Disney released the first trailer for the new Disney+ original series Star Wars: The Acolyte on Tuesday, confirming a two-episode premiere on June 4th. With haunting music, exciting fight choreography, and Force-wielders galore, this trailer gives audiences just a taste of what could be another Star Wars hit.
Here’s what we know so far, and a breakdown of what the trailer sets up for The Acolyte!
Disney’s synopsis of the show is a brief but intriguing introduction to the series:
“In Star Wars: The Acolyte, an investigation into a shocking crime spree pits a respected Jedi Master (Lee Jung-jae) against a dangerous warrior from his past (Amandla Stenberg). As more clues emerge, they travel down a dark path where sinister forces reveal all is not what it seems….”
The timeline of The Acolyte takes place around 100 years before the events of the Star Wars prequel films, at the tail end of the High Republic. Though this era for the Republic and the Jedi alike is explored extensively in the successful Star Wars book series The High Republic, it has never appeared in live-action. Until now.
Darkness Rises
“Close your eyes,” Jedi Master Sol (Jung-jae) says to a group of Younglings at the Temple. “Your eyes can deceive you. We must not trust them.”
Thus begins our introduction to a story that is meant to explore how the once-great Jedi Order could allow themselves to fall victim to a Sith hiding in their midst.
In an interview with Kristen Baver for StarWars.com, show runner Leslye Headland explains that The Acolyte follows the typical Star Wars storyline of “underdog versus the institution”. The only difference is that this time, “the Jedi are the institution … the bad guys are actually the underdog”. By the time we see the Jedi in the prequel films, they are no longer as formidable and impenetrable an institution as they were in the High Republic, at the height of their power. How did they become the underdog? What steered them away from everything they used to be?
Halfway through the trailer, Jedi Knight Yord (Charlie Barnett) says, with fear in his eyes, “Someone is killing Jedi. It doesn’t make sense”. With scenes of mysterious knife-wielding Mae (Stenberg) fighting Jedi Master Indara (Carrie-Ann Moss) and a group of Jedi Knights and Padawans igniting their lightsabers against a red-bladed attack, the threat Yord speaks of seems to come from the Dark Side.
The underdog, it seems, has a score to settle.
Power and the Force
Force-wielders aren’t the only characters we see, though. Smuggler Qimir (Manny Jacinto) doesn’t have a large role in the trailer, but the fact he has his very own character card on the Star Wars website indicates that we should perhaps pay close attention to him.
However, Mother Aniseya (Jodie Turner-Smith), the leader of a coven of witches, offers one of the most powerful lines of dialogue: “This isn’t about good or bad. This is about power and who is allowed to use it”.
Readers of The High Republic book series might sense a connection between Mother Aniseya’s words and the beliefs of a particular group, The Path of the Open Hand, in Phase II. Whether directly connected or not, signs from both ultimately point in the same direction: the destruction of the Jedi.
The phrase on the first series poster, and that also appears in the trailer, only adds to this darker train of thought: “In an age of light, a darkness rises”. This subversion of sorts of Snoke’s words in The Last Jedi — “Darkness rises, and light to meet it” — rings an ominous note that might place The Acolyte in the same tonal realm as Andor.
An Age of Light
All in all, this trailer seems to indicate that The Acolyte will be not only a unique and interesting addition to the Star Wars franchise, but a good entry point for new or casual fans. Beyond the inclusion of Mirialan Jedi Vernestra Rwoh (Rebecca Henderson), a fan favorite from The High Republic Phases I and III, and a few potential story points from the old Star Wars Extended Universe, everything about The Acolyte appears fresh and new and prime for exploration.
But, as Headland has warned us, “whatever you think The Acolyte is, it’s not that”.
Maybe we’ll watch that trailer just a few more times to be sure.
The Acolyte will launch on June 4th with a two-episode premiere on Disney+.
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