In the world of Disney+ and Star Wars, where a new series was dropping almost every other month for a while, it has been a while since we’ve seen anything, but the first trailer of Star Wars: The Acolyte is here to lead us from the darkness… or into it.
The Acolyte is taking us back to a time we haven’t seen on screen in Star Wars, as Disney once again attempts to move the franchise outside of the Skywalker Saga and into a bigger universe of stories, something they failed at doing so far. The show takes place during the weighing days of the High Repbulic, about 100 years before Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. It focuses on the rise of the Dark Side as the High Republic begins to crumble. A former Padawan and her Master, played by Amandla Stenberg and Lee Jung-jae, respectively, team up to investigate a mysterious series of crimes but come to uncover a far bigger and more sinister force than they could imagine. Hint: it’s Sith Lords and the Dark Side.
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From the trailer, we can see that the series is going for something that’s a bit different from what we’ve seen so far from Disney+. The Acolyte looks less like the sci-fi Westerns and more like a king fu pic, though those two genres influenced each other greatly. Even more impressive, it looks really good.
The series comes from Russian Doll co-creator Leslye Headland and will also star Manny Jacinto, Dafne Keen, Jodie Turner-Smith, Rebecca Henderson, Charlie Barnett, Dean-Charles Chapman, Carrie-Anne Moss as a Jedi, Amy Tsang, and Margarita Levieva. Joonas Suotamo will happily be returning to a Wookie costume as he ditches Chewbacca, whom he played in the prequels and Solo: A Star Wars Story, and plays a Wookie Jedi master named Kelnacca.
The first of Star Wars: The Acolyte’s eight episodes will premiere on Disney+ on June 4, 2024.
