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With Ronin, Candon will be taking their first steps into Star Wars. It’s a unique opportunity, even by Star Wars standards. “I’ve dreamed of contributing to the Star Wars mythos since I started writing in earnest, but I never imagined I’d be able to do so from such a personal angle,” Candon says. “In that sense, Visions -- and Ronin in specific -- has been a gift, both as a fan and as a creator.” As Candon builds upon the groundwork of The Duel, they looked to specific influences that have informed both Star Wars and anime.

Star Wars: Visions has brought the franchise full circle with its debut, as anime studios have put their own spin on the world of Star Wars while highlighting the franchise’s roots in Japanese culture. And with new films and television shows in development, including the upcoming Book of Boba Fett, there is a chance for more of Akira Kurosawa’s films to serve as inspiration to filmmakers and fans alike.StarWars.com: The Ronin Mandalorian joins two other Ronin-inspired Mandalorian figures who came before, Jango and Boba Fett -- what inspiration do you draw from to ensure the aesthetics remain consistent across the collection, while also offering something new and exciting to collectors? Kamiyama-san took inspiration from the anime stories that have excited him and the staff at Production I.G, but the Return of the Jedi speeder chase was such a huge influence on the creative team for a big action set piece,” Rimes teases. “You’ll see that Kara wears a helmet and poncho that uses similar design language to Leia’s garb in that iconic Return of the Jedi action sequence.” We’ll find out about further adventures of our hero in the Visions novel Ronin , but this tale is about a man with a strong sense of justice and right and wrong,” says Rimes. “The way he’s animated and performed in both original Japanese and the English dub shows that he really carries the weight of his own past with him on his journey toward self-discovery -- and he’ll dispense some eye-popping, lightsaber-clashing justice along the way if he must.” If I ended up having to make a few more [ Rebel Moons], I’d be fine with that,” he said. Whether he gets there will solidify the story of Snyder’s career, and could help resolve where Hollywood — and epic-scale space opera that isn’t full of droids and Wookiees — stands in this new age.

Also like the Jedi, the samurai weren’t all “good.” Whether by the death of their master, defeat in battle or their own bad behavior, some samurai became ronin— masterless warriors who were sometimes rebellious or even vengeful. Sith and ronin Darth Vader, as imagined in the Tamashii Nations collectable figurines from Bandai. Bandai Tamashii Nations The answer's right on top of your head

The original: Ghost in the Shell (1995)

For now, however, the Rebel Moon machine is running full steam ahead. Reportedly the real “rebel moon” isn’t the moon in either part 1 or part 2 — it’s something that would emerge in a proposed third film, or even a project beyond that. While The Hidden Fortress and Seven Samurai are the most referenced Kurosawa films in Star Wars, they are not the only ones. While Star Wars had plenty of inspiration from westerns, especially in regards to the franchise’ criminal underworld, a scene in 1961’s Yojimbo was referenced in A New Hope. Ben Kenobi dispatching a pair of criminals (who brag about their heinous crimes), including cutting off the arm of one, references Yojimbo’s Kuwabatake Sanjuro in a similar scenario. Star Wars also references its sequel, 1962’s Sanjuro, when Han, Chewbacca, and their passengers hide under the floorboards of the Millennium Falcon, just as several samurai do in Kurosawa’s film. Because so many Japanese collectibles are different than anything else in the world and limited in production – most are not licensed for sale anywhere but Japan – they attract collectors looking for the unusual," Sansweet elaborated. At the same time, Star Wars constructs a layer of fantasy atop elements of a samurai tradition that Western observers already found fascinating well before 1977. So it's not particularly surprising that a substantial portion of the treasure trove on display at Rancho Obi-Wan, the largest private collection of Star Wars memorabilia in the world, comes from Japan. Japan's unique aesthetic tradition makes it just as appealing to people who collect Star Wars as it is to those who create it.

For Rimes, Kara follows in a tradition that’s key to Star Wars -- but with a Visions twist. “ Thematically, Kara has familiar hopes and dreams as heroes like Luke or Rey. She longs for more, wishes to become a hero and get off her tundra planet where great harpoon cannons farm for kyber crystals from the asteroids above,” he says. “What’s new, though, is that Kara has a stable, loving relationship to her father. He’s everything to her and she’s everything to him. He has an important job and when trouble comes she must take up her father’s mission and become the hero she’s meant to be -- but despite her natural skill, she realizes this adventure is only the beginning and will need all the training she can get as she becomes a part of a group with a mission that’s bigger than herself.” Still, with Star Wars: Visions premiering, fans now have nine anime shorts of unique spins on a galaxy far, far away. Without the constraints of having to fit in the canon, Visions creators reimagined classic Star Wars elements like twists on the Force, the Jedi’s and Sith’s places in the galaxy and the look and function of lightsabers. As well as adopting this storytelling philosophy, Lucas borrowed prolifically from Kurosawa’s filmmaking in general. The plot of Star Wars, for instance, is loosely based on Kurosawa’s masterpiece The Hidden Fortress – in which two peasants assist a battle-hardened general and a princess in their rebellion, and a climactic battle is fought between the general and a former rival. While the story of The Hidden Fortress is told from the perspective of two lowly peasants (Bottom); Star Wars follows the fortunes of R2D2 and C3PO (Top). In brief, jidaigeki [period dramas], Japanese monsters and folklore, and war trauma” inspired Ronin, Candon says. “ The Duel is very much in conversation with period dramas a la [Akira] Kurosawa, while the latter two felt like natural Japanese extensions of the ‘ Star’ and ‘ Wars’ parts of Star Wars. Jidaigeki love samurai as protagonists because they’re suspicious of samurai as a class, and our Ronin falls right into that trope. I had to ask how this man rejected (or was rejected by) his social role, and why he continues to cleave to it. Why does he still carry that tell-tale red blade? And why does he hunt his own?”

1. The films of Akira Kurosawa

Visions will present unique takes on the Star Wars galaxy from some of the anime world’s greatest talents -- and with these visionary stories come all-new heroes. Some are similar to those we know yet just a little different, others seem like they’re from a galaxy even further away. StarWars.com caught up with executive producer Josh Rimes and producer Kanako Shirasaki of Lucasfilm to learn more about five of these future fan favorites, whose stories we’ll soon experience in a Star Wars series like no other.