The Ninth Jedi is an upcoming Star Wars series that follows a ragtag team on their way to restore the Jedi Order. The characters were first introduced in Star Wars: Visions, but after fan response, they were given their own series, and the first episode was released at this year’s Anime Expo, the largest anime convention in the United States. The series will be available of Disney+ on August 5th, 2026. Here are my thoughts on the first episode of the Ninth Jedi.

Spoilers ahead!

The Ninth Jedi Episode One

The show is intense right off the bat as Kara, Homen, Juro, and Gramps are caught by Nawaam’s army. They try their best to get away, but it doesn’t matter how many jumps they make. Gramps, a droid, jumps their ship near a black hole. Because Gennoh’s ship is so huge, it gets caught into the gravitational pull, allowing our heroes to slip away and head to an independent planet in search of help.

“The victory is short lived for Kara”

Now the show starts to slow down in pace as Juro, Kara, and Homen meet a former Jedi and try to get him to join the cause. Though he understands the threat Nawaam poses to the galaxy, he refuses. He no longer follows that help, and tells them his duty is to his planet and people. Gennoh manages to get out of the black hole and track them down. He retaliates, sending his droids to infiltrate the city to smoke out his enemies, when he cannot get answers as to where they are.

Kara and Gramps sneak onto Gennoh’s ship and face him directly. Kara soon unsheathes her lightsaber, and he reveals his own, red and glowing. In this moment of the Star Wars universe, lightsabers are considered a limited commodity, and only few people still have them.While she and Gennoh fight, Gramps shuts off the power to all enemy droids, a successful feat. Unfortunately, the ship is driven by a droid and begins to fall. Kara and Gramps escape, while the ship lands, luckily, not causing any more damage that the attack droids have already inflicted. The victory is short lived for Kara, as she wonders why Gennoh wields a lightsaber. We learn that her missing father, Lah Zhima, is the only known sabermaker. She becomes worried that her father might be working for Nawaam.

My Review

I highly enjoyed this introduction to The Ninth Jedi and thought it did a really good job of giving this previously-seen characters their own adventures. It does a great job of inserting new ideas into the Star Wars universe, particularly a world where the Sith and Jedi order are no longer prominent.

With lightsabers being so rare, we, of course, expect the heroes to have them, but the show immediately surprises us when we see the villains wielding them as well. We are just confused as Kara is, especially when we know that Lah Zhima is the only saber maker. We can easily sympathize with her and also question whether her father is working with the enemy or if there is something much darker at hand.

Furthermore, the animation is stunning. Though it is show in an anime-style, and definitely gives off the vibes we expect from our favorite series, it still manages to stay true the Star Wars image. The large space landscapes, the incredibly-detailed ships, the outfits the characters wear, and best of all, the wonderfully-choreographed lightsaber battles—which will have your heart pounding with every strike—work beautifully together to give us the Star Wars we all know and love.