‘The Acolyte’: A Disturbance in The Force Shakes Up The High Republic in New Star Wars Series
Photo from Variety
From Ryan Cordaro
I feel like Star Wars has been needing something to revitalize it recently. I admittedly haven’t watched Andor just yet, but a lot of the Disney+ shows that have been airing have been fine. I’m pretty partial to the first two seasons of what ended up being the service’s flagship series The Mandalorian, and I enjoyed the Visions short films and Ahsoka well enough, but there’s been something lacking in Star Wars for the last couple of projects. Not to compare anything, but Dune: Part Two made a massive impression a few weeks ago, so I’m hoping that Disney and Star Wars could come to play at some point, and we might have that with The Acolyte.
Set during the tail-end of the High Republic era, we’re sent to an investigation into a shocking crime spree that pits a respected Jedi Master against his former Padawan. As more clues emerge, the forces they confront are much more sinister than they appear. For those that don’t know the Star Wars timeline, this series will be set before Episode I – The Phantom Menace, which now makes this the first time that any live-action Star Wars content will focus on The High Republic era. This has been fleshed out in novels, animated shows, and even an upcoming video game from the developers of Detroit: Become Human, but this is a huge step for this era of Star Wars. The series is created by Russian Doll co-creator Leslye Headland and she recently made headlines for the series about the writing process of the series, pulling from writers who weren’t familiar with Star Wars to make sure that emotional beats are earned and not overly rely on easter eggs.
The Acolyte stars Amandla Stenberg (Bodies Bodies Bodies, The Hunger Games), Lee Jung-jae (Squid Game, Hunt), Manny Jacinto (The Good Place, Top Gun: Maverick), Dafne Keen (His Dark Materials, Logan), Jodie Turner-Smith (After Yang, White Noise), Rebecca Henderson (Inventing Anna, Russian Doll), Charlie Barnett (Russian Doll, Arrow), Dean-Charles Chapman (1917, Game of Thrones), Margarita Levieva (The Lincoln Lawyer, In from the Cold), Joonas Suotamo (the Star Wars franchise, Willow), Amy Tsang (Velvet Buzzsaw, Silent River), and Carrie-Anne Moss (the Matrix franchise, Memento).
The Acolyte airs its first two episodes on Disney+ on June 4, with the rest of the eight episodes following weekly.
