On Thursday, November 10, Studio Ghibli teased a collaboration with the Lucasfilm production company with a 15-second teaser on their official Twitter account. The company is best known for producing the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises. It was initially created to control various legal and financial aspects of the original Star Wars movie.
The posted tease is only 15 seconds long, featuring the logos for Lucasfilm as well as Studio Ghibli. Despite the fact that nothing has been officially announced, fans of both companies' work are gushing over this upcoming project and speculating on what it could be.
Follow along as this article breaks down the latest Studio Ghibli x Lucasfilm tease and recaps the two companies' previous collaborations.
Star Wars’ Lucasfilm x Studio Ghibli collaboration marks monumental project between titans of Western and Eastern film
As mentioned above, the original tweet with the teaser video was posted by the official Ghibli Twitter account at 10 am Eastern Standard Time on November 10, 2022. The teaser is incredibly brief, running for only 15 seconds and only featuring the Lucasfilm Ltd. and Studio Ghibli logos. However, this cryptic post was all it took to get fans ecstatic.
While everyone seems to have a guess or opinion as to what the upcoming collaboration could be, all of this is purely speculative as of this article’s writing. And, while more information is expected to be released shortly, no information other than the imminent arrival of a collaboration between the two companies has been heard.
In an attempt to predict the future, fans have turned to previous interactions between the two companies. While Lucasfilm and Studio Ghibli have no previous history, Disney, the parent company of the former, has a relationship with Ghibli that dates back more than 20 years.
Disney first began distributing Ghibli films in the West in 1996, doing so until 2017, at which point American film distributor and animation company GKIDS acquired the rights. This coincided with the launch of the Ghibli collection on the HBO Max streaming platform, where it has since remained as of this article’s writing.
While Disney may not maintain the Western distribution rights to Ghibli films, the media conglomerate does still have a working relationship with Ghibli. As of 2020, Disney still holds exclusive home media distribution rights in Japan for all Ghibli properties, with small exceptions such as Pony Canyon’s home media release of Earwig and the Witch.
Both Lucasfilm and Ghibli have had plenty of success in their respective cinematic fields. The Star Wars franchise remains one of the most popular media franchises of all time, and not unbeknownst to many, the critically-acclaimed Spirited Away film won an Oscar for Best Animated Feature.
Be sure to keep up with all anime, manga, film, and live-action news as 2022 progresses.