How the best episode of Star Wars: Visions sets up an entire new trilogy

Star Wars: Episode X already has a template. There’s no reason to believe we’ll ever get a direct film sequel to the “Skywalker Saga,” which comprises the nine episodically numbered Star Wars films, but if there ever was, the best episode of Star Wars: Visions has very clearly laid out what the story needs to be.

The adventures of Kara and the Margrave and their battle against the new Sith are clearly the best concept for a continuation of Star Wars, both within Visions and in the franchise at large. Here’s why “The Ninth Jedi” needs a sequel, and why that sequel should be either a full-length feature film or an ongoing TV show.

Star Wars: Episode 10 — The Ninth Jedi

Nearly everything about “The Ninth Jedi” is delightful, from the action and mystery to the utterly likable Kara and that wonderful twist involving the Sith lightsabers. The whole episode embodies the epic sweep of Star Wars while feeling utterly new. It’s also nice that, for a change, our new young Star Wars hero doesn’t resist the call to adventures. Kara feels like the right person to lead us into a new adventure, and the mysterious Margrave, a worthy Jedi master.

But the slickest thing about this episode is the way it casually asserts a far-future in which the ways of the Jedi and Sith have radically changed. Making Kara’s father the only guy who can make lightsabers — and then murdering him — is also brilliant. It recaptures the sense of scarcity that existed in the original trilogy. Encountering a lightsaber used to feel special. The prequels put an end to that. But “The Ninth Jedi” reboots this notion and makes everything about the Jedi and the Sith mysterious again.

Star Wars: Visions is just the beginning

Of all the shorts in Visions, “The Ninth Jedi” sticks out the most because its world-building feels both the most thought-out while simultaneously incomplete. Why have the Jedi vanished? Is this really happening in a post-Rise of Skywalker future? Did the Margrave get some fashion tips from legends of Darth Vader? Do the Jedi of this era think of the Vader association as a good thing, possibly because Vader kind of brought balance to the Force?

The notion that basic historical information is easily lost is an old Star Wars trick. In A New Hope, the Jedi are an “ancient religion,” even though they were only destroyed 19 years prior. In The Force Awakens, Rey and Finn think Han, Luke, and Leia are myths, even though the original trilogy only occurred 30 years earlier. Din Djarin doesn’t know what happened yesterday.

While it’s fun to think hard about why this happens so often in Star Wars, the bottom line is that this storytelling trick works. It works well in a bunch of fantasy narratives, but for some reason, having huge historical puzzle pieces intentionally missing works amazingly well in Star Wars.

A new type of Star Wars sequel

The exciting thing about a hypothetical sequel to “The Ninth Jedi” isn’t just that we want to know what happens next, though that’s part of it, of course. If Kara is the “ninth Jedi,” does that refer to the Jedi Council? Back in the days of The Phantom Menace, the council had twelve Jedi on it. What’s changed?

Layered onto the excitement of what comes next is the possibility of learning what happened before “The Ninth Jedi.” What occurred between The Rise of Skywalker and this story to change the rules of Kyber crystals, the Sith, and even the Jedi. Unlike The Force Awakens, this Star Wars: Visions story picks up so far beyond where we last left off that the mystery of how we got there is even more interested than what’s in store for Kara and the Margrave.

The spirit of Star Wars adventure feels fresh and utterly brand new in “The Ninth Jedi.” But interestingly, it also feels very familiar. Of all the new Star Wars ideas, this one feels like the best new hope for the future of the Force. Here’s hoping will see Kara again, very soon.

Star Wars: Visions is streaming now on Disney+.