On October 29, 2025, Star Wars: Visions Volume 3 landed on Disney+ - offering nine animated shorts that combine new stories with direct sequels to some of its most beloved earlier episodes.
What’s New & What Returns
This volume includes six original stories and three sequel episodes revisiting shorts from Volume 1, namely: The Duel (now The Duel: Payback), The Village Bride (with The Lost Ones), and The Ninth Jedi (continued in Child of Hope).
Animation studios both returning and new contribute: Kamikaze Douga, Kinema Citrus, Production I.G, and Trigger are back - alongside new collaborators such as Anima, David Production, Polygon Pictures, Project Studio Q, and WIT Studio.
Themes & Style
Volume 3 leans strongly into the anime-style roots of Visions. It blends visual experimentation with familiar Star Wars iconography - Jedi / Sith motifs, mech-designs, droids - but filtered through new storytelling sensibilities.
One of the standout shorts is BLACK, produced by David Production, which follows a stormtrooper’s internal conflict through surreal, psychedelic animation. It doesn’t follow traditional narrative structure so much as it evokes emotion and existential weight.
Another highlight is The Duel: Payback, the sequel to the Kurosawa-inspired The Duel. The new short brings back Ronin and introduces new characters and conflicts, continuing that mythic tone.
Reception & Critique
General critical reception is positive. On Rotten Tomatoes, Visions Volume 3 has a high rating (Tomatometer 100% in some early reviews) though mixed comments about consistency between episodes.
On Metacritic, Volume 3 shows “generally favorable” reviews with a metascore around 75.
Some reviews praise the animation quality and the creative freedom Visions allows - going beyond canon constraints to explore tone, style and culture. Others mention that, while ambitious, certain stories feel uneven in pacing or narrative payoff across all nine shorts.
Canon, Creativity & Franchise Impact
An interesting point about Visions Volume 3 is that it continues with the franchise-adjacent approach: the show is not strictly confined to Star Wars canonical continuity, which allows it to take bigger artistic risks.
This freedom seems to pay off in Volume 3: characters and plots feel more stylised, more experimental, and occasionally more emotionally daring than standard Star Wars fare.
Also notable is that one of the sequel shorts (The Ninth Jedi: Child of Hope) is expected to spin off into a fuller series under Star Wars: Visions Presents.
Standouts & What Could Be Better
What works:
- Visually rich animation across multiple styles.
- Emotional resonance in episodes that return to earlier stories (e.g. The Duel: Payback, Child of Hope).
- Surprising creativity - BLACK breaks usual narrative molds and lingers as experimental art.
What’s less strong:
- As with many anthologies, not every short hits the same emotional or narrative punch.
- Some episodes lean heavily on familiar Star Wars tropes (Jedi / Sith conflict, orphan-hero arcs), which may feel less novel.
- For viewers hoping for tighter story arcs or canonical tie-ups, the loose continuity might feel frustrating instead of liberating.
Final Thoughts
Overall, Star Wars: Visions Volume 3 is one of the most bold and creatively daring entries in the Visions anthology so far. It showcases what Star Wars can be when it loosens the leash on canon, trusting talented animation studios to reimagine the galaxy through diverse voices and styles.
Whether you loved Volume 1 or Volume 2, or are just discovering Visions now, this latest set of Shorts deserves to be watched, discussed, and savoured for its beauty, ambition, and willingness to push against expectations.
