The Acolyte was among the projects highlighted during the Lucasfilm Studio Showcase panel at Star Wars Celebration yesterday, and we were on hand to bring you all the biggest updates about this previously very mysterious Disney+ series.
Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy kicked things off by welcoming showrunner Leslye Headland to the stage, heaping high praise on the writer, director, and executive producer after watching the first four episodes of the show earlier this week. Headland was actually joined by a Jedi Wookie when she made her entrance, a character we later learned is called Kelnacca.
Played by Chewbacca actor Joonas Suotamo, the Wookie will be among the Jedi we follow during the series which, as expected, is going to be set during the High Republic Era.
That's hundred of years prior to The Phantom Menace, and with the Jedi at the height of their power at this time, it's the Sith who, according to Headland, are the "underdogs" and "outnumbered" by their far more heroic counterparts. The Acolyte is going to follow the rise of the Dark Side and we're definitely intrigued by the showrunner saying she pitched it to Kennedy as "Frozen meets Kill Bill."
An official synopsis for this "mystery-thriller" was also released shortly after the panel concluded.
"'The Acolyte' will take viewers into a galaxy of shadowy secrets and emerging dark-side powers in the final days of the High Republic era," it reads. "A former Padawan reunites with her Jedi Master to investigate a series of crimes but discovers the forces they confront are more sinister than they ever anticipated."
Amandla Stenberg, Lee Jung-jae, Manny Jacinto, Dafne Keen, Charlie Barnett, Jodie Turner-Smith, Rebecca Henderson, Dean-Charles Chapman, and Suotamo surprised fans by hitting the stage to tease their respective roles, but the biggest shock came in the form of the first trailer for the show.
Beginning by showing a group of Jedi Younglings being taught by Jung-jae's Jedi Master, he talks about respecting the Force before we find Carrie-Anne Moss' Jedi (yes, Jedi) sitting in a bar. She's attacked by Stenberg's knife-wielding character who looks every bit the ninja and makes sense of that Kill Bill comparison by pulling off some jaw-dropping moves.
The action here is on a completely different level, while the rest of the footage played out as a montage. We see how much brighter the Jedi Temple looked at this time and everything has a much glossier feel, including the Jedi themselves as they enjoy their place in this peaceful Galaxy.
However, another Force is rising to combat them and we hear Stenberg's character say, "This isn’t about good or bad. This is about power. And who is allowed to use it." Power is what The Acolyte is all about, but the trailer ends with a crowd-pleasing shot of seven or eight Jedi standing in the woods with Jung-jae's character igniting his lightsaber before his allies follow suit.
Everything we saw from The Acolyte was phenomenal, and it's now been confirmed that it's heading to Disney+ in 2024.