‘Star Wars: Tales of the Empire’ revisits under-explored characters
The second anthology of the
“Star Wars” animated shorts
“Star Wars: Tales of the Empire” — following the 2022 collection “Tales of the Jedi” — offers a look behind the curtain at two powerful but under-explored characters from the franchise, Morgan Elsbeth and Barriss Offee. The first three episodes of the six-parter go back in time to explore how Nightsister Elsbeth* was initially drawn to the Empire. Fans of “Star Wars” will be familiar with the character after her live-action appearances in “The Mandalorian” and “Ahsoka.” Now, with “Tales of the Empire,” Elsbeth makes her animation debut. Diana Lee Inosanto, who plays Elsbeth in both live-action and animation, said she did not feel there was much difference between the two mediums.
“In my acting approach, I don’t see any difference between being on the set and being in the recording studio, other than the fact that I had to kind of create my own little bubble in being in this space. I still physically do the same preparation and work and the breathing,” said Inosanto in a recent interview with Arab News. “But yeah, when I first initially read the script for ‘Tales of the Empire,’ I went: ‘Oh my gosh, finally, I understand her,’ because all of those little details were now filled in for me as well … I really think fans are really going to understand now why Morgan was shaped the way she was mentally.” Meanwhile, the last three episodes of “Tales of the Empire” reveal what becomes of Barriss Offee after Order 66 toward the end of “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” series. A Jedi prodigy, Offee’s character was forever branded a traitor after she turned her back on her kind by bombing the Jedi Temple and framing her friend Ahsoka Tano for it.