Studio Ghibli Teases Team-Up With Lucasfilm
Acclaimed Japanese animation company Studio Ghibli set social media buzzing today with one short and cryptic tweet, hinting at a team-up with Hollywood giants Lucasfilm.
For those of you not up on your Japanese animation, Studio Ghibli are the revered and beloved people behind classic award-winning films such as ‘My Neighbor Totoro’, ‘Princess Mononoke’, ‘Spirited Away’, ‘Ponyo’, and ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’. Five of the studio’s films sit amongst the ten highest-grossing Japanese anime feature films of all time.
Lucasfilm are, of course, the people behind ‘Star Wars’, the ‘Indiana Jones’ films, and ‘Willow’, which is due to return on Disney+ for a new series later this month.
The cryptic tweet, which you can see below, doesn’t really give anything away about exactly what this Studio Ghibli/Lucasfilm collaboration may entail. Lucasfilm has dabbled with anime in ‘Star Wars’ before, with their ‘Star Wars: Visions‘ series. However, it does not mean this will be a ‘Star Wars’ project. It could be something completely original or related to one of the other Lucasfilm properties.
— ??????? STUDIO GHIBLI (@JP_GHIBLI) November 10, 2022
The ‘Star Wars: Visions‘ series featured nine shorts collaborating with various anime companies, although Studio Ghibli was not one of them. However, the series has been renewed for season two, so it’s possible this tweet is related to them being one of the anime houses producing a short for that show. Or it could be something much bigger, and them taking on a full series or feature. Neither Lucasfilm or Studio Ghibli are saying more right now, just commenting “all will be revealed soon…”
We’ll let you know when we hear more, but interesting and exciting news nevertheless!
UPDATE: They have confirmed the project is a new, original short called ‘Zen – Grogu and Dust Bunnies’, and it is available now on Disney+.
