Star Wars: Forces of Destiny is a canonical animated miniseries that spans all eras of the Star Wars universe, telling stories of our female heroes in 2-3 min episodes. The first 6 episodes aired on Disney’s YouTube channel and the series will continue to air on the Disney Channel starting July 9th.
These shorts are carefully crafted to add little details to Star Wars continuity, and as someone who loves the details, I couldn't ask for more out of this new series!
Here is some of the expanded continuity built in the first 6 episodes of Star Wars: Forces of Density.
Episode #1: Sands of Jakku
Timeline: Star Wars: The Force Awakens after Rey rescues BB-8 from Teedo
Official Synopsis: Rey fends off a creature that wants to devour her new friend, BB-8.
Significants to canon:
- Rey unknowingly uses the Force, not unlike Anakin during the pod races in TPM.
- First full appearance of the Nightwatcher Worm (partial appearance in TFA, named in Star Wars: TFA The Visual Dictionary).
Episode #2 | BB-8 Bandits
Timeline: Star Wars: The Force Awakens right before Rey and BB-8 journey to Niima outpost.
Official Synopsis: Rey and BB-8 take off on a speeder to flee scavenger thugs who want to steal BB-8.
Significance to canon
- The return of Teedo! This episode answers the question of why Teedo gave up an extremely valuable droid like BB-8 without a fight, it turns out he didn’t.
Episode #3 | Ewok Escape
Timeline: Star Wars: ROTJ after Leia meets Wicket.
Official Synopsis: Leia and Wicket work together to help Ewoks escape from stormtroopers.
Significance to Canon
- Stormtroopers prove to be even worse shots than we all thought.
- Its revealed that Wicket gave Leia the Ewok dress she is wearing during ROTJ.
Episode #4 | The Padawan Path
Timeline: Between episodes ‘Hunt for Ziro’ (S03 E09) and ‘Heroes on Both Sides’ (S03 E10) of Star Wars: The Clone Wars Season 3
Official Synopsis: On her way to a Jedi ceremony, Ahsoka leaps into action to stop a malfunctioning droid.
Significance to canon
- The earliest chronological appearance of the Force-sensitive tree (first appearance in S5 E20 ‘The Wrong Jedi’ of the Clone Wars).
- Yoda gives Ashoka an extension to her Padawan braid.
Episode #5 | Beasts of Echo Base
Timeline: Before the events of Empire Strikes Back
Official Synopsis: Leia and R2-D2 must free Chewie from the clutches of a ferocious wampa.
Significance to Canon
- Brings the Wampa's presence at Echo Base into canon, a direct nod to the deleted Wampa scenes from ESB.
- The door that the Wampa is trapped behind might be the same one that C3P0 removes a warning sign from that leads to a Snowtrooper being attacked in a deleted scene from ESB. The scene was partially made canon in the reference book Star Wars: Absolutely Everything You Need to Know.
Empire Strikes Back - Blu-Ray deleted scenes
Empire Strikes Back - Blu-Ray deleted scenes
Episode #6 | The Imposter Inside
Timeline: Based off of Ashoka's age potentially sometime during Season 5 of Clone Wars?
Official Synopsis: Ahsoka and Padme face off against a shape-shifting bounty hunter.
Significance to canon
- The shape-shifter appears to be the bounty hunter Cato Parasitti who made her first appearance in S02 E01 ‘Holocron Heist’ of The Clone Wars. This would be the second encounter between Ahsoka and Cato.
- This is the first mention of the Arthurians.
Look for my next summary for Episode #7-12 of Star Wars: Forces of Destiny coming soon.
If there is anything I missed, let me know in the comments below!
Thanks for reading,
Tim