Star Wars has announced a brand new websites and a YouTube channel dedicated towards younglings. Both will feature the best content in the galaxy including a thrilling animated series called Star Wars Galaxy of Adventures following characters from the original trilogy.
What’s happening:
- Adventure awaits for kids (and Star Wars fans of all ages) in Star Wars Galaxy of Adventures, a new series of animated shorts that will introduce the classic themes, pivotal moments, and iconic characters from the Star Wars saga to the next generation.
- The all-new StarWarsKids.com and the Star Wars Kids YouTube channel will debut on Saturday, November 30.
- The first six shorts of the series will debut with the launch of the site. Each short combines original dialogue, music, and sound effects with bold new animations, and fun and educational add-ons.
- Star Wars Kids was designed to help older fans, parents, and other mentors to welcome the kids in their lives to explore the galaxy far, far away.
- Additional shorts featuring fan-favorite characters will debut in December, with regular releases following in 2019.
What he’s saying:
- James Waugh, Lucasfilm’s vice president for franchise content and strategy: “With Galaxy of Adventures, we wanted to craft something that allowed parents to help their kids take their first step into a much larger world whether they were ready to show their kids the films or wanted to find new ways to explore the content.”
- James Waugh: “Over the years, I’ve had so many of my friends who are parents tell me how much they wanted to introduce their kids to Star Wars but didn’t feel that their kids were quite ready for the movies yet. They wanted a way to celebrate the universe they love.”
- On the importance of Galaxy of Adventures: “With Episode IX coming in December, and being the conclusion of the Skywalker saga — the long journey over 40 years of storytelling comes to its end — Galaxy of Adventures walks through the great moments and themes of the stories that led us here and introduces a new generation to them, in time for many to see this finale.”
- On Star Wars Kids: We’re passionate about our fans, and passionate to develop content that continues the Star Wars story in a deeper way, filling in the story gaps around the movies, and expanding the universe and its characters in new and more mature directions. But we’re also passionate about what Star Wars can be for kids — to light up those early imaginations. It’s a fairy tale, a mythic landscape that was designed to inspire.”
- On “bite-sized content”: “It allows us to really drill into moments, to tell simple stories, unencumbered by the needs of a traditional narrative structure — it’s allowing the creators to play more, experiment more.”
- Deciding on the content: “They took on the challenge, and embraced the opportunity to leverage the medium and target audience to breathe new life into scenes from the original trilogy, or create new scenes, new moments that exemplify the heroism of the characters; their key traits. There were a lot of discussions around what were the right stories or moments to develop that would show these traits.”
- On the new series: “One of the wonderful aspects of the Star Wars universe is that you can always explore more and go deeper into the fiction, and there’s also a Fun Facts that focuses on all the cool elements and history of lightsabers in general. Star Wars continues to evolve and grow over the years but it’ll always be anchored in those original films that started it all. Galaxy of Adventures is a fresh way to introduce an entirely new and younger generation to those concepts, characters, and themes.”
- On Star Wars Kids: “As for Star Wars Kids, I’m excited to tell new stories, to explore new talent and entertainment forms, unexpected forms of animation, a variety of tonal explorations, and get to look at this universe in a fresh way. I’m excited to share this content with my son and I’m excited to see where imagination takes us all!”