Lucasfilm recently released the first trailer for its upcoming anime anthology, Star Wars: Visions, and it certainly looks impressive. Equally impressive is the English-speaking voice cast. Among the talent are David Harbour (Black Widow; Stranger Things), Karen Fukuhara (The Boys), and even Boba Fett himself, Temuera Morrison. Surprisingly, however, the series will also get a boost from its star-travelling rival franchise, Star Trek. Mr. Sulu himself, George Takei will lend his talents to the Disney+ series…. But it’s not his first foray into the galaxy far, far away.
Star Wars: Visions features nine, new, original stories inspired by George Lucas’s creation. The series comes from seven different, Japanese anime studios and gives us a whole new take on the universe. George Takei will appear in the episode “Akakiri” and voice the character of Senshuu. This will mark the actor’s second stint voicing a Star Wars character, having previously done so in The Clone Wars animated series during the show’s first season.
George Takei returns to Star Wars in Visions
The Japanese-American actor is most famous for his role of Hikaru Sulu in the original Star Trek series and films. He crossed over into the rival franchise in January of 2009 when he voiced Lok Durd, a Neimoidian, Separatist general. Sadly, we didn’t see the character in The Clone Wars again following the episode “Defenders of Peace.” That’s a shame, as he likely would have brought a lot of, well, character, to the character of Lok Durd. There’s no questioning the fact that George Takei has talent far greater than anything he was allowed to exhibit as Sulu all those years. Thankfully we’ll get to *see* him again in Star Was: Visions.
George Takei is a humorist, activist, and generally outstanding human being. Star Wars: Visions is lucky to add the eighty-four year old actor to its voice cast, for sure. The series premieres September 22, 2021 on Disney+.