Amandla Stenberg portrays the lethal ninja that she has to take down in addition to a renegade Jedi. She is a new, rebellious force in that far cosmos.
It helps to remove the baggage and create some space between your kid and the current mythology when you are trying to create engaging new stories within an established fantasy series. Prequel to Game of Thrones House of the Dragon leaped forward several hundred years. For the streaming series The Rings of Power, Lord of the Rings rewrote Middle-earth’s history across thousands of years. Now, Star Wars, the unavoidable space opera that has unabashedly welcomed prequels since The Phantom Menace in 1999, for better or worse, has bravely chosen to venture further into the past than it has ever done so on screen.
A title card that appears at the beginning of the story affirms that The Acolyte is set a hundred years before the evil Empire rose to power in a galaxy far, far away. Thanks to a cosmos-spanning religious order that wears monastic robes yet possesses psychic skills and laser swords through their cult’s mastery of the Force, peace has blossomed throughout the Galactic Republic. A Jedi is someone no one messes with in this peaceful era. However, Leslye Headland, the author of The Acolyte and co-writer of the hilarious time-loop comedy Russian Doll, raises an intriguing query: what if someone did?
It opens with a heated duel. A determined fighter (Amandla Stenberg) walks into a bar on the kind of Star Wars planet known from recent TV shows like Andor and The Mandalorian—a hardscrabble game. This young woman looks like a space ninja with her Mortal Kombat face mask and her readily available arsenal of kunai throwing blades. But instead of ambushing her Jedi victim covertly, she declares her murderous intentions, saying, “Attack me with all your strength.” The title Acolyte’s Force abilities are revealed as their battle heats up. The Jedi’s story does not end nicely.
The Jedi leadership is agitated by this “unidentified Force user”‘s appearance. They capture a distant spaceship mechanic named Osha (Stenberg once more), a former member of their order who physically resembles the suspect. However, Osha’s former instructor Sol, portrayed by Lee Jung-jae in a far more dignified manner than his wriggly Squid Game persona, senses that something is off. It helps that he is aware that Mae, his twin sister, who was ostensibly killed the day he converted Osha to the Jedi faith, was a former apprentice of his.
Soon after, Osha and her chirping handheld repair droid Pip have been approved and assigned to Sol’s team in order to neutralize the ninja, who reportedly has a list of Jedi that is akin to Kill Bill that she needs to go through. The highest levels of government are keeping their objective under wraps, which implies that the Jedi hegemony may not be as strong as it first appears.
This eight-part series doesn’t feel overly cautious with its revelations, even if it plays out like a Star Wars whodunit—who is the mysterious mastermind behind this Jabbatha Christie murder plot? After 16 years of grieving for a lost sister, Osha and Mae are finally able to accept each other’s existence by the end of the opening double feature, but they are obviously finding it difficult to accept it. An next flashback episode explores their unconventional upbringing on a secluded Edenic world, providing a fascinating new viewpoint on the Jedi, the Force, and who is allowed to utilize it.
Stenberg effectively distinguishes between the two roles she plays—an outsider twice over. Her relationship with her spliffed-out underworld sidekick Qimir (the chiseled Manny Jacinto of The Good Place) is tumultuous but endearing as the prickly Mae. In her role as the guarded Osha, she warily connects with Jedi trainee Jecki (portrayed by His Dark Materials’ Dafne Keen), an extraterrestrial from Planet Synthpop whose ghostly skin, platinum mullet, and stunning orange eye streaks all point to her origins. Additionally, Osha and her old Jedi master have a nice push-pull (albeit it’s obvious that Sol disapproves of the tattoo on Osha’s bicep).
However, The Acolyte extensively relies on numerous archaic Star Wars clichés, from the fuzzy wipes that indicate scene changes to the reusing of catchphrases (“I’ve got a bad feeling about this” gets an early exposure). This is perhaps due to, rather than in spite of, the film’s unknown setting. Aside from the kinetic fight scenes, it also feels a little stodgy at times. The fact that Jedi are stereotypically pious nerds who avoid emotional ties does not help.
Ahsoka, the latest Star Wars spin-off, seemed to be the continuation of a grander story that had been hinted at in animated programs like as Star Wars: Rebels and The Clone Wars. On the other hand, The Acolyte has the advantage of being a blank slate for both the writers and the viewers, meaning there is no homework involved. The Acolyte is worth following even though the first few scenes seem a touch similar since subversive Headland undoubtedly has more devious plot twists in store.
New episodes of The Acolyte air on Disney+ on Tuesdays in the US and Wednesdays in the UK and Australia.
