A new animated Star Wars series has been officially announced on Entertainment Weekly, and will premiere in the coming months to tell these incredible stories to their target audience of young girls everywhere. Titled “Forces of Destiny”, this upcoming 2-D animated series focuses on the ever-interwoven stories of the heroines of the Star Wars saga. For those who will be interested in seeing these animated shorts, eight short episodes will be premiering in July on Disney YouTube. Later on this fall, these same eight episodes will be packaged in with eight additional episodes for two TV specials premiering on the Disney Channel. Check out the First Look trailer below:

The animated Star Wars series will feature several notable female characters, including Rey from The Force Awakes, Jyn Erso from Rogue One, and other badass characters including Sabine Wren of Star Wars Rebels, Ahsoka Tano, and Hera Syndulla. There will also be episodes featuring Princess Leia and Padmé Amidala. Many of the characters will be voiced by their original actresses, including Daisy Ridley for Rey, Tiya Sircar as Sabine and Felicity Jones will resurrect Jyn in the episodes, though Leia and Padmé will be voiced by alternate actresses. The series will be narrated by Lupita Nyong’o as Maz Kanata.

Alongside the animated Star Wars mini series, Hasbro is also releasing a line of toys featuring these incredible characters. These 11 inch toys will feature a blend of old school action figure characteristics (weapons, accessories and the old “squeeze their legs and their torsos rotate” function, for instance) and traditional doll features (hair, changeable outfits, etc.). This lineup of toys obviously features the heroines of the new animated series, but will also include other characters such as Chewbacca and Luke Skywalker. These toys will run about $20, though some figures will come in playsets that will set customers back about $25.

Thoughts on the upcoming animated Star Wars series? Has it been a long-time coming for a series focused on the heroics of our favorite female characters? Make sure to join in on the discussion in the comments below, or hop on over to the official Don’t Feed the Gamers Disqus channel! Also, don’t forget to follow DFTG on Twitter for live gaming and entertainment news 24/7. As always… game on, friends!