Star Wars: Tales of the Empire season 1 trailer and release date Australia

Well, let’s face it—it might be a while until we get another Star Wars movie on the big screen. But thanks to the dedicated folks at Lucasfilm and Disney+, the galaxy keeps spinning in animated form, at least, with a new anthology series incoming.

When is Star Wars: Tales of the Empire season 1 being released in Australia?

Star Wars: Tales of the Empire season 1 is streaming in Australia exclusively on Disney+ from May 4. That date seems to have some kind of special significance.

What is Star Wars: Tales of the Empire season 1 about?

Whereas Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi looked at key events in the careers of Jedi knights Ahsoka Tahno and Count Dooku before… yeah, they both split from the Jedi Order for different reasons, didn’t they? Interesting, that. Anyway, Star Wars: Tales of the Empire gives us a look at the formative years of Imperial Magistrate Morgan Eslbeth and (soon to be former) Jedi Barriss Offee.

The cast of Star Wars: Tales of the Empire season 1

Meredith Salenger, who has done a ton of stuff but will always be Natty Gann in The Journey of Natty Gann to us, is the voice of Barriss Offree; veteran stunt performer Diana Lee Inosanto is the voice of Morgan Elsbeth; Lars Mikkelsen lends his lungs to legendary Imperial strategist Grand Admiral Thrawn; and Kermode & Mayo’s favourite actor, Jason Isaacs, is fronting up to voice a (or possibly “the”) Grand Inquisitor.

As an aside, Selenger’s co-star in The Journey of Natty Gann was the wolfdog Jed, who also played the husky in The Thing, a topic which surely must have come up with husband and arch-nerd Patton Oswalt at some point.

Star Wars: Tales of the Empire season 1 trailer

Why we’re excited about Star Wars: Tales of the Empire season 1

While it’s a bit hard to work up much enthusiasm for these particular characters (for real, who are they?) we’ve been enjoying these little explorations of the more remote and obscure corners of Galactic lore. Still, we can’t shake the notion that these things are mainly designed to keep the franchise’s pilot light on while they figure out what the Next Big Thing in Star Wars is.