After Finally Watching Star Wars: Tales Of The Jedi, Here's What I Want To See From Tales Of The Empire

The galaxy far, far away is expanding even further in the 2024 TV schedule, with The Bad Batch’s final season, the series premiere of The Acolyte, and likely at least news of Andor Season 2 among the upcoming Star Wars TV shows. A nice treat was announced not too long before its release as well, with Tales of the Empire set to premiere on – when else? – May 4th, a.k.a. Star Wars Day. It follows the release of Tales of the Jedi, which consisted of six episodes back in 2022. I finally watched Tales of the Jedi ahead of Tales of the Empire, and now I know what I want to see from the upcoming show.

What Is Star Wars: Tales Of The Empire?

Like Tales of the Jedi, the upcoming Tales of the Empire will consist of six episodes and release streaming for Disney+ subscribers, but the new animated series’ trailer shows just how different they will be from a story perspective. This show will be set in the era of the Galactic Empire, and not through the eyes of a hero this time around.

Morgan Elsbeth of The Mandalorian and Ahsoka will be a major character, with live-action actress Diana Lee Inosanto providing the voice. Former Jedi Barriss Offee will be the other major character (voiced by Meredith Salenger), and the episodes should provide Clone Wars fans with the first update on Barriss since her exit from Season 5 back in 2013.

Both characters have big choices to make; while we know where Morgan Elsbeth ends up thanks to Ahsoka, the fate of Barriss is unknown. The trailer indicates that there will be some big names from the Imperial era on board, including Darth Vader and Thrawn. So, in light of what we know of the series and now that I finally got around to Tales of the Jedi, here’s what I’m hoping to see… and in one case, hear.

Longer Episodes Than Tales Of The Jedi

While episodes of Star Wars’ various animated series are generally shorter than live-action episodes, the longest installment of Tales of the Jedi is listed as 19 minutes on Disney+... and that’s including about two and a half minutes of credits. Considering how much is unknown about Morgan Elsbeth, how long Clone Wars fans have been waiting for Barriss, and everything else packed into the trailer, I’d love to see episodes running closer to the lengths of Rebels, Clone Wars, and Bad Batch, all of which are closer to 30 minutes.

I’m not too confident that this one will actually happen, but when I was binge-watching Tales of Jedi, I was jarred every time the credits started to roll. It would be fun to get run times at least out of the teens for the new show.

Foreshadowing Of The Original Trilogy

It remains to be seen at this point just where in the timeline Tales of the Empire will take place; if it’s anything like the Jedi version, then the episodes could jump around to different times in the same era. Still, its likely a safe bet that the Barriss portions are set between the end of Revenge of the Sith and start of A New Hope. Considering how much of Tales of the Jedi revolved around the prequel stories, I’d love to see Tales of the Empire give the same treatment to the original trilogy.

To use another animated show set in the Imperial era as an example, Star Wars Rebels did an excellent job of foreshadowing the events of Rogue One and the original trilogy without making it the main focus. Perhaps Tales of the Empire could do the same, but from the Imperial point of view. It could also shine the spotlight on some characters who were mostly in the background of other projects, like what Tales of the Jedi did with Yaddle.

Lighter Moments Despite The Dark Storyline

This might be a tall order since storylines centered on Imperials probably aren’t going to be full of laughs from start to finish. Of the two shows set between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, Obi-Wan Kenobi was short on any light moments that didn’t involve young Leia or Luke, and even the humor on Star Wars Rebels – which aired for kids on Disney XD! – got darker by the later seasons.

But if Tales of the Jedi could include some foreboding and dark moments in stories that otherwise might have been lighter, I’d love to see Empire do the opposite and find a way to include some lightness. After all, Jedi ended in one of the darkest points in the Star Wars timeline. Empire is presumably a precursor to what will eventually be the brightest spot in Star Wars: the original trilogy's eventual happy ending... if you ignore the sequel trilogy, anyway, which I often do.

Ties To Star Wars Rebels

As a Star Wars Rebels loyalist who can and will debate that Rebels is a stronger show than The Clone Wars from start to finish, the presumed setting between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope makes me want to see ties to the animated series that preceded Rogue One in the timeline. In fact, as soon as I saw the trailer for Tales of the Empire and did some quick math, I realized that I would absolutely love to see the origin of Kanan and Hera as partners. They’d been together many years by the time Rebels even started, after all.

And then I watched Tales of the Jedi and spotted the cameo from young Caleb Dume and Depa Billaba, and wanting “ties to Star Wars Rebels” changed from what I’d like to see in Empire to what I’d absolutely love to see. Besides, it’s been fun to see Rebels racking up the cameos over the years, considering its humble Disney XD origins.

The Ghost appeared in Rogue One and Rise of Skywalker. Kanan got a Clone Wars cameo from his Caleb Dume days, and Hera and Kanan each had a role in Bad Batch. That's not even to mention Ahsoka, where Rebels characters got more than just cameos! Why not add Tales of the Empire to the list, particularly with Ahsoka Season 2 in development?

Kevin Kiner And Co. Crushing It

If there’s one thing that I’m absolutely confident of when it comes to Tales of the Empire, it’s that the music will be fantastic. Kevin Kiner returned to the galaxy far, far away to score Tales of the Empire, with his children Sean Kiner and Deana Kiner credited as his collaborators. He has composed the score for many of the Star Wars shows to this point, including Tales of the Jedi, The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels, The Bad Batch, and Ahsoka. There’s every reason to believe that the Kiner team will crush it again for Empire, and I’m already looking forward to the music.

And the wait for Tales of the Empire isn’t much longer. All six episodes of the series will be available streaming on Disney+ on Saturday, May 4th. You can also find every other Star Wars TV show on the streamer, along with the films.