The Acolyte (Star Wars Disney+ show)

[mdmost 42999]

Trailer drops tomorrow. Very much looking forward to this because it's billed as a Star Wars detective show set in the High Republic era (200 years before the prequels). The poster makes this look clearly like an adult Star Wars show. Premieres June 4th. 

The summary from Lucasfilm:

In The Acolyte, an investigation into a shocking crime spree pits a respected Jedi Master (Lee Jung-jae) against a dangerous warrior from his past (Amandla Stenberg). As more clues emerge, they travel down a dark path where sinister forces reveal all is not what it seems….

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.

The Acolyte comes from creator and showrunner Leslye Headland (Russian Doll), who also serves as executive producer alongside Kathleen Kennedy, Simon Emanuel, Jeff F. King, and Jason Micallef. Charmaine DeGraté and Kor Adana are the co-executive producers; Rayne Roberts, Damian Anderson, Rob Bredow, and Eileen Shim are producing.

 

[billfromlaketravis 11447]

We’re not getting much Star Wars this year. I’m so thirsty for new content I’ll watch literally anything. Cautiously optimistic. 

[huge 3793]

I didn't get Russian Doll but most others seemed to like it.

Set up sounds fantastic.

[NorthLoop 14181]

Sounds made up

[mdmost 42999]

Carrie Anne Moss as a hot Jedi is fine with me. 

Edited March 19 by mdmost

[utxmike05 1828]

1 hour ago, mdmost said:

Carrie Anne Moss as a hot Jedi is fine with me. 

Trailer is fukin rowdy.  Love me a good Matrix simulation.

[Buzzrock 14902]

Felt like a fan trailer. Hope it’s good but expectations are low. 

[Levi 2585]

The trailer looks great and I’m excited to watch the series! But I’m a little confused. In episode 1 we learn that the sith have been extinct for a thousand years or more. I don’t think that is something they’re going to retcon or else there will be a big backlash. So are these just dark side users who have nothing to do with the sith? Or possibly none of the Jedi depicted in the trailer survive and in return the Jedi council doesn’t find out? I think there’s some interesting routes they take with this, I just hope they don’t muddy the water with what was said in episode 1. 

[mdleast 8289]

9 minutes ago, Levi said:

 I think there’s some interesting routes they take with this, I just hope they don’t muddy the water with what was said in episode 1. 

Tell us you love Midi-chlorians without telling us you love Midi-chlorians...

[mdmost 42999]

46 minutes ago, Levi said:

The trailer looks great and I’m excited to watch the series! But I’m a little confused. In episode 1 we learn that the sith have been extinct for a thousand years or more. I don’t think that is something they’re going to retcon or else there will be a big backlash. So are these just dark side users who have nothing to do with the sith? Or possibly none of the Jedi depicted in the trailer survive and in return the Jedi council doesn’t find out? I think there’s some interesting routes they take with this, I just hope they don’t muddy the water with what was said in episode 1. 

A dark side user isn't necessarily a Sith. Inquisitors were not Sith. But the Jedi didn't see Palpatine was doing all the dark side stuff right under their noses so the millenia line could be the same arrogance that caused their downfall. 

[UT_OB1 2217]

43 minutes ago, Levi said:

In episode 1 we learn that the sith have been extinct for a thousand years or more. I don’t think that is something they’re going to retcon or else there will be a big backlash. 

 

The arrogant Jedi that didn’t realize that they were being played by Darth Sideous to be turned in to his personal police force, who was also trained by his Sith master years before that?  You’re going to take their word on the Sith being extinct for a thousand years?  The whole point of the PT - which they actually did a decent job of, and the CW really did an excellent job of - was showing that the Jedi order had become of broken. They had the means to save themselves, but their arrogance got them in the end. 

[Levi 2585]

18 minutes ago, mdmost said:

A dark side user isn't necessarily a Sith. Inquisitors were not Sith. But the Jedi didn't see Palpatine was doing all the dark side stuff right under their noses so the millenia line could be the same arrogance that caused their downfall. 

 

17 minutes ago, UT_OB1 said:

 

The arrogant Jedi that didn’t realize that they were being played by Darth Sideous to be turned in to his personal police force, who was also trained by his Sith master years before that?  You’re going to take their word on the Sith being extinct for a thousand years?  The whole point of the PT - which they actually did a decent job of, and the CW really did an excellent job of - was showing that the Jedi order had become of broken. They had the means to save themselves, but their arrogance got them in the end. 

I get all of that. What palps was doing to the Jedi under their nose is well documented and understood. But if a group of Jedi are investigating an evil that is happening, and the said evil labels themselves as sith, then I would assume the Jedi council would dig deeper on whether they really are sith or just a bunch dark user types not affiliated with the sith or rule of 2. Papls was pretty damn good at being incognito with his sith ways towards the Jedi and the Jedi being full of themselves was recipe for disaster. The Jedi needed to look inward to find the root problem. This is out in the open compared to what Sideous was doing. If this evil turns out to be operating like the inquisitors were under Sideous/Vader then it’s going to make what transpired on the council in the prequels more complex, especially Yoda being alive for all of it. 

After I made my initial post, I did see Jodie Turner-Smith is playing “Mother Aniseya”, a leader of witches. So that could be the dark side of things we’re dealing with a la nightsisters. 

[freyguy 4262]

Meh, pretty underwhelming.  200 years is just too close to the slow build up to the prequels and all that.  

I'd rather see some much older shit or something grittier like Andor.

But I'll probably watch it anyway...and still hate it. 

[Stringer 1438]

This is not Feloni right?  The Mandolorian Season 3 and Ashoka got way too into the lore for me.  I didn't watch the cartoons, so I was lost half the time.

[NOMAAA 1696]

So who’s the big bad guy in this?

[billfromlaketravis 11447]

4 hours ago, Buzzrock said:

Felt like a fan trailer. Hope it’s good but expectations are low. 

[Pato del Muerto 52485]

Amandla?

[atomheartbevo 89626]

13 hours ago, mdmost said:

Carrie Anne Moss as a hot Jedi is fine with me. 

Yep.  For those Carrie-Anne Moss fans who wrote a lot of erotic fan fiction in the late 90s/00s about her Matrix character, it’s going to be awfully easy to  load up the old text files and swap out settings and character names and have some new material to work with.

[henrygandorf 29189]

[mdmost 42999]

10 hours ago, NOMAAA said:

So who’s the big bad guy in this?

We have no idea but I'm going to assume a dark side user. 

10 hours ago, Stringer said:

This is not Feloni right?  The Mandolorian Season 3 and Ashoka got way too into the lore for me.  I didn't watch the cartoons, so I was lost half the time.

No, he's not involved. This is from the creator of Russian Doll. She is an EU nerd and this is set in the same time as the new High Republic novels. I doubt she will drop much of those in here aside from an existing character. I doubt she's going to just assume the viewer has read the novels like Filoni does with his shows needing the viewer to have watched the earlier cartoons. This is set 200 years before the prequels. 

 

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-features/star-wars-the-acolyte-trailer-timeline-1235855636/

Edited March 20 by mdmost

[Murfdogg21 4412]

Not so bold prediction: they left Yoda out of the trailer so there can be an ooo and ah moment when he comes on screen. This period is probably peak for him #nocane

[atomheartbevo 89626]

1 hour ago, mdmost said:

We have no idea but I'm going to assume a dark side user. 

No, he's not involved. This is from the creator of Russian Doll. She is an EU nerd and this is set in the same time as the new High Republic novels. I doubt she will drop much of those in here aside from an existing character. I doubt she's going to just assume the viewer has read the novels like Filoni does with his shows needing the viewer to have watched the earlier cartoons. This is set 200 years before the prequels. 

She’s a huge EU fan and has said she brought some EU stuff into the series, but she also said you don’t have to read any of the EU or High Republic books to follow the story.

I’m glad they brought in somebody who grew up reading the EU books (and her Russian Doll work helps). Yeah, there was some bad EU stuff.  A lot of bad EU stuff, but there was also some good stuff (see Thrawn and Co.) and the EU stuff arguably kept Star Wars going for a lot of fans for quite a while.

[NOMAAA 1696]

Maybe it will have sifo dyas. 

[Js1 85275]

9 minutes ago, NOMAAA said:

Maybe it will have sifo dyas. 

A new original character named Skywalker, imo. Even in passing. God forbid a Star Wars doesn’t mention Skywalker.

[Smax 3800]

19 hours ago, freyguy said:

Meh, pretty underwhelming.  200 years is just too close to the slow build up to the prequels and all that.  

I'd rather see some much older shit or something grittier like Andor.

But I'll probably watch it anyway...and still hate it. 

 

 

I aways to see this as a movie

 

 

[Murfdogg21 4412]

Read some nerd reviews yesterday who say this creator loved The Last Jedi and pitched to Kathleen Kennedy that they could redeem that movie by exploring more on the themes that the Jedi are wrong, or bad, or morally ambiguous. I don’t know why Disney keeps coming back to this. Andor showed you can make great SW content that is not related to Skywalkers. You don’t have to tear down motifs and characters that people have loved for 40+ years and upon which your franchise is based. 

[mdmost 42999]

30 minutes ago, Murfdogg21 said:

Read some nerd reviews yesterday

Your first problem was doing this at all. 

[atomheartbevo 89626]

39 minutes ago, Murfdogg21 said:

Read some nerd reviews yesterday who say this creator loved The Last Jedi and pitched to Kathleen Kennedy that they could redeem that movie by exploring more on the themes that the Jedi are wrong, or bad, or morally ambiguous. I don’t know why Disney keeps coming back to this. Andor showed you can make great SW content that is not related to Skywalkers. You don’t have to tear down motifs and characters that people have loved for 40+ years and upon which your franchise is based. 

There seems to be a trend among the TV show runners (Filoni, Favreau) to try and redeem the Skywalker movies, so I could totally see this show runner pitching a show that would redeem the sequels just as Filoni worked to redeem the prequels.  It’s a great selling point “hey I’ll make the hardcore fans like the sequels just like many of them now like the prequels” (never mind that the sequels made the prequels look good).

I’d actually kind of like there to be a theme of the Jedi being morally ambiguous, because that could lead to the attitudes non-Jedi have with the Jedi as well as the complacency we have with the Jedi when Phantom Menace rolls around - they could not wrap their minds around the Sith being back, and they let themselves be completely used by Palpatine and then got their asses Order 66’ed.

 I actually wonder a little bit if the opening of the trailer with the kids is from the end of the series and he’s telling them “we didn’t believe the Sith were still around and we should have been listening to the Force”, even though the one girl mentions the bit about fire.

With that said, the show runner really loves the EU and said nobody pushed back on her using some big EU ideas (and arguably the biggest EU idea was Thrawn) and she said that she put some big EU ideas in the early and later episodes.  I’d guess it was Sith-related lore, which brings me to this - there’s a lot of stupid fucking takes out there (especially the incels bitching about certain aspects), but I’ve seen multiple people dumbfounded that there might be Sith, because in The Phantom Menace the Sith were supposed to be extinct.  Meanwhile, Palps is floating around and he himself had a Sith master, so there were clearly Sith still around,

I don’t think it’s Darth Plageus like some wonder, as the math doesn’t work out,

Edited March 22 by atomheartbevo

[atomheartbevo 89626]

41 minutes ago, Murfdogg21 said:

themes that the Jedi are wrong, or bad, or morally ambiguous.

And to expand on this slightly since I can’t edit the mini-manifesto above, when Phantom Menace rolled around, we already had some moral ambiguity with Obi-wan, and especially with Qui-Gon Jinn, a respected Jedi Master who was straight up lying to Watto and then rigging the dice roll.

I’m probably reading too much into the trailer, but I feel like we are going to see them setting up TPM, basically saying “what went wrong with the Jedi where we went from them being at the height of their power to Palpatine eventually destroying the Jedi Order in less than two centuries?”

[mdmost 42999]

3 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

And to expand on this slightly since I can’t edit the mini-manifesto above, when Phantom Menace rolled around, we already had some moral ambiguity with Obi-wan, and especially with Qui-Gon Jinn, a respected Jedi Master who was straight up lying to Watto and then rigging the dice roll.

I’m probably reading too much into the trailer, but I feel like we are going to see them setting up TPM, basically saying “what went wrong with the Jedi where we went from them being at the height of their power to Palpatine eventually destroying the Jedi Order in less than two centuries?”

She said exactly that in an article with Entertainment Weekly:

Quote

“I really wanted to tell a story about the Sith,” explains Headland, best known for creating the Netflix hit Russian Doll. “That was kind of my dream Star Wars idea. But it felt like the time period to do that in would be something pre-Phantom Menace. That seemed to be the most interesting trajectory for the Sith: How did the Sith go from the Rule of Two and being quote-unquote ‘extinct’ to Palpatine coming into power without the Jedi knowing about it?”

I'd argue the prequels and Clone Wars directly addressed that the Jedi weren't always the benevolent group that Obi Wan and Yoda painted them to be in the OT. Andor shows the Rebellion got their hands pretty dirty as well. Luthen is fine with sacrificing others for the greater good. Mon Mothma sells her daughter's hand in marriage for funds to support the Rebellion. 

[MissingInAction 25008]

[Smax 3800]

This is bad ass

 

Quote

Closing out the festivities this evening, the Empire State Building debuted a five-minute dynamic light show featuring fan-favorite scenes from Star Wars films and streaming series — with a special focus on villains including Darth Vader, Emperor Palpatine, stormtroopers and more. The spectacle was synched to John Williams’ “The Imperial March (Darth Vader’s Theme),” which was played simultaneously on iHeartMedia’s Z100 New York radio station and on the iHeartRadio app. 

https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2024/03/star-wars-takes-over-empire-state-building-in-nyc/

 

 

@PenelopeWitherspoon did you happen to catch this?

[Murfdogg21 4412]

1 hour ago, atomheartbevo said:

I actually wonder a little bit if the opening of the trailer with the kids is from the end of the series and he’s telling them “we didn’t believe the Sith were still around and we should have been listening to the Force”, even though the one girl mentions the bit about fire.

Not sure if spoiler, probably addressed in first 5 minutes of first episode:

Spoiler

Somewhere they said the young girl who says she sees fire is the one who grows up to be the rogue agent (or is she the ‘acolyte’?) (the hunger games Rue actress). Maybe the Jedi kicked her out as a youngling for seeing both sides of the force?

Some of the things you mentioned about Jedi or rebels getting their hands dirty, yeah but it was always a greater good thing. I think there are people out there who want to rewrite it like the Jedi were actually the villains, or at least non-good misguided force zealots. They were clearly ignorant, but I don’t believe they ever had bad motives. Painting the sith, night sisters, or other dark side users as the heroes is some Lucifer worship type shit. 

[mdmost 42999]

You're making a gigantic leap that this series will be that based on internet conjecture.

[PenelopeWitherspoon 19100]

55 minutes ago, Smax said:

This is bad ass

 

https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2024/03/star-wars-takes-over-empire-state-building-in-nyc/

 

 

@PenelopeWitherspoon did you happen to catch this?

I am in Paris, but I knoew it was happening.

[Parliament 14239]

3 hours ago, Murfdogg21 said:

…by exploring more on the themes that the Jedi are wrong, or bad, or morally ambiguous.

Why in God’s creation would you do that.

[LCHorn 2612]

3 hours ago, Murfdogg21 said:

Read some nerd reviews yesterday who say this creator loved The Last Jedi and pitched to Kathleen Kennedy that they could redeem that movie by exploring more on the themes that the Jedi are wrong, or bad, or morally ambiguous. I don’t know why Disney keeps coming back to this. Andor showed you can make great SW content that is not related to Skywalkers. You don’t have to tear down motifs and characters that people have loved for 40+ years and upon which your franchise is based. 

Infallible Jedi that are always the good guys is narratively inert if you want to tell compelling and interesting stories.  

What you come up with is this, which I'm sure you're not putting high in your queue (unless you're like me with little kids):

[MissingInAction 25008]

I for one am sick of jedi bullshit. 

Gimme a Wookie show or something about sarlacs fucking.

[Levi 2585]

Palps was doing his thing in the shadows, methodically working through his plan to destroy the Jedi. It wasn’t out in the open. The pompous jedi were not going to search every angle to find the sith. They wouldn’t even listen to Dooku. Had they put their egos to the side, they might have found the sith hiding right under their nose. That is a completely different scenario than how this show is presenting seeing dark side users in the open and labeling them sith (I’m going off what Headland said on wanting create sith story). I wouldn’t be against the order doing a cover up or just blatantly disregarding what they’re seeing, although the latter would place them high on the inept scale. 

[MagicSoccerSpray 1732]

On 3/19/2024 at 5:58 PM, Levi said:

The trailer looks great and I’m excited to watch the series! But I’m a little confused. In episode 1 we learn that the sith have been extinct for a thousand years or more. I don’t think that is something they’re going to retcon or else there will be a big backlash. So are these just dark side users who have nothing to do with the sith? Or possibly none of the Jedi depicted in the trailer survive and in return the Jedi council doesn’t find out? I think there’s some interesting routes they take with this, I just hope they don’t muddy the water with what was said in episode 1. 

 

Don't overthink it, just consume product.

 

On 3/20/2024 at 6:40 AM, mdmost said:

This is from the creator of Russian Doll.

 

And Harvey Weinstein's former assistant

 

[atomheartbevo 89626]

3 hours ago, MagicSoccerSpray said:

Don't overthink it, just consume product.

It’s got Carrie-Anne Moss as a Jedi.  That’s honestly all I need.

[Buzzrock 14902]

I for one am sick of jedi bullshit. 
Gimme a Wookie show or something about sarlacs fucking.

Genius. They could cast Hope Solo in the lead. The tie-in is right there!

[Nivek 16918]

On 3/22/2024 at 3:19 PM, MissingInAction said:

I for one am sick of jedi bullshit. 

Gimme a Wookie show or something about sarlacs fucking.

Jedi are fine if they do it right.  The biggest challenge is the writing and stories they present.   Ray Winstone's character demonstrates they can do more with them and make them more interesting.   But Ezra's return was a bit of a letdown.  Sabine was a little lame.   Jore from the KOTOR game was more interesting.    The idea that they had rules for training jedi from a very early age had to be based on something.   Why?  How did the Sith keep up their training and skills if they were wiped out 1000 years before (there are only 2 right?).   

[MissingInAction 25008]

Midichlorians.

Did I spell that correctly? 

Ahhh, who gives a fuck.

[mdmost 42999]

 

[LCHorn 2612]

previous trailer is superior. 

[CooterBrown 18003]

Every that dude appears on screen, all i can think of is this guy...

 

[F250 28764]

On 3/25/2024 at 10:29 AM, MissingInAction said:

Midichlorians.

Did I spell that correctly? 

Ahhh, who gives a fuck.

They call it M-count now.

[LCHorn 2612]

Okay, just re-watched.  I don’t know enough about film-making techniques to know why this is, but there’s something about the way this and Ahsoka were shot that puts the artifice so front and center that it makes it look amateurish.  

[mdmost 42999]

I swear we didn't used to be this nitpicky over a trailer.