Star Wars: The Acolyte is debuting on Disney+ next week, and the new series has gotten early praise from critics. The new Disney+ series is set to take place roughly a full century before the events of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, and Lucasfilm has been getting fans excited by sharing behind-the-scenes featurettes about the project. Today, the official YouTube account for Star Wars shared a conversation between Dave Filoni and The Acoylte‘s showrunner, Leslye Headland.
“Dave Filoni, Lucasfilm’s chief creative officer, and The Acolyte creator Leslye Headland discuss the power and breadth of Star Wars storytelling. On June 4, don’t miss the two-episode premiere of #TheAcolyte, a Star Wars Original series, only on Disney+,” the video’s caption reads. You can check out the video below:
Leslye Headland Teases The Acolyte:
Headland has previously spoken about the series and teased what Star Wars fans can expect.
“We’re taking a look at the political and personal and spiritual things that came up in a time period that we don’t know much about,” Headland explained in a previous interview. “My question when watching The Phantom Menace was always like, ‘Well, how did things get to this point?’ How did we get to a point where a Sith lord can infiltrate the Senate and none of the Jedi pick up on it? Like, what went wrong? What are the scenarios that led us to this moment?'”
“We actually use the term the Renaissance, or the Age of Enlightenment,” Headland added. “The Jedi uniforms are gold and white, and it’s almost like they would never get dirty. They would never be out and about,” Headland says. “The idea is that they could have these types of uniforms because that’s how little they’re getting into skirmishes.”
“The truth is that I, as a major mega fan, came to them with this idea. And I said, ‘I think the best place to put this is in an era you guys have not quite explored yet,'” Headland revealed to Vanity Fair. “They were very enthusiastic. It wasn’t that they didn’t want to explore that [existing] world, but I think that they already were because The Mandalorian and a lot of the other television projects were really relying on legacy characters.”
What Is The Acolyte About?
Set during The High Republic, Star Wars: The Acolyte delivers an investigation into a mysterious string of crimes, which pits a Jedi master against his former apprentice in a race to uncover the truth. The more that the pair learn about the situation, the darker their journey becomes, as they confront things that darker than either of them could have imagined.
The series stars Amandla Stenberg, Lee Jung-jae, Manny Jacinto, Dafne Keen, Charlie Barnett, Jodie Turner-Smith, Rebecca Henderson, Dean-Charles Chapman, Joonas Suotamo, and Carrie-Anne Moss.
Star Wars: The Acolyte premieres on Disney+ on June 4th.