Disney has released the first two animated shorts in the next wave of Star Wars Forces of Destiny films, which brings back Daisy Ridley as Rey. The short film helps fill in a brief gap from Star Wars: The Force Awakens, showing what happened aboard the Millennium Falcon as Rey and her new friend Finn (John Boyega) went to Maz Kanata’s (Lupita Nyong’o) castle with Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew). Unfortunately, Harrison Ford and John Boyega don’t provide the voices of Han Solo and Finn for this animated short, but it shows that they ran into some trouble on their way to Maz Kanata’s castle.
This new short film is called Tracker Trouble, which debuted on the Disney YouTube page, reveals that something goes wrong with the hyperdrive on the Millennium Falcon. Rey asks if they scanned for trackers before taking off, and while Chewie says he did, Rey adds that Unkar Plutt (Simon Pegg) has been using a different kind of tracking device, so they might have to do another visual scan. She then tells Finn and Chewie that Unkar hired her to help him fix ships, and that while she never put a tracker on the Millennium Falcon, she suspects he might have. Thanks to some quick thinking by Chewie, they find the tracker, but soon realize that it’s rigged to explode.
What’s interesting is, without the quick thinking of both Rey and Chewie, they would have never made it to Maz Kanata’s castle at all. The short film also shows how Han Solo has come to admire Rey, along with Rey’s fluency in the Wookie language, which Finn cannot understand one bit. There hasn’t been any confirmation as of yet that Unkar Plutt will return in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, but even if he does, it remains unclear whether or not he will have any interactions with Rey, since she’ll be busy training with Luke Skywalker on the remote planet of Ahch-To. Still, it’s possible that perhaps Rey could confront Unkar at some point about this tracker, either in a future Forces of Destiny short or perhaps in Star Wars 9.
There has also been a second short film released, that heads to the TV side of the Star Wars universe, following Sabine Wren, with Star Wars Rebels voice actress Tiya Sircar returning to voice this character, and Ketsu face off against stormtroopers on a mission that becomes more complicated than they bargained for. The remaining shorts will bring back Felicity Jones (Jyn Erso) and Ashley Eckstein (Ahsoka Tano), with Lupita Nyong’o narrating the series as Maz Kanata, with the first two shorts featuring Rey and Princess Leia. Developed by Lucasfilm Animation, Star Wars Forces of Destiny will remain true to the Star Wars canon, showing how choices both big and small ultimately shape the destinies of beloved characters.
These short films will be showcased as part of two half-hour specials on Disney XD, the first of which aired last night, October 1, with the second airing Sunday, October 29 at 8 PM ET. The new short films will continue to debut on the Disney YouTube channel, so stay tuned for the rest of these Star Wars short films as we get closer and closer to the new special. Take a look at the first two shorts in the new wave of Star Wars Forces of Destiny animated short films.