Star Wars Unveils First Look, Cast, and Synopsis of New Series ‘The Acolyte’
After Andor concludes in a couple weeks, Star Wars fans have a whole new batch of TV shows to look forward to on Disney+ in 2023 and 2024. There’s a new season of The Mandalorian in the works, as well as a spinoff for Ahsoka Tano, who made her live-action Star Wars debut in the previous season of The Mandalorian. There’s also a very different and very intriguing series called The Acolyte that just went into production in the United Kingdom after years of development.
The show comes from Leslye Headland, one of the co-creators of Russian Doll; she created the show, is the showrunner and executive producer, and is also directing the pilot episode. Unlike all the other Disney+ Star Wars shows, Headland’s The Acolyte takes place hundreds of years prior to the events of the Star Wars movies, in a time known as the “High Republic.”
Today, Lucasfilm revealed the first behind-the-scenes images from The Acolyte set — you can see it above — and also revealed the first official synopsis for the series, which is:
“The Acolyte” is a mystery-thriller that will take viewers into a galaxy of shadowy secrets and emerging dark-side powers in the final days of the High Republic era. A former Padawan reunites with her Jedi Master to investigate a series of crimes, but the forces they confront are more sinister than they ever anticipated.
They also announced the cast of the show, which will feature Amandla Stenberg (“The Hate U Give”), Lee Jung-jae (“Squid Game”), Manny Jacinto (“Nine Perfect Strangers”), Dafne Keen (“His Dark Materials”), Jodie Turner-Smith (“Queen & Slim”), Rebecca Henderson (“Inventing Anna”), Charlie Barnett (“Russian Doll”), Dean-Charles Chapman (“1917”) and Carrie-Anne Moss (“The Matrix”). It’s an interesting and eclectic bunch.
The Acolyte does not have a release date yet, but the series will premiere in the future on Disney+.
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