The second project teased in the Lucasfilm Showcase at this year’s Star Wars Celebration convention was the upcoming “Star Wars: The Acolyte” many years before the prequels.
Creator, showrunner, executive producer and director Leslye Headland was on hand and said she initially pitched the series as “Frozen meets Kill Bill”.
She explains the show’s premise: “It’s about the bad guys, it’s set between the High Republic and the prequel era and has plenty of Jedi. This is when the bad guys are outnumbered, they are underdogs.”
The cast turned up and included Amandla Stenberg in Padme cosplay though she quickly explained that it was not a reference to her character. The series will include Joonas Suotamo (who played Chewbacca in the Disney “Star Wars” films) starring as a Wookie Jedi, Squid Game’s Lee Jung-jae as a Jedi Master,
Headland adds that the same samurai films that inspired George Lucas were touchstones for her series. Lucasfilm’s Kathleen Kennedy says she has seen four finished episodes of the show so far.
Like with “Andor,” the first footage from “The Acolyte” series was screened for the room only with Carrie-Anne Moss showing up and martial arts fighting Stenberg’s character, and a final shot with eight Jedi igniting lightsabers.
It received a rapturous response and sadly will not be officially released online. The series, which is finishing up filming in May will release on the Disney+ service sometime next year.
