There’s incredible hype surrounding the new Star Wars series, The Acolyte. Set a hundred years before Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, the show will take fans during the High Republic era, which has never been explored in any live-action series or movie. So, to give a glimpse of the creation of The Acolyte, Star Wars released a new featurette that takes fans behind the scenes.
You can watch the Star Wars: The Acolyte featurette below:
The Acolyte featurette begins with Carrie-Anne Moss’ Jedi Master Indara wielding her lightsaber. “It’s pretty incredible to play a Jedi,” the actress says. It then shows Amandla Stenberg’s Mae in a fight in a Cantina, with showrunner Leslye Headland describing the show as an “action-packed mystery” in the Star Wars world.
Lucasfilm Chief Creative Officer Dave Filoni also appears, saying Headland will take viewers on an adventure that will show what the series creator loves about the franchise. Manny Jacinto, who plays Qimir, teases that the story will be full of twists and turns.
The featurette then shows Stenberg’s intense training. With all the action fans are about to see in The Acolyte, Headland reveals her interest in directing the show toward martial arts films. Mae and Indara’s fight then takes the scene, with Stenberg admitting she had a heart attack when she learned the first person she would fight was Moss.
“Training for the fights is pretty special,” The Matrix star says. And with the incredible fighting scenes that Stenberg has done for the show, Headland feels lucky to have the singer-actress as Mae. “She’s a mysterious figure on a path for revenge,” Stenberg describes her character. Moss also highly praises the young star as the latter shows her dedication to the project.
Star Wars: The Acolyte Receives Rave Reviews from Critics
The Acolyte will not hit Disney+ until June 4, but a lucky few had the chance to watch the series' first two episodes on its red carpet premiere in Los Angeles on Thursday, May 23. Other critics received screeners for the first four episodes and had nothing but praise for the new Star Wars show, giving it rave reviews.
Slash Film founder Peter Sciretta revealed that The Acolyte felt like classic Star Wars, though new, fresh, and different from what fans had been before. And though this is meant for TV, the action scenes “felt movie-level” for him.
Saw the first two episodes of #TheAcolyte — I loved that it felt so much like classic @starwars while at the same time feeling new, fresh and different from anything we’ve seen before. The action felt movie-level. So excited to see more! pic.twitter.com/lkOC5IPm4S
— Peter Sciretta (@PeterSciretta) May 24, 2024
Collider author Perri Nemiroff called the show a “very big winner.” She claimed everything worked well, from the characters to practical effects to stunts. And like Headland and Moss, she also praised Stenberg for being the headliner the story needed.
I’ve seen four episodes of #TheAcolyte and, thus far, it’s a *very* big winner. The cast of characters, the heavy emphasis on practical effects, the stunts, how they’re exploring what it means to be a Force-user and how the Jedi Order operates — it’s all working quite well for… pic.twitter.com/l8SVNTvSEG
— Perri Nemiroff (@PNemiroff) May 24, 2024
With these positive reviews, The Acolyte seems to have lived up to the hype. Fortunately, fans will soon see its two-episode premiere on Disney+, set for June 4, 2024.
