“Star Wars: Visions Presents – The Ninth Jedi” arrives as a full series, not the short film that started it. The 2026 run lands all 8 episodes at once on Hulu and Disney+, first aired and last aired on the same day: 2026-08-05.
Trailer, via Star Wars.
Kara Leads a Crew With a Deadline
The setup is simple and built to move. Kara leads a ragtag Jedi crew hunting for worthy Jedi to stand against an increasingly powerful warlord. That is the whole engine, and the show does not pretend otherwise. A search is a good shape for a season — it gives every episode a destination and a reason to keep the crew walking.
Chinatsu Akasaki voices Lah Kara. Hiromu Mineta voices Ethan. Shin-ichiro Miki voices Lah Zhima. That is the cast the show puts its weight behind, and it is a small enough group that the series can stay with them.
The Short That Grew Up
The Ninth Jedi began life as one entry in the Visions anthology, a set of standalone shorts from different studios. Turning one of those shorts into an 8-episode season is a real change of scale, and scale is where this kind of project usually breaks. A short can survive on a single idea and a strong finish. A season cannot.
Here the show keeps the bones — the search, the warlord, the crew — and stretches them across 8 episodes. That works when the middle holds. It works less well when the search becomes a way to fill time.
The genre tags tell you what to expect: Animation, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Action & Adventure. The Ninth Jedi is all three, and the action is the part that carries the season.
What the Search Costs
A warlord who grows more powerful every episode is a clock. The crew has to find Jedi before the clock runs out, and the show leans on that pressure. The problem is that a search story lives or dies on the people being searched for. Kara’s crew is the constant. The worthy Jedi are the variable, and the variable is where the season spends its risk.
Lah Zhima and Ethan give Kara two different kinds of company — one older, one closer to her own footing. The voice work from Miki and Mineta is what keeps those relationships from flattening into types.
This is not a show that reinvents Star Wars. It is a show that takes one good short and asks whether it can carry 8 episodes.
Where the Season Lands
The Ninth Jedi is a solid expansion, not a revelation. The search structure is sturdy, the warlord gives the season a spine, and the cast is small enough that the show never loses Kara in a crowd. What it lacks is the surprise the original short had — the thing that made you sit up because it was over before you expected.
Stretching a short into a season is the central bet here, and the bet mostly pays. Mostly. The episodes that push the search forward are the ones worth your time. The ones that stall are the ones you will forget.
The real question is what season 2 does with the warlord. A single season can coast on a clock. A second one has to show the clock was counting toward something. That is the part worth watching.
- Title: Star Wars: Visions Presents – The Ninth Jedi
- Year: 2026
- Network: Hulu, Disney+
- Season: 1
- Episodes: 8
- First aired: 2026-08-05
- Last aired: 2026-08-05
- Genres: Animation, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Action & Adventure
- Cast: Chinatsu Akasaki (Lah Kara), Hiromu Mineta (Ethan), Shin-ichiro Miki (Lah Zhima)
- Score: 7 of 10
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