A Star Wars fan filmmaker has accused Disney of directly copying a fight sequence he created, and re-using it shot-for-shot within an episode of Star Wars: Visions.
The sequence, including its fight choreography and camera angles, appears identical in a 12-second video posted to Instagram by fan Lorenz Hideyoshi, showing his unofficial work side-by-side with a clip from the Disney+ animated show.
“When Disney blatantly steals your action design,” reads a caption on the video, which contrasts Visions’ 2023 episode The Bandits of Golak with Hideyoshi’s own Dark Jedi: A Star Wars Story, a short film he released in December 1999 via YouTube.
“I mean they already had a different weapons setup, but still managed to brute force (push) my choreo onto that action,” Hideyoshi wrote. “Didn’t even change the camera angles.”
“Why Disney?” he continued. “Is it because we made a non-profit tribute fan film of one of your IPs and now you feel justified in stealing from this pool of creative output? Maybe either a) pay your animators more or b) hire an action designer.”
While Disney owns Star Wars maker LucasFilm, Visions is the work of numerous animation studios spread across the world, with this particular episode in particular made by Indian outlet 88 Pictures. IGN has contacted Disney for comment.
Last month, a third season of Star Wars: Visions was released on Disney+, adding a further nine stories to the anthology series. Each episode contains its own self-contained story set somewhere in the Star Wars universe, though the series is not treated as official canon.
“As a whole, Star Wars Visions Volume 3 is the animated series’ most uneven outing to date,” IGN wrote in its review of the latest season, awarding it a 6/10.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
