Studio Ghibli, the legendary Japanese animation studio behind films like Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke, has produced a new original short called Zen – Grogu and Dust Bunnies, Disney Plus revealed Friday. The Baby Yoda short will hit the streaming service on Nov. 12 to celebrate the third anniversary of The Mandalorian.
Zen, a hand-drawn animation, was directed by Katsuya Kondo with music by Ludwig Göransson.
The reveal follows Studio Ghibli teasing a collaboration with Lucasfilm on Thursday on Twitter. The official Star Wars Twitter account shared the teaser as well, and Studio Ghibli cemented the connection to a galaxy far, far away with a followup tweet on Friday.
An earlier 15-second teaser showed the Lucasfilm and Studio Ghibli logos, with no other images, characters, music or even sounds. However, Studio Ghibli offered a clue with its tweeted photo featuring a tiny statue of Mandalorian buddy Grogu (aka Baby Yoda) and out-of-focus studio co-founder Hayao Miyazaki. (He also directed several of its major movies.)
Before the Grogu short was revealed, some people online expressed their hope for an animated Star Wars film. It’s not the franchise’s first foray into Japanese animation; Lucasfilm released anime-inspired anthology series Star Wars: Visions on Disney Plus last year. A second season is scheduled for release next spring, but the Studio Ghibli project is separate.
For more, check out the latest look at Studio Ghibli’s amusement park and CNET’s review of the Star Wars prequel series Andor.
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