Star Wars: The Acolyte TV Show Release Date June 4th 2024 Preview and Plot

 The Acolyte, also known as Star Wars: The Acolyte, is an upcoming American science fiction television series created by Leslye Headland for the streaming service Disney+. It is part of the Star Wars franchise, set at the end of the High Republic era before the events of the main Star Wars films, and follows a Jedi investigation into a series of crimes.

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 in the series. Headland expressed interest in working on the Star Wars franchise by the end of 2019, and was developing a new series for Lucasfilm by April 2020. The title was announced that December. Filming took place in London and at Shinfield Studios in Berkshire from October 2022 to June 2023, with location filming in Wales and Portugal.

The Acolyte is scheduled to premiere on Disney+ on June 4, 2024, with its first two episodes. The other six episodes will be released weekly.

The Acolyte is set at the end of the Star Wars franchise's High Republic era, approximately 100 years before Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999). It sees a respected Jedi Master investigating a series of crimes that bring him into conflict with a former Padawan learner and reveal sinister forces

 

At the premiere of the film Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019), television writer Leslye Headland was asked about her interest in the Star Wars franchise and revealed that she was a big fan with many ideas for Star Wars films that she wanted to make if she was asked to by Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy. Headland contacted Lucasfilm to discuss her ideas after completing work on her series Russian Doll (2019–2022), and pitched a new Star Wars series with a first-season outline and full series bible. Kennedy agreed to begin work on the series during that initial pitch meeting, and Headland was revealed in April 2020 to be writing and showrunning a new female-centric Star Wars series for the streaming service Disney+. Staffing for the series had begun and it was expected to be set in a different part of the franchise's timeline from other Star Wars projects.

Lucasfilm confirmed Headland's series was in development on May 4, 2020, which is Star Wars Day. At Disney's Investor Day event on December 10, Kennedy announced the title, The Acolyte, and said it was set at the end of the High Republic era before the events of the main Star Wars films. Lucasfilm executive Rayne Roberts was developing the series with Headland, who was influenced by the games and novels of the Star Wars Expanded Universe (EU).The first season consists of eight episodes, with Headland directing the first two.^[6] Alex Garcia Lopez and Kogonada were hired to direct episodes by February 2023, and Hanelle Culpepper was revealed to have directed episodes in March 2024. Executive producers include Headland, Kennedy, Simon Emanuel, Jeff F. King, and Jason Micallef, with Roberts, Damian Anderson, Eileen Shim, and Rob Bredow producing.

In March 2024, Headland said she had pitched multiple seasons of the series to Lucasfilm and had a plan for a second season if it was ordered. She did note that she wanted to take a break after the first season was released due to the long production timeline for the first season, and so she could respond to any feedback from fans on the first season when developing the second.

 

A writers' room for the series was assembled by June 2021. Headland made sure the group included writers with different relationships to Star Wars, including some who were only fans of the original trilogy, some who were specifically fans of Dave Filoni's Star Wars projects, and one writer who had never seen Star Wars before.The series' writers included Jason Micallef, Charmaine DeGrate, Jasmyne Flournoy, Eileen Shim, Claire Kiechel, Kor Adana, Cameron Squires, Jocelyn Bioh, and Jen Richards. When pitching the series to Lucasfilm, Headland described it as "Frozen meets Kill Bill". Responding to discussion of the series being "female-centric", Headland said it would have a female protagonist but would not exclude male characters or audiences. She added that the series introduces new characters and ideas to the franchise that she hoped would interest existing fans, but she understood that not all fans would like it and felt that was fine considering there were so many new Star Wars projects being produced. In May 2022, Headland said writing for the series was mostly complete.

 

Headland wanted to explore the Star Wars franchise from the perspective of the villains. She felt the High Republic era would be the best point in the timeline to do this because the Sith, who are the villains in the films, are considerably outnumbered and in hiding during this time. Lucasfilm also wanted to depict the time period on screen after recently launching a publishing initiative set in the era, and because they wanted to explore new parts of the Star Wars timeline away from the films and other series.Headland noted that The Acolyte was the earliest point in the Star Wars timeline to be seen in live-action at that point. She wanted to address some fan criticisms of the Star Wars films, such as how Darth Sidious ascends to power without the Jedi knowing: "How did we get to a point where a Sith lord can infiltrate the Senate and none of the Jedi pick up on it? [What] went wrong?" She considered herself lucky to be able to ask those questions in an actual Star Wars project. A key theme in the franchise for Headland was "underdog versus institutional threat", and in this part of the timeline it is the Jedi who are the main institution.In contrast to the Jedi in the films, who are monk-like figures in times of war, Headland said the High Republic Jedi live in a time of peace and enlightenment akin to the Renaissance, as seen in their white and gold robes that look like they never get dirty. The series questions the Jedi practice of training children, and also explores differing views on the Force and the amount of power and control that the Jedi have. Headland took inspiration from the film Rashomon (1950) to depict events from multiple perspectives, showing how the series' protagonist, former Padawan learner Mae, sees things differently to the Jedi Order.

The Acolyte is a mystery thriller with a serialized story that builds throughout the first season, inspired by the approach of fellow Star Wars series Andor. Because there are no overarching conflicts or wars in the series—Headland said it was "interesting to make a Star Wars with no war in it"—the fight sequences are more intimate, focusing on duels that further develop the characters. Noting that Star Wars creator George Lucas was originally influenced by Westerns and Akira Kurosawa's samurai films, Headland decided to take more influence from martial arts films which she felt were "a little bit more personal and less global and galactic". These included wuxia films by King Hu and Shaw Brothers Studio such as Come Drink with Me (1966) and A Touch of Zen (1971). Similar to the Star Wars series The Mandalorian, The Acolyte includes Easter eggs for fans of the original trilogy, prequel trilogy, and the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, as well as references to the EU and Star Wars Legends. EU references include members of the Theelin and Zygerrian species as well as some narrative elements.[1] The series introduces a coven of Force witches, separate from the Nightsister witches seen in previous Star Wars projects, inspired by mentions of Force cults in the High Republic books and the EU