The latest highly anticipated live-action Disney+ series from Lucasfilm, Star Wars: The Acolyte, is set to debut this evening on the streaming platform. Laughing Place was recently granted early access to screeners for the first four episodes of the show, and below are my (mostly spoiler-free) thoughts.
Star Wars: The Acolyte was first announced by Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kenendy during a Disney Investor Day presentation in December of 2020. And now, three and a half years later, we’re finally getting to see the fruits of that reveal, which brought Russian Doll co-creator Leslye Headland into A Galaxy Far, Far Away as creator/showrunner of the new series. The Acolyte is set between the events of the successful Star Wars: The High Republic publishing initiative and George Lucas’s Star Wars prequel trilogy, which means that the Jedi Order is still at its peak in the galaxy, acting as the guardians of peace and justice… yada yada yada (although I was a little bothered by a title card at the beginning of the first episode which states that there hasn’t been a war for centuries at this point in the timeline– what about the whole thing with the Nihil?). But the inciting incident of this series is something that the Jedi don’t deal with terribly often: the violent murder of one of their own, with the chief suspect being a former Padawan (star Amandla Stenberg of The Hunger Games fame). I won’t spoil who the actual victim is, or how the investigation unfolds over the episodes I’ve seen, except to say that it’s an intriguing one that features many twists and turns over the first half of the season.
Along for the ride is Jedi Master Sol (Squid Game’s Lee Jung-jae), who leads the inquiry into the death, and to me he’s the most interesting character here, with the actor doing a wonderful job of demonstrating how Sol has brought some personal baggage of his own into the circumstances. We also get supporting turns from The Matrix star Carrie-Ann Moss as another embattled Jedi Master called Indara, Star Wars franchise regular Joonas Suotamo as a Wookiee Jedi named Kelnacca, Logan’s Dafne Keen as eager Padawan Jecki Lon, Russian Doll’s Charlie Barnett as young Jedi Knight Yord Fandar, and The Good Place’s Manny Jacinto as the mysterious apothecary Qimir. Headland’s wife Rebecca Henderson also pops up as Venestra Rwoh from The High Republic novels, but don’t worry– previous knowledge of those stories is not required to enjoy. All of these characters have roles to play in the investigation, but to spill more about what they are would give away too much before audiences have a chance to see the series for themselves. Suffice it to say that The Acolyte is centered around a tantalizing murder mystery that only becomes more confounding for our leads as the episodes go along– and thus it’s difficult to judge, quality-wise, without having seen the season as a whole and knowing whether or not there’s a satisfying resolution later on. But I will say that Star Wars’ first real live-action foray into the film-noir genre is an exciting and entertaining one, with special accolades going to the jaw-dropping fight choreography, the cast’s performances, and the foreboding tone set by the darker nature of the subject matter.
Regular readers (and listeners) of my Star Wars coverage will know that I am not the world’s biggest fan of the Jedi Order– the idea of having too many of the bland warrior-monks around always sounds kinda boring to me. But if you’re going to do a mystery story centered around the Jedi, treating them as fallible space cops is one of the more interesting routes you could take. And The Acolyte does that well, casting these various Jedi as detectives who get frustratingly lost in the conundrum of this case early on. I mean there’s even a Jedi stakeout, and at one point they send someone in undercover to speak to a person of interest while essentially wearing a wire. So we get a noir-ish, planet-hopping police procedural with lightsabers instead of handguns? I’m sold on that premise alone, and four episodes in I’m still very much into the idea, even with the third installment being a major departure from that concept… and also perhaps one of the best individual episodes to come out of live-action Disney+ content yet. Again, I can’t say more about that except for hinting that the world-building and compelling expansion of existing Star Wars lore quickly becomes one of the main attractions on display. From interviews I’ve seen with her, it’s clear that Headland knows her stuff, and it’s also obvious from watching the show that she has chosen some terrific collaborators with which to bring this series to life. With a few very minor nitpicks aside (there were some editing and structural choices that had me scratching my head), The Acolyte has the potential to be great, with the remaining condition being that it manages to stick the landing.
Star Wars: The Acolyte will debut with its first two episodes tonight at 6:00 PM Pacific Time, exclusively via Disney+.