the short be getting a sequel in Volume 3, but that “The Ninth Jedi” would also become its own Visions Presents series in 2026. So here we finally have a follow-up to what we saw in 2021, and I have to admit that if I didn’t know more of “The Ninth Jedi” storyline was on its way, I would be a tad disappointed. In this episode we catch up with Lah Kara (voiced by Kamiko Glenn in the English dub) as she is on the run with the other escaped Jedi fleeing from the clutches of their enemies who seek to eliminate the remnants of the Jedi Order. During a space battle, Kara is flung from the hold of the Jedi’s ship as it escapes into hyperspace, and she is left floating in the void.
Saved by a friendly and helpful droid named Teto (Freddie Highmore), Kara finds herself being given a tour of an expansive ship with multiple environments inside. There, Teto requests that Kara help him regain access to his master, who he says is recovering in a bacta tank at the top of some stairs that have become blocked off. That particular subplot ends in a tragic loss for Teto, and along the way Kara is once again confronted by the forces that kidnapped her father in the previous entry, as she begins to question what it will take to truly become a Jedi Knight. I liked “Child of Hope” but it definitely feels like a stepping stone from the first “The Ninth Jedi” short toward the series we’ll be getting soon, and I absolutely felt reassured by the “To Be Continued” title card at the end here. On its own, this entry comes across as a little slight, but as a chapter in a larger story it has some weight to it and a good lesson to be learned by our hero as she faces her own destiny. I’ll be very interested to see how Production I.G continues to weave its own ongoing Star Wars story outside of the established canon when Star Wars: Visions Presents The Ninth Jedi releases next year.
Star Wars: Visions Volume 3 is now streaming in its entirety, exclusively via Disney+.