Disney and Lucasfilm has unveiled the first trailer for Jedi Temple Challenge. The first Star Wars game show premieres with two full episodes next week, starting on June 3rd, 2020. The weekly game show tests young Padawans' strength, knowledge, and bravery in a series of trials designed to discover who is capable of becoming a Jedi Knight. It's basically Legends of the Hidden Temple, but placed into the Star Wars universe, along with Jar Jar Binks actor Ahmed Best as the host.
While Jedi Temple Challenge was originally promoted as a Disney+ series, it appears that plans have changed. The 10-episode series will debut on StarWarsKids.com and the official Star Wars Kids YouTube channel, which currently hosts Star Wars: Galaxy of Adventures, The Clone Wars fun facts, craft and drawing tutorials, and several other activities for young fans. The good news about this shift is the fact that the show will be free for everybody to check out.
As for the reasoning behind the change for Jedi Temple Challenge, Disney is trying to cater to a younger Star Wars crowd who is stuck indoors at the moment. The world has seen a pretty big shift with a lot of people out of work and children home from school, attempting to distance learn. With that in mind, Disney and Lucasfilm decided to bring their new game show to as many people as possible. Lucasfilm's senior director of Online Content & Programming, Mickey Capoferri had this to say about changing to the Star Wars YouTube channel.
"With so many children and families home and looking to Star Wars for hope and entertainment, we wanted to make Jedi Temple Challenge available to as many young fans as possible by airing the series on our Star Wars Kids network for everyone to enjoy."
Ahmed Best is known to many Star Wars fans as Jar Jar Binks from the prequels trilogy. He hosts Jedi Temple Challenge as a new Jedi, Master Kelleran Beq. Best guides players through three rounds of trials as they vie to become Jedi Knights and wield the iconic symbol of the guardians of peace and justice, the lightsaber. Accompanying Best is Mary Holland who voices the wise-cracking protocol droid companion AD-3, and Sam Witwer, who gives a unique voice to the dark side of the Force. Witwer recently reprised his role as the voice of Darth Maul in the critically acclaimed final season of The Clone Wars and has had a lot to say about the current state of the franchise.
It remains unclear if Star Wars game show will ultimately end up on Disney+, but for the time being it will not. Putting it up for free at a time like now seems like a good opportunity to get more Star Wars fans checking it out, while providing some much-needed entertainment at the same time. You can check out the Jedi Temple Challenge trailer above, thanks to the official Star Wars Kids YouTube channel above.