Since Disney’s acquisition of Lucasfilm, there has been no shortage of new Star Wars content. While the sequel trilogy, two spin-off movies, Star Wars Rebels, the final season of The Clone Wars, The Mandalorian, and The Bad Batch have all already hit screens big and small, the galaxy far, far away is still showing no signs of slowing down. In fact, one of the franchise’s upcoming projects, The Acolyte, is set to bring the recently introduced High Republic era to live-action for the first time.
Star Wars: The High Republic is a multimedia Star Wars project, which has so far spanned novels, short stories, comics and audio dramas. The High Republic era begins about two centuries before the Skywalker Saga and lasts right up until the time of The Phantom Menace. It’s a time which the Republic and the Jedi were at the height of their power, though The Acolyte, which is set at the very end of the High Republic era, may explore how the Order begin to lose that power.
The series will be brought to life under showrunner Leslye Headland (Russian Doll) and has been billed as a mystery thriller involving “emerging Dark Side powers.” Given this description and the fact that the term “Acolyte” has been used to describe varying types of Sith apprentices in Legends and the new Star Wars canon, many fans have theorized that the series may explore the rise of either Darth Sidious or his master, Darth Plagueis. If this is the case, then The Acolyte could be laying the foundations for Palpatine’s rise to power and the fall of the Jedi Order in the prequel trilogy — something Headland seemed to confirm in a recent interview.
Talking to TheWrap, the director of the upcoming series discussed the influence The Phantom Menace has had on her and how her intrigue at where audiences find the Jedi in the first prequel helped shape the series. As Headland points out, the Jedi of the prequels are not what fans of the original trilogy might have expected. In particular, Headland picks up on the ways in which the Jedi Council react to both Qui-Gon Jinn’s discovery of Anakin Skywalker — a boy whom Qui-Gon is convinced is the Chosen One of Jedi prophecy — and the revelation that the Sith have returned after their supposed extinction, which she says “is kind of met with this like, ‘Hm, interesting’ kind of feeling.”
The apparent complacency of the Jedi towards their ancient enemy’s return and their reluctance to train a boy who is prophesied to bring balance to the Force are both moments that feel out of character for the galaxy’s guardians of peace and justice. Much has been said in the past of the Jedi having already strayed from their ideals by the time of the prequels; when talking about The Phantom Menace during Episode 2 of Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian, Lucasfilm Executive Creative Director Dave Filoni explained that “Qui-Gon hasn’t given up on the fact Jedi are supposed to actually care … the rest of the Jedi are so detached and they’ve become so political that they’ve really lost their way.”
With little revealed so far about The Acolyte, it’s difficult to speculate on the stories it will explore. However, these comments from Headland indicate it will be far more closely connected to the Star Wars prequels than previously believed and may help shed new light on the fall of the Jedi.
The Acolyte is currently in development for Disney+ from Leslye Headland and Rayne Roberts. The Star Wars television series does not yet have a release date.
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