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Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures which premieres on Disney+ and Disney Jr. on May 4th is one of the newest collaborations outside the Disney Parks & Disney+ to bring together creative teams from Lucasfilm and Disney Entertainment together to create a new entertainment offering for Disney fans who have yet to know “the power of the force”. The Disney fans who this collaboration is hoping to introduce to the wider world of Star Wars this time around are, kids!
The new show will be the first of its kind to premiere as a program on two different branches of the Disney entertainment market. The hope to is reach a greater audience across two different program channels to celebrate May the 4th, better known as Star Wars Day. Star Wars fans everywhere in the lead-up to the show’s premiere have caught a glimpse of these new “Young Jedis” across social media and other forms of marketing, but yet little is known about them.
As Star Wars fans hope to get to know these new characters, as they have with their other favorites in the many Lucasfilm Disney+ projects they know, well then, are sure to be in for quite an unexpected surprise when they sit down to watch this new series. The show is produced as a children’s program for the Disney Jr. audience while being handled by Lucasfilm with the same care and attention to continuity as any other Star Wars project makes for a very interesting series that could quickly develop a fan base with Star Wars audiences beyond its intended one.
“Young Jedi Adventures” follows a group of just that, young Jedi on their different adventures out in their part of a Galaxy Far Far Away on an outpost on the outer rim. The characters the show follows through its 7-episode run are Kai, Lys, and Nubs, and their friends Nash and RJ-83 on planet Tenoo. Tenoo is home to a Jedi Temple in which Kai, Lys, and Nubs are training with their Master to learn what it means to be a Jedi. Nash and RJ-83 are the smugglers and provide a means of transport for the Jedi as they have adventures in their new homes.
It is through these characters and their paths to becoming Jedi that viewers are taught what it means to learn the ways of the Jedi. The format of the show being developed for kids and containing a storied lesson by episode end pairs well with this kind of Star Wars storytelling. That is what this show fully intends to do, introduce Star Wars to the next generation. George Lucas’s original vision for making the original Star Wars film was to inspire the next generation to do the right thing in their own everyday lives. This show takes that vision and brings all the best of the Star Wars franchise to inspire the next generation. This show is a great way to introduce kids to what “Star Wars” truly means.
In the series opener these characters are commissioned by Jedi Master Yoda to go to the outer rim in order to complete their training, Yoda tells these Young Jedi, that He is “Sending you to other outpost temples, I am”, as he begins a short monologue. The care and attention to a legacy character in Star Wars not only with his famous dialogue but also in keeping with the character as one who empowers other Jedi at the start of this show.
Familiar words like “the outer rim”, “Jedi”, “bounty hunter” and more are used freely in different episodes across this first season, to help make for a convincing and well-scripted project no matter how unlikely, that sets up adventures.
The structure of the show is not unlike other animated shows that are part of this type of programming with a familiar setting and repeat cast of characters to drive different important points home for the audience to learn from episode to episode. However, the fact that the Star Wars franchise could be translated into this storytelling and this medium shows that Star Wars is for everyone. Even if this show is not enjoyed by everyone, the lessons it wants to teach, while respecting the lore and canon which has been established for Star Wars in the last decade make for a convincing case to watch at least one episode to celebrate that Star Wars lives on.
Understanding that Star Wars belongs to everyone along with its power for inspiration, makes this show worth watching even casually with loved ones as well as other Star Wars fans. This is not a crash course but a show that embodies the values of the franchise. So whether you have been waiting for the right time to introduce that little one in the family to A Galaxy Far, Far, Away or want to learn why Yoda believes these Young Jedi are capable of becoming great watch an episode of “Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures” and remember that the Force is what binds and brings us all together.
