The Mandalorian was among the very first original shows on Disney+ when it launched in 2019. The number of Star Wars shows on Disney+ has grown exponentially in that six-year period, and some of them have been great television series. Andor in particular has become a critical favorite, and it has won over a vocal contingent of fans who appreciate its more mature content.
On the other end of the spectrum, Star Wars: Skeleton Crew is clearly a show made for kids, and it even features children at the center of the plot. Star Wars: Tales of the Underworld falls somewhere in the middle, as it uses the animated medium to explore darker stories than a typical cartoon could deal with. There’s more than enough room in the Star Wars universe for all three shows to co-exist and thrive.
That’s why this is still a great time to be a Star Wars fan as the 50th anniversary of the franchise approaches. The best Star Wars shows on Disney+ remind us why we loved Star Wars in the first place.
Andor may be the most acclaimed Star Wars series in the modern era, and it’s a very different show than the rest of the series on this list. The pace is much slower and the political side of the story is much more overt, especially since Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly) has a much bigger role in the show than she ever had in the film. The rebelion exacts a heavy toll on Mon and her family, and it still may not be enough. The man at the heart of the show, Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), made his first appearance in Rogue One, a film that revealed how his story ends. Andor makes itself essential by revealing that Cassian wasn’t always a rebel, and it took a lot for him to become radicalized against the Empire enough to take up arms against it. It’s been a fascinating journey across two seasons, with stunning performances by Stellan Skarsgård and the rest of the supporting cast. If this is Star Wars for grown ups, then we want more shows like this.
Neither Cad Bane nor Asajj Ventress will ever get their own Star Wars TV shows. But Star Wars: Tales of the Underworld gives both characters a rare chance to step into the spotlight.
Three of the episodes will focus on Bane, and touch on his path before he became a deadly bounty hunter. The other three episodes focus on Ventress, a woman who has already lived most of her life in service of the Sith as an assassin. Now, Ventress has the opportunity to become someone worthy of redemption. But first, she’ll have to fend off an Inquisitor and protect a young boy who is strong with the Force.
Not everyone in the Star Wars universe is aware of their place in it. Wim (Ravi Cabot-Conyers), Fern (Ryan Kiera Armstrong), KB (Kyriana Kratter), and Neel (Robert Timothy Smith) — the four kids at the heart of Star Wars: Skeleton Crew — never even left their home world until they discovered a hidden starship and accidentially reactivated it.
These children have the grave misfortune to find themselves lost in space, and forced to rely on Jod Na Nawood (Jude Law) for help navigating the galaxy. Jod has some Force powers like a Jedi, but also the greed of a pirate. The children need Jod’s help to get home, and he’s not guiding them out of the goodness of his heart. But that won’t make any difference if they can’t find the location of the home world, which has been lost to time.
Welcome to the dark side. Disney+’s new animated anthology Star Wars: Tales of the Empire is the thematic sequel to 2022’s Tales of the Jedi. This time, the focus shifts to two women whose lives have descended into darkness: Morgan Elsbeth (Diana Lee Inosanto) and former Jedi Barriss Offee (Meredith Salenger).
Barriss came to believe that the Jedi were evil in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, but she’s about to get a glimpse of real evil as she is recruited into the Jedi-hunting Inquisitors. Meanwhile, Morgan’s story unfolds at the end of the prequel trilogy era as she is forced to turn to the Empire in order to avenge herself and her fellow Nightsisters.
Ahsoka is the spiritual sequel to Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels, as well as a test drive for series creator and director Dave Filoni before he helms his own Star Wars movie within the next few years. Rosario Dawson reprises her role as former Jedi Ahsoka Tano from her guest appearance during The Mandalorian season 2. And it seems like Ahsoka has her hands full with the potential return of Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen), as well as a fallen Jedi, Baylan Skoll (Ray Stevenson), whose fighting skills far surpass her own.
Preventing Thrawn’s comeback isn’t the only thing on Ahsoka’s agenda, as her former apprentice, Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo), joins her quest to rescue their long-missing friend, Ezra Bridger (Eman Esfandi). Theoretically, they will find Ezra when they catch up with Thrawn. But will a happy reunion be in the cards?
Lucasfilm delivered a new spin on Star Wars with this anime anthology series that includes nine short films produced by Japanese animation studios and inspired by the beloved sci-fi saga set in a galaxy far, far away. Set throughout the Star Wars timeline — and in some cases, outside of it — the films filter the franchise through a fresh lens that also offers some fascinating new stories voiced by an all-star cast of actors.
Among the highlights in Star Wars: Visions are the Akira Kurosawa-inspired tale The Duel, and the surprising, post-Rise of Skywalker story told in The Ninth Jedi, among other great episodes. A second volume just hit the streamer with all-new tales from such highly regarded animation studios as Aardman, PunkRobot, and Cartoon Saloon.
The blockbuster series that helped Disney+ take the lead in the “streaming wars,” Lucasfilm’s The Mandalorian returns after a two-year hiatus (although the character made an appearance in The Book of Boba Fett). The journeys of the Mandalorian through the Star Wars galaxy continue in season 3, which promises more action, more Darksaber fights, and more Grogu!
Once a lone bounty hunter, Din Djarin has reunited with Grogu after last season’s finale. Meanwhile, the New Republic struggles to lead the galaxy away from its dark history. Future episodes promise that the Mandalorian will cross paths with old allies and make new enemies as he and Grogu continue their journey together to strange new worlds like Mandalore.
Despite mostly being a background character for much of the franchise’s existence, Boba Fett has always been one of the most beloved Star Wars characters. Temuera Morrison returned in The Mandalorian season 2 to play the iconic bounty hunter, and he was finally given his own solo series in the form of The Book of Boba Fett.
And while the critical reaction to his story was fairly mixed, The Book of Boba Fett brings to light some long-awaited moments, like how he escaped the Sarlacc from Return of the Jedi. If nothing else, the series serves as a decent companion piece to The Mandalorian and will tie into the show’s third season.
Even though it didn’t quite measure up to the highs of The Clone Wars, Rebels still garnered a much-deserved, positive critical reception for continuing the franchise’s success in the realm of animation. Star Wars Rebels is the natural sequel to The Clone Wars, this time largely following a new main cast of characters.
It begins 14 years into the devastating aftermath of Emperor Palpatine’s Order 66, with Jedi now endangered and actively hunted down. And while the protagonists are mostly original, it rewards longtime fans with satisfying conclusions to story arcs started in the preceding series, with thrilling appearances by characters from the original trilogy. All four seasons of Star Wars Rebels are available to stream now.
The Star Wars saga continues in this series set after the overlapping events of Episode III — Revenge of the Sith and the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, but before the events of the franchise-spawning Episode IV — A New Hope.
The series follows the members of Clone Force 99, a unique group of clone troopers whose genetic mutations during the cloning process (which earned them the nickname “The Bad Batch”) gave them specialized abilities. First introduced in The Clone Wars, the characters were a hit among Star Wars fans, and The Bad Batch explores what happened to them after the war ended and Order 66 forced many of their fellow clones to kill the Jedi they served alongside.
Jason Struss joined Digital Trends in 2022 and has never lived to regret it. He is the current Section Editor of the Entertainment vertical and heads a team of over a dozen writers, editors, coordinators, and assorted hangers-on. When he’s not busy editing and writing, you can find him tending to his meticulously planned content schedule or dreaming up new ways to get more eyeballs to the site.
Jason’s love for cinema started when he was 10 years old. Saddled with a nasty cold, he was forced to stay home from school for a full week. To pass the time, he watched a marathon of classic Alfred Hitchcock films on Cinemax and the rest is history. He furthered his film education by raiding used bookstores to read dusty old film criticism volumes and salacious movie star biographies. His real education included studying at Whitman College and then Syracuse University, where he won a student Emmy for producing a truly terrible television series.
His career began at Marvel Entertainment, where he worked in the Digital Products department, and then DC Comics, where he worked in publishing and content strategy. He then worked at Warner Bros. and Screen Rant.
Jason currently resides in Seattle but has yet to appear in a Cameron Crowe movie. He loves hot coffee with cream and sugar, video games, bread, napping, and movies (duh), but not necessarily in that order. His favorite movies are The Thing, All About Eve, The Ice Storm, Rear Window, Heat, The Cranes are Flying, Belle de Jour, Showgirls, and Clue. He thinks Mad Men is genius, still watches Seinfeld twice a week, and likes listening to shoegaze music, podcasts, and Lana Del Rey. If you see him on the street, please, for the love of God, do not engage in conversation with him.
Blair Marnell has been an entertainment journalist for over 15 years. His bylines have appeared in Wizard Magazine, Geek Monthly, SYFY Wire, Superhero Hype, Collider, DC Universe, and the official sites for Star Trek and Marvel. He also lends his pop culture expertise to Digital Trends on a variety of TV, movie, and streaming features.
Some of the best shots in Grok Imagine’s AI-made Odyssey don’t contain actors. Ancient landscapes stretch into the distance. Close-ups of grimy hands suggest people who have touched something rougher than a keyboard. For a few seconds, the illusion holds.
https://twitter.com/imagine/status/2113712964419063911
YouTube videos could soon look better without eating quite so much data, right? Thankfully, the platform plans to introduce a new video format called AV2 on its web player in early 2027, promising more efficient streaming and potentially fewer playback hiccups on slower internet connections. The big headline is a roughly 30% improvement in compression efficiency over AV1, YouTube's existing video format. That doesn't guarantee every video will use 30% less data, but it could make streaming a little easier on both internet connections and data allowances.
What is AV2, and why should viewers care?
YouTube is changing how its Home page works, giving viewers more control over what shows up there and making some of the app’s most-used sections easier to reach. Custom Feeds are now replacing the existing topic chips for eligible users, while YouTube is also testing a redesigned top bar on mobile that moves Subscriptions closer to the Home feed.
YouTube first started experimenting with Custom Feeds earlier this year, letting you type out what you wanted to watch and turning that request into its own stream of recommendations. Now, the feature is starting to look less like a side experiment and more like something YouTube actually wants people to use as part of their everyday Home page.