Animated "Forces Of Destiny" To Spotlight Female Heroes Of Star Wars

This summer, the female heroes of the Star Wars saga will be spotlighted in a series of eight new 2-D animated shorts called "Forces Of Destiny". A number of them will be voiced by the original actresses, including Daisy Ridley as Rey, Felicity Jones as Jym Erso, fron Star Wars Rebels, Tiya Sircar as Sabine Wren, Vanessa Marshall as Hera Syndulla, and Ashley Eckstein as Ahsoka Tano, and Lupita Nyong’o as Maz Kanata, who will also narrate the shorts. Other characters who will be featured include Padme' and Princess Leia , voiced by Catherine Taber (The Clone Wars), and Shelby Young, respectively.

The shorts, which are said to be official cannon, will be about three minutes each, and tell stories from the characters' respective eras. " In some cases, multiple heroines will appear in adventures with each other, even though some of them are from different eras –... “One of the opportunities here was to tell the stories in between the larger moments and imagine some of the ways our characters have crossed,” says Carrie Beck, an executive producer of the shorts and a member of the Lucasfilm story group braintrust. “It’s all part of the larger swath of storytelling.”

One story features Hera and Princess Leia teaming with Han Solo on the forest moon of Endor. Look for more information to be revealed this week at Star Wars Celebration Orlando.

"Forces Of Destiny" will debut on Disney YouTube in July, then be packaged with eight others in the fall for a pair of TV specials airing on the Disney Channel.