Credit: LucasfilmA YouTube filmmaker has accused The Walt Disney Company of ripping off their project for a Star Wars Disney+ TV show.
Disney’s streaming era has produced a long line of Star Wars series, from The Mandalorian (arguably the gem of its lineup) and Andor to Ahsoka and The Book of Boba Fett. Response has ranged from warmly received to sharply divided, and the franchise’s television identity hasn’t always landed with viewers.
The reaction to The Acolyte marked a turning point. The High Republic mystery series struggled with pacing complaints, lore criticisms, and sustained online hostility from those whom showrunner Leslye Headland described as “fascists and racists,” creating a wider conversation about whether Disney’s rapid expansion of the galaxy on Disney+ had diluted the impact that once defined the franchise.
Disney now appears to be course-correcting, shifting its attention back to theatrical releases. Filming has already wrapped on The Mandalorian & Grogu, slated for a May 2026 release, with Shawn Levy also developing a separate Star Wars film starring Ryan Gosling and Mia Goth.
A Rey-focused project remains in development, though the timeline of the Daisy Ridley project remains uncertain after several screenwriters dropped out.
However, its Disney+ animated slate has continued with steadier momentum. One of the most consistent performers has been Star Wars: Visions, which released its third volume on October 29, 2025, expanding the anthology’s reach while keeping the spotlight on different cultural voices and animation styles.
Produced by Lucasfilm, Visions features original animated short films set in — or inspired by — the Star Wars universe. Each episode is a standalone story created by a different studio, allowing the series to explore visual styles, tones, and narrative ideas far outside the franchise’s usual structure.
That series now sits at the center of a plagiarism controversy, drawing widespread attention across social media.
‘Star Wars: Visions’ Accused of Plagiarism
Disney is facing heavy criticism after a YouTube filmmaker accused the studio of lifting an entire lightsaber duel from his fan film and inserting it into Star Wars: Visions.
A side-by-side comparison has sparked a heated debate about originality, creative ethics, and whether Disney overlooked a clear case of copy-and-paste choreography.
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Lorenz Hideyoshi, the creator of the 2019 fan film Dark Jedi: A Star Wars Story, says a fight scene in Season 2, Episode 7 matches his work “beat for beat.”
He shared the comparison online to underscore what he views as a blatant replication of movement, staging, and visual logic.
He posted the clip on Instagram with the caption, “When Disney blatantly steals your action design.” His scene plays above the 2023 Visions sequence, titled “The Bandits of Golak,” and many viewers agree that the resemblance crosses the line from homage into imitation.
“Why @disney?” he wrote. “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.”
Once Hideyoshi uploaded the footage, online communities dissected it frame by frame. The choreography isn’t the only issue — he claims the framing, timing, and camera arcs are nearly identical. As he put it, the similarities stretch beyond coincidence and land firmly in troubling territory.
Worth noting is that, despite Disney being named in the plagiarism accusations, this episode wasn’t created by Disney or Lucasfilm directly. Each Visions installment comes from a different creative team, with Indian animation studio 88 Pictures responsible for this one.
Even so, Disney’s ownership of Lucasfilm pushes accountability upward, prompting fans to question how a sequence this similar cleared approvals without raising red flags.
This isn’t the first time a Star Wars project has been accused of plagiarism. In 2021, Raven Sun Creative – owned by a former Universal executive – filed a lawsuit against Disney claiming patent infringement over the moment in Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. The case claimed that the moment in which Disneyland and Disney World guests enter an escape pod near the end of the attraction, lock in, and drop into space was stolen.
Do you think Star Wars: Visions plagiarized Lorenz Hideyoshi’s fan film?