Credit: Lucasfilm/Disney
Studio Ghibli, the famous Japanese animation studio behind classics like Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away, has spent the last few days announcing a possible collaboration with Lucasfilm and Star Wars on its official Twitter. And there’s some evidence it could be a Baby Yoda aka Grogu show based on a previous leak and a new tease.
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If you’re reading Kotaku, I probably don’t need to explain Studio Ghibli or Star Wars, but let’s pretend for a moment that you have no idea what those things are. This will only take a second, be patient. Studio Ghibli is an incredibly popular animation studio founded in Tokyo, Japan in 1985. Since its inception, it has produced popular films such as My Neighbor Totoro and Kiki’s Delivery Service. Meanwhile, Star Wars is a massive sci-fi franchise that was founded by George Lucas in the ’70s and has since grown into one of the biggest things on the planet. His latest show, Andor, is amazing (and filled with cool but easy-to-miss Easter eggs too!) and these two could be working together in the not-too-distant future based on recent tweets from both of them.
Yesterday the official Studio Ghibli Twitter account tweeted a short video with the Lucasfilm logo and its own logo. That was it. But it was enough to get people talking and saying, “Hey, what’s this about?” Not long after, the official Star Wars Twitter account also shared the teaser again. This has done two things. First, it dashed my hopes that the anime studio was working on an Indiana Jones series, and second, it confirmed that everything they’re collaborating on involves Star Wars. Now, earlier this morning, Studio Ghibli doubled down on its connection to the famous galaxy, far, far away with a follow-up post showing a picture of Grogu, also known online as Baby Yoda. The official Star Wars account is here retweeted the picture.
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That alone seems like solid proof that the studio is making a Baby Yoda short, film, or animated series. But even before today’s tweet and yesterday’s tease, we knew Disney and Lucasfilm were probably working on some sort of Grogu project. That’s thanks to an earlier leak from Disney+’s Italian Twitter account earlier this month. This leak pointed to a November 12 release date, which happens to be tomorrow. It’s also the third anniversary of the premiere of The Mandalorian, the show Grogu first appeared on.
All of this points to the very real possibility that Studio Ghibli and Lucasfilm will be releasing a new Star Wars animated short starring Grogu very soon. Or maybe this leaked short film has nothing to do with this project and instead Ghibli is working on a segment for the next season of the Star Wars anime spin-off anthology series Star Wars Visions. We will see…