Disney+
The Star Wars franchise is creeping up on the 50-year mark for the unique 1977 movie that began all of it, and Disney+ has efficiently saved issues contemporary with its line of live-action Star Wars spinoff collection. The Mandalorian and Andor had been each unquestionably well-liked and important successes, whereas The Ebook of Boba Fett finally proved disappointing, focusing much less on our favourite bounty hunter and extra on organising the third season of The Mandalorian. Obi-Wan Kenobi and Ahsoka fell someplace in between, bolstered by sturdy performances from its leads however typically criticized for sluggish pacing.
It is unclear the place the newest addition to the TV franchise, The Acolyte, will finally fall, however the first 5 episodes aired to date bode properly for its place within the rising canon. The collection eschews the standard Star Wars space-battle fare for a quieter, area Western detective story—who’s killing the good Jedi masters of the galaxy?—with extremely choreographed struggle scenes that draw closely from the martial arts. And like its predecessors, The Acolyte is recognizably Star Wars. But it additionally boasts a singular aesthetic model that may be very a lot its personal.
(Spoilers under for episodes 1 via 5 of The Acolyte.)
A very long time in the past, in a galaxy far, distant, the Galactic Republic and its Jedi masters symbolized the epitome of enlightenment and peace. Then got here the inevitable downfall and outbreak of battle because the Sith, who embraced the Darkish Facet of the Drive, got here to energy. The Acolyte explores these last days of the Republic because the seeds of its destruction had been sown.
The eight-episode collection was created by Leslye Headland. It is set on the finish of the Excessive Republic Period, a few century earlier than the occasions of The Phantom Menace. Apparently, Headland reasonably cheekily pitched The Acolyte as “Frozen meets Kill Invoice.” She drew on wuxia martial arts movies for inspiration, very similar to George Lucas was initially impressed by Westerns and the samurai movies of Akira Kurosawa. On this interval, the Jedi aren’t the underdog rebels battling the evil Galactic Empire. They’re on the top of their energy and symbolize the dominant mainstream establishment—presumably benevolent, however which may rely upon one’s perspective. Headland notably needed to discover the query of how Darth Sidious managed to come back to energy and infiltrate the Galactic Senate with out the Jedi ever suspecting it.
The Acolyte opens on the planet Ueda, the place a mysterious masked girl wielding daggers assaults the Jedi Grasp Indara (Carrie Ann Moss) and kills her. (This was an utter waste of a gifted “title” actor, but it surely actually set the stakes early.) The murderer is shortly recognized as Osha Aniseya (Amandla Stenberg), a former padawan now working as a meknek, making repairs on spaceships.
Osha is arrested by her former classmate, Yord Fandar (Charlie Barnett), however claims she is harmless. She has a imaginative and prescient about her twin sister, Mae, who died in a hearth on their dwelling planet of Brendok once they had been each fairly younger. She concludes that Mae continues to be alive and is the one who killed Indara. Osha’s former Jedi grasp, Sol (Lee Jung-jae), believes her. That is confirmed after we see Mae assembly together with her mysterious Grasp, who wields a crimson lightsaber and instructions her to kill a Jedi with out utilizing a weapon.
We finally be taught that Mae’s targets aren’t random. She is out to kill the 4 Jedi she blames for the fireplace on Brendok: Indara, Sol, Torbin (Dean-Charles Chapman), and a Jedi Wookiee named Kelnacca (Joonas Suotamo). The quartet had arrived on Brendok to demand they be allowed to check the twins as potential Jedi. The twins had been raised by a coven of “Drive witches” there, led by Mom Aniseya (Jodie Turner-Smith), who believed the Jedi had been misusing the Drive. Whereas Mae was eager to comply with of their mom’s footsteps, Osha needed to coach with the Jedi. When the fireplace broke out, each Mae and Osha believed the opposite twin had been killed together with the remainder of the coven. How the fireplace actually began, and the id of Mae’s Grasp, are the first mysteries but to be revealed.
Lucasfilm/Disney+
Star Wars has all the time had a particular model and visible language. The Acolyte sports activities one thing of the smooth look of a complicated civilization attribute of the prequel trilogy, with simply sufficient of a lived-in look to make sure it nonetheless appears like Star Wars—earlier than the inevitable decay within the wake of the Republic’s collapse and institution of the Empire. Manufacturing designer Kevin Jenkins and cinematographer Chris Teague performed key roles in ensuring The Acolyte stayed true to that ethos whereas additionally giving the collection its personal distinctive look.
Ars spoke with Teague and Jenkins to be taught extra.
