In the popular kids’ animated series’ latest batch of episodes released today via Disney+, the characters of Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures have finally landed on the planet Batuu from Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, as was advertised back at Star Wars Celebration 2023 in London.
What’s happening:
- At last April’s Star Wars Celebration 2023 in London, England, Lucasfilm Story Group member Matt Martin promised fans that the characters in the then-upcoming animated series Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures would be visiting the planet of Batuu from the Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge themed lands at Disney Parks.
- Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures then premiered via Disney+ and Disney Junior on May the 4th, and two more batches of episodes were later released in August and November, all with no sign of Batuu.
- Now, finally, as the last batch of episodes from this season of Young Jedi Adventures have hit Disney+ today, February 14th, two segments of the show are set on Batuu, spread across two separate episodes.
- The segments are entitled “The Tale of Short Spire” and “The Caves of Batuu,” and can be found in episodes 22 and 23 of Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures on Disney+.
In “The Tale of the Short Spire,” the Jedi-in-training Kai Brightstar (voiced by Jamaal Avery Jr.), Lys Solay (Juliet Donenfeld), and Nubs (Dee Bradley Baker) travel to Batuu to visit the Jedi temple located in the wilderness of the planet– first seen in the Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge virtual-reality game. They are partnered with Jedi Padawan Celesta Kami (Julia Rehwald) when her Master Carver Drow (Keston John) sends them on a mission to Black Spire Outpost, where they discover that a shady businessman named Ozon Nimbee (Gary Anthony Williams) is plotting to cut down the city’s famous spires to make way for a futuristic new development. During their visit there are references to the local Cantina, the Marketplace, and the Milk Stand (the blue and green milk are even used to short-circuit some pesky droids), plus glimpses of other buildings you’d see on a visit to Galaxy’s Edge– the geography of Black Spire is fairly accurate to Disney Parks (or to be more accurate, Disneyland specifically, as our friend Nick Tierce pointed out). The kids in the settlement are also playing a bocce ball-like game that I would love to see incorporated into the immersive experiences at Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney World.
“The Caves of Batuu” begins with a public lightsaber training session in Black Spire Outpost’s spaceport (where we will see the Millennium Falcon docked much later on in the Star Wars timeline) during which Kai suffers a frustrating setback when he’s unable to perfect new skills right away. He’s led out into the Batuu wilderness by Master Drow, who shows him into a cave that’s strong with Force energy and waits for Kai outside, much like Master Yoda and Luke Skywalker’s experience with the dark-side cave on Dagobah in The Empire Strikes Back. Inside the cave, Kai has visions of Jedi Knight Bell Zettifar (Marcus Scribner) and his charhound Ember (both from other Star Wars: The High Republic media and a previous episode of Young Jedi Adventures), Kai’s friend Djovi Resmia (Valeria Rodriguez), the villainous Taborr Val Dorn (Trey Murphy), and even Yoda himself (Piotr Michael), all of whom teach Kai that he doesn’t have to be perfect in order to be a great Jedi. There aren’t too many other references to Galaxy’s Edge in this segment, but it’s a valuable lesson for viewers anyway, and it all takes place on planet Batuu.
The full first season of Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures is now available to stream via Disney+, with these new episodes also airing on Disney Junior.