Summary
- AI-generated fan content is expanding in the Star Wars universe, with a nature documentary trailer exploring the mystical species Yoda belongs to.
- The description and imagery of the documentary trailer make it seem like a genuine exploration of uncharted areas in Star Wars.
- The Star Wars franchise is also expanding with upcoming movies that will explore the first Jedi Order and what comes after The Skywalker Saga. A Mandalorian movie is also in the works.
“Here in the far reaches of the Dagobah system, amidst endless marshes and twisted forests a mystery has been waiting.”
With those words a brand new piece of AI generated content is born, and it is another step up from mere photos and AI-generated Wes Anderson trailers. This time around, these are the opening words – also AI-generated – of a “documentary” trailer that brings to life a search for the mystical Star Wars species that Yoda belongs to, and it is both beautiful and intriguing to behold.
The world of Star Wars is imaginative enough without the need for AI, but @schrodingersfilmclub has managed to deliver something that even the great minds at Lucasfilm have never come up with – a nature documentary based on a real world expedition to the galaxy far, far away in search of that most cosmic of Jedi masters. The short video features many different versions of Yoda’s ancestors, some old and some young, in grainy footage that would not be out of place in such a documentary relying on very old footage. The video continues to say:
“The elusive species known only through distant echoes from an ancient folklore, not yet classified by Galactic biologists, a small hunter-gatherer highly intelligent hunter-gatherer tribe believed to exhibit some proclivities in what modern mystics call The Force.”
There is no way to deny that the description does sound like it has been taken straight from a genuine explorative look at the unchartered areas of the Star Wars universe, and the rendered images that play alongside it really do make you wish that Lucasfilm would perhaps dig into some meta-leaning work on the franchise that has been accused many times of playing it too safe with its new content.
The Star Wars Universe Continues To Expand.
Walt Disney Studios
Even without the kind of fan projects such as this ever becoming official, the Star Wars franchise is looking to expand into new territory with some of its upcoming movies that were announced with great fanfare earlier this year. As fans prepare for Disney+ to bring Ahsoka to screens later this month, in another “Mandalorian Era” offering, the next movies in the franchise will go beyond both the prequel trilogy and sequel trilogy of Star Wars movies to respectively chart the story of the first Jedi Order and reveal what came after The Skywalker Saga.
Of course, for those who prefer their Star Wars projects to have a sense of the familiar about them, Dave Filoni will be working on his Mandalorian movie, which will provide a culmination to the story that began with The Mandalorian in 2019 and went on to spin-off into The Book of Boba Fett and Ahsoka. What exactly this movie will look like is still to be revealed, but one thing for certain is that interest in The Mandalorian seemed to be waning through its third season, and Lucasfilm will just have to hope that there is enough left in the tank by the time the movie hits the big screen.