Star Wars: Visions marked the first time that the universe of the Jedi and the Sith was given stories born from the anime world. Bringing together anime studios from Japan, as well as North American animation companies over the course of its first three seasons, the Disney franchise saw success wth this new anthology series. Unfortunately, controversy has landed for Visions, with a stunt performer claiming that the studio plagiarised her past work for the recent anime series. Working on franchises like John Wick, The Matrix, Dune, and more, Lorenz Hideyoshi recently shared a side-by-side comparison of her work and the potential plagiarism.
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Taking to her Official Instagram Account, Hideyoshi alleges that the Star Wars: Visions episode, “The Bandits of Golak,” had used her choreography from her 2019 fan film, “Dark Jedi.” Specifically, Lorenz stated, “I mean they already had a different weapons setup, but still managed to brute force (push) my choreo onto that action. Didn’t even change the camera angles. Why Disney? Is it because we made a non-profit tribute fan film of one of your IPs, and now you feel justified in stealing from this pool of creative output? Maybe either pay your animators more or hire an action designer.” You can see the comparison between the two action sequences below and judge for yourselves as to whether the fan film was the basis for the Visions short.
Visions’ Plagiarism Controversy
While Disney was responsible for assembling the teams that put together Star Wars: Visions, this particular episode was made by 88 Pictures. Before this production house tackled the universe of Jedi and the Sith, they worked on major animated projects such as Netflix’s Trollhunters, The Bad Guys: Breaking In, Megamind Vs.The Doom Syndicate, Spirit Untamed, Fast & Furious Spy Racers, and more. As of the writing of this article, neither 88 Pictures nor Disney has released an official response to the plagiarism accusations. “The Bandits of Golak” is still available to stream on Disney+, but should the plagiarism claims turn out to be true, we can’t imagine that it will remain on the streaming service.
To date, following the release of the third season, Star Wars: Visions has yet to confirm whether a fourth season will be produced. With the franchise planning to release a new live-action film in 2026, once again focusing on the Mandalorian and Grogu, the Jedi and the Sith aren’t going anywhere any time soon. The third season of the anime anthology didn’t just bring back Japanese studios to animate the affair; it revisited several of the stories that had been introduced in the first two seasons. While animated characters from the Star Wars universe have been brought to the world of live-action before, with a prime example of Star Wars Rebels characters making their way to Ashoka’s television series, the same can’t be said for Visions at this time.
What do you think of this plagiarism claim directed at Disney, Star Wars, and 88 Pictures? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
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