Star Wars Highlights Female Heroes in New Forces of Destiny Series
Star Wars fangirls have always believed in the Force, but now the Force believes in them. A new storytelling series called Forces of Destiny aims to expand the galactic saga's audience by highlighting its female heroes in eight new 2-D animated shorts. Those will debut on Disney YouTube in July, then be packaged with eight others in the fall for a pair of TV specials airing on the Disney Channel. While they'll be full of familiar characters and creatures, the central figures are Princess Leia from the original trilogy era, Padm Amidala from the prequels, Rey from The Force Awakens, Rogue One's Jyn Erso, and a trio from the animated Rebels series the Mandalorian warrior Sabine Wren, Force-sensitive Jedi badass Ahsoka Tano, and the avocado-hued Twi'lek pilot Hera Syndulla. In some cases, multiple heroines will appear in adventures with each other, even though some of them have been separated by different timelines  but it's all official canon. "One of the opportunities here was to tell the stories in between the larger moments and imagine some of the ways our characters have crossed," says Carrie Beck, an executive producer of the shorts and a member of the Lucasfilm story group braintrust. "It's all part of the larger swath of storytelling.", More will be revealed this Friday at the annual Star Wars Celebration fan gathering, but Lucasfilm gave EW an early look at what's on the horizon. Each of the Forces of Destiny shorts are about three minutes long, and they were penned by Jennifer Muro, a writer known for DC's Justice League Action, and directed by Brad Rau, who has helmed episodes of the animated Rebels series on Disney XD. Dave Filoni, executive producer of Rebels, also helped create the new storylines. Other sci-fi/fantasy franchises have created special stories to attract female fans, like DC Superhero Girls, which rounded up heroes and villains into a high school. Rather than putting its heroines into a new environment, like a galactic classroom or summer camp, Lucasfilm preferred to keep the characters within the same universe as the movies, TV shows, novels, and comics. "We didn't want to put them in a false social construct. They're meeting each other on Star Wars terms," Beck tells EW. "No part of Star Wars should feel like, That's the fake Star Wars, over there.' No matter who you are, or how young you are, you want to feel like you are sharing the same thing your dad and mom love, that your grandparents love. You want to feel like you are a part of it.", Many of the original actresses will be voicing their characters. Daisy Ridley is playing desert scavenger Rey in stories set within the arc of The Force Awakenssorry, no flash-forwards to The Last Jedi or Episode IX, and no flashbacks to illuminate her mysterious past, and Felicity Jones will resurrect Jyn Erso for adventures that pre-date the climax of Rogue One. Obviously., From Rebels, Tiya Sircar will voice heroic bounty hunter Sabine Wren, Ashley Eckstein will return as Ahsoka Tano, a character she has been playing since the earlier Clone Wars animated series, and Vanessa Marshall will bring her flygirl swagger from the show to Hera Syndulla. With Carrie Fisher sadly gone, Princess Leia will be voiced in the shorts by Shelby Young, and although Natalie Portman won't be playing the role of Padm Amidala, she'll be voiced by Catherine Taber, who played her in The Clone Wars. One other towering female presence from Star Wars will play a part in the shorts Lupita Nyong'o will narrate the shorts as her little orange alien sage Maz Kanata. One Forces of Destiny story involves Rey battling the thieving Jakku scavenger Teedo to protect BB-8 while on their way to Niima Outpost for their fateful encounter with Finn. Another involves a battle with the nightwatcher worm, a creature with glowing eyes who was seen only briefly in The Force Awakens, lifting its head out of the sand. "He eats junk on Jakku and has an appetite for BB-8," Beck says. Another short takes place aboard the Millennium Falcon with Han Solo, Chewbacca, and Finn as Rey tries to disarm an explosive tracking device hidden aboard the craft by Unkar Plutt. "What we love about Rey is her mechanical skills, and she knows this ship as well as our other heroes," Beck says. A Princess Leia short set just before the battle of Hoth was literally inspired by a deleted scene from The Empire Strikes Back, in which she, C-3PO, R2-D2, and Chewbacca face down a ferocious Wampa who's trapped inside the Rebel ice base. "Leia saves the day and rescues Chewie, so we get to see her leadership in play," Beck says.