One of the biggest and most successful brands ever is expanding again, as Disney and Lucasfilm are launching Star Wars Forces of Destiny , a new initiative that includes a series of animated shorts and an accompanying toy line.

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Star Wars Forces of Destiny Animated Shorts and Toy Line Imagery 21 IMAGES

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(L-R) The Jyn Erso, Leia Organa, Rey and Sabine Wren adventure figure toys from the Star Wars Forces of Destiny line.

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The first two Star Wars Forces of Destiny books.

Focused on the female heroes of Star Wars, Forces of Destiny’s six core characters are Leia Organa, Padme Amidala, Ahsoka Tano, Sabine Wren, Rey and Jyn Erso. In the 16 shorts, which will be released on YouTube, each of these six will take a turn starring in new stories that co-exist alongside the existing Star Wars lore. Which is to say, yes, these are canon!On top of that, several notable Star Wars actors from both live action and animation are reprising their roles here, including The Force Awakens' Daisy Ridley (“Rey”), Rogue One's Felicity Jones (“Jyn”), The Clone Wars' Ashley Eckstein (“Ashoka”), Rebels' Tiya Sircar (“Sabine”), The Force Awakens' John Boyega (“Finn”), The Clone Wars' Matt Lanter ("Anakin Skywalker"), Rebels' Vanessa Marshall ("Hera Syndulla"), The Clone Wars' Catherine Taber ("Padme") and The Force Awakens' Lupita Nyong'o (“Maz Kanata”). Per EW , voicing Leia will be a newcomer to Star Wars, Shelby Young (American Horror Story).Check out the first look video for the initiative below:I got to view some of the imagery and toy line product for Forces of Destiny, and spoke to several key participants about what to expect. Giving some examples of the storylines, Lucasfilm Story Group member Carrie Beck, a notable contributor behind-the-scenes in Star Wars, explained how the short “Beasts of Echo Base” tells a story about Leia, Chewbacca, R2-D2 and C-3PO that takes place on Hoth before the events of The Empire Strikes Back, while “Tracker Trouble” shows that while Han, Chewbacca, Rey and Finn were traveling to Maz Kanata’s castle on the Millennium Falcon, they had a major obstacle to deal with thanks to a tracker left by Unkar Plutt. “Newest Recruit” in the meantime shows more of how Sabine helped bring her old friend Ketsu into the Rebel cause, in a story set in-between Star Wars Rebels episodes.IGN got an early look at the first installment of Forces of Destiny, which will be shown to fans at Star Wars Celebration's Heroines of Star Wars panel this Friday. The short depicts some notable obstacles Rey faced after she encountered BB-8 for the first time and attempted to bring him back with her – and manages to give us the first true action sequence involving Rey’s speeder from The Force Awakens.The accompanying toy line focuses on 11-inch “adventure figures,” which are meant to fuse elements from traditional dolls with action figures. The highly poseable figures will include the six core heroes, plus several other key Star Wars characters – a deluxe figure of Chewbacca is sold on his own, while there are two-packs that pair Leia and Wicket the Ewok, Leia and R2-D2, Rey and BB-8 and Luke Skywalker with Yoda. As these figures show, the line will include male characters too, with Kylo Ren coming down the line as the first villain for the series. Said Samantha Lomow (SVP, Hasbro Brands), “Some of those relationships are so important, we know that kids -- both boys and girls -- really want to recreate those storytelling moments, so that's kind of how we made those decisions on the characters.”Click though the slideshow below for a look at the animated shorts and toy line for Star Wars Forces of Destiny.On the role play/accessory side, there will be a new purple electronic Jedi Power Lightsaber, and Hasbro’s first-ever version of Rey’s iconic staff, both of which are part of the Star Wars Bladebuilders system.Regarding the decision to use two-three minute shorts as the format, Lucasfilm's Paul Southern (SVP, Licensing) noted, “The way that kids are consuming content today, they're still watching linear television, but increasingly they're consuming content digitally, online. We've created a story format here that reflects that. It's a combination of digital and linear.” The latter will be reflected on the Disney Channel, where the two groupings of shorts (eight released this July, eight more in the fall) will air as two half hour specials.“This will be our first 2D show at Lucasfilm animation,” Beck noted - the previous Star Wars 2D animated series, including Ewoks, Droids and the early Clone Wars shorts were made prior to Lucasfilm Animation forming. She explained, “On the team we have Dave Filoni and myself and a bunch of others from the Story Group and from Animation supporting us. We're also working in partnership with a company called Ghostbot - Ghostbot is local to the bay area. And one of the principals there, Brad Rau, was a director on Rebels. And so when we knew we wanted to do this and extend into 2D, they were top of mind.”Jen Muro wrote the shorts, while Nyong'o will narrate each episode as Maz Kanata. Said Beck, of Maz’s role, “It just felt right for this initiative. Maz being in Force Awakens, I think the minute she appeared she was somebody we all wanted to know more about. She's sort of half spiritual guru, half quirky grandma. As you're looking to make sense of all of these stories across the Star Wars timeline... just riffing off what she says in The Force Awakens and the kind of person we know that she is, that she would have information or knowledge about all of these characters and so it just felt appropriate that she would be the one bringing the audience into the space.”Beck teased some intriguing moments for Star Wars fans in Forces of Destiny, including some characters meeting we’ve never seen together before. While she had to keep most secrecy, she did reveal, “We have a short that has an interaction between Han Solo and Hera Syndulla. I know personally I've been wanting to see that for a long time and know what that conversation is going to be between the two of them.”Forces of Destiny is designed to be accessible to young viewers who are completely new to Star Wars, while also offering up connective tissue and Easter eggs for the longtime fans. As an example, Beck noted that in the Echo Base episode, there’s a direct tie-in to a rather obscure Star Wars moment – a deleted scene that made it into the original Empire Strikes Back trailer, where C-3P0 tears a warning sign off a door. Beck remarked that watching “Beasts of Echo Base”, “If you know everything about Empire, that's an awesome deep cut about how that warning sign gets there,” but added, “If you know nothing, you still get to see Leia's leadership, her skills, her relationship to Chewie and Artoo and Threepio. It feels very true to who everybody is in that moment.”Besides the animated shorts and central toy line, other elements of Forces of Destiny will include an apparel line and youth-aimed books, which initially will adapt the stories from the shorts.The first eight Star Wars Forces of Destiny shorts will debut on Disney’s YouTube Channel in July, with the additional eight in the fall. The two half hour Disney Channel specials comprised of the two groups of shorts will debut this fall as well.The Forces of Destiny adventure figures will also debut in the fall, with the basic 11-inch figures priced at $19.99, the Figure and Friend two-packs at $24.99, the Chewbacca Deluxe figure at $29.99 and the Endor Adventure muiltpack priced at $34.99. The Rey Bladebuilders extendable staff is $19.99, while the Forces of Destiny Bladebuilders Jedi Power Lightsaber is $29.99.The Heroines of Star Wars panel will be held Friday, April 14th at Star Wars Celebration and include Dave Filoni, Carrie Beck, Ashley Eckstein and Tiya Sircar.

Eric Goldman is Executive Editor of IGN TV. You can follow him on Twitter at @TheEricGoldman , IGN at ericgoldman-ign and Facebook at Facebook.com/TheEricGoldman