Girls rule, the Empire drools in the latest addition to the "Star Wars" universe.

Disney and Lucasfilm announced the arrival of "Star Wars Destiny," a series of eight animated 2-D shorts that will highlight female heroes including Princess Leia, Padme Amidala from the prequel series, Rey from "The Force Awakens," and Jyn Erso from "Rogue One."

The initial eight webisodes will debut on Disney YouTube in July, and then be paired with eight more in the fall for a pair of specials to air on the Disney Channel. They will be considered part of the canon.

Daisy Ridley and Felicity Jones will voice their characters, Rey and Jyn, while Shelby Young will take on Princess Leia in the wake of Carrie Fisher's death. Another actress will voice Padme as a replacement for Natalie Portman.

In addition to the four aforementioned heroes, the shorts will also feature Tiya Sircar as Sabine Wren, Ashley Eckstein as Ahsoka Tano, Vanessa Marshall as Hera Syndulla, and Lupita Nyong'o as Maz Kanata.

Multiple heroines will appear in adventures with each other, even though some of them are in different timelines. Executive producer Carrie Beck said, "One of the opportunities here was to tell the stories in between the larger moments and imagine some of the ways our characters have crossed."

A new line of Hasbro toys will accompany the series. Here's a first look at "Star Wars Forces of Destiny."


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