The world of Star Wars is colliding with anime in Disney+’s Star Wars: Visions, a collection of short films produced by seven of the biggest Japanese animation studios, including Kill la Kill‘s Studio Trigger and Ghost in the Shell‘s Production I.G. The non-canon shorts feature an ensemble roster of stars for its English dubs, some of whom include Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings‘ Simu Liu, GLOW‘s Alison Brie and The Flash‘s Jordan Fisher.
SCREENRANT VIDEO OF THE DAY
Related: Star Wars: Visions Cast Guide (Japanese & English Dubs)
Screen Rant got the opportunity to chat with Star Wars: Visions actor Masi Oka to discuss his work in the episode “The Ninth Jedi”, his return to the Lucasfilm franchise after starting his career as a digital effects artist on the Star Wars prequel trilogy, and an update on Death Note 2.
Screen Rant: Star Wars: Visions is not only a fascinating project in general, but it’s also an interesting one for you in that it brings it full circle. You started from behind the scenes on this franchise and ILM in general to now getting to be at the heart of the story. What’s that like for you?
Masi Oka: It’s definitely a dream come true. You know, I went to ILM because I wanted to work on Star Wars, and I was secretly hoping I could get up a role on the prequels and that didn’t happen and then J.J. [Abrams] didn’t put me in the new trilogy, but to come full circle and be part of this Star Wars franchise, is just amazing, so this is an opportunity of a lifetime.
What was it like for you getting to not only be a part of a story but to be a lightsaber wielder and a character so young and full of potential for future stories?
Masi Oka: The inner kid that still lives within me was just super giddy. I even took kendo just because I wanted to wield the closest thing to a lightsaber — kendo is kind of like Japanese fencing — so we pretended we’d be like Luke and Darth Vader fighting each other and stuff so just be able to wield, even if it’s virtually. I had the same emotion as probably Ethan did.
Were there any moments when you were recording your dialogue where you were maybe holding on to your own lightsaber?
Masi Oka: I wish [laughs], but virtually I used it as motivation, without a doubt.
What was one of the biggest creative challenges for you going into this project?
Masi Oka: I think the biggest challenge is for me I never really dubbed Japanese into English, it’s always been the other way around. So this is the first time when you had the original Japanese language and then I was doing the English dub. So trying to match the voice and tone and tambor with Japanese voice acting is very different from American voice acting, you know English voice acting, so I think that was something I had to learn on set. The director was wonderful to work with in guiding us through that.
Was there ever a time where there was a discussion of possibly having you do both since you are fluent in Japanese as well as English?
Masi Oka: That talk never came up, you know, I am fluent in Japanese in English, but maybe next time, you know, I’ll be able to do my own dubs.
There have been talks of possibly a second season and even though this is an anthology, it would be really interesting to see your story continue since it is left on such a big cliffhanger and not technically connected to the mainline canon. Do you hope it continues more? What do you think would come next for your character’s story?
Masi Oka: Personally I would love to be part of the Star Wars world and just have it continue. If “The Ninth Jedi” becomes its own franchise, you know, along with a movie and live-action, you know, action figures, games, whatever, I think that’d be cool. But that’s up to Disney and the fans and hopefully the fans will love it and we can get people behind it.
Aside from the obvious of it being Star Wars and anime, what was it about this project that really drew you in?
Masi Oka: I think anime and Star Wars is the big draw for me, I mean, I’m Japanese, so that’s one of the big cultural exports in Japan here. I grew up on anime and at the same time, the first movie I ever saw was Star Wars. I grew up on Star Wars, I went to ILM for work because I love Star Wars so much, just to see those two worlds finally come together and collide in this beautiful collaboration, for me, and to be able to be a part of it is just it’s truly a dream and an honor.
To look away from it for a moment, I was personally a fan of Netflix’s Death Note adaptation and I know that a sequel has been in the works for some time now. You are both a producer and in front of the camera, so I was wondering, can you give me any kind of updates? Can we expect to hear something soon about production or anything like that?
Masi Oka: All I can say is still in the works, nothing has been decided either way, but it’s still moving. All I can say is that, you know, we are listening to the fans and hopefully the fans will be happy with the direction we’re going.
