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Credit: Inside the MagicPlenty of exciting projects are on Lucasfilm’s slate, with the upcoming Disney+ Ahsoka series taking center stage as it inches closer to its August release date. But looming on the horizon is also showrunner Leslye Headland’s The Acolyte, one of the more mysterious Star Wars projects set to arrive on Disney’s streamer sometime next year. And according to a new report, it’s shaping up to be one of the most expensive—and possibly star-studded—productions to date.
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After the success of Star Wars’ first live-action show, The Mandalorian, Disney clearly has no qualms with throwing obscene amounts of money at Lucasfilm’s recent TV projects. For one, Andor, Tony Gilroy’s stellar prequel series to 2016’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, received a staggering $250 million budget, with its second season expected to follow suit. The Jude Law-led Skeleton Crew is rumored to have cost over $100 million as well, making the Obi-Wan Kenobi miniseries’ $90 million budget sound like a real bargain.
Over the last three years, Lucasfilm has seemingly learned its lesson with Star Wars: when it comes to quality, you get what you pay for. Obviously, it’s near-impossible to pinch pennies while creating a sci-fi epic set in the galaxy far, far away these days, from CGI to extensive visual effects and everything in between. But Disney’s finances are in crisis at the moment thanks to plummeting stock market shares, pandemic recovery, and the ongoing WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, meaning the company can’t afford another flop—even on their own streaming platform.
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Still, it seems like Disney+ is placing all its eggs in one basket with the elusive Star Wars spinoff, The Acolyte. While not much is known about the series, aside from its leading cast (Amandla Stenberg, Jodie Turner-Smith, Lee Jung-jae) and its unique setting at the end of the High Republic era, a new report from Forbes revealed that a whopping $49 million was spent on The Acolyte‘s pre-production alone, causing many to raise an eyebrow.
For one, The Acolyte’s production budget was not $49 million, meaning this wasn’t just a remarkably cost-effective project for Lucasfilm. Instead, this money was allocated purely towards pre-production costs, which include location scouting, insurance, script fees, casting director rates, and everything that takes place before the cameras start rolling. There are still plenty of fees on top of this, including editing and VFX in post-production and marketing budgets. With this in mind, The Acolyte’s budget almost certainly surpasses 100 million.
The Forbes article goes on to say that The Acolyte spent $5 million more than Rogue One in pre-production, but that Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) spent 17% more, and that Andor spent a whopping 38% more than The Acolyte in pre-production. Still, the new show is shaping up to be one of the more expensive Star Wars TV shows to date, and there might be a good reason why.
For years, Star Wars fans have “fan-casted” legendary John Wick actor Keanu Reeves as Revan, a Dark Lord of the Sith who lived during the Old Republic Era in Legends. While this timeline doesn’t exactly line up with that of The Acolyte, a new batch of rumors have made their way across the internet in recent weeks claiming that Reeves is a part of the cast after speculation of his alleged cameo in the Disney+ series kicked off thanks to a report from Giant Freakin’ Robot.
Details of The Acolyte are tightly under wraps, so even if rumors of Reeves’ casting end up being true, we likely won’t know until the series premieres in 2024. Any details regarding his alleged involvement in the project or his character, at that, have yet to be confirmed by any of the cast or crew, but it should be noted that the actor is a longtime fan of the franchise, meaning he’d probably jump at the chance to star in a new show.
If Reeves, a Hollywood A-lister whose talents undoubtedly come with a hefty price tag, really did sign onto The Acolyte, this could explain the series’ ridiculously high pre-production budget. However, it could also be chalked up to a number of things, which seems to be the most likely case considering speculation about Reeves’ Star Wars role remains, well, speculation.
Unless anything is confirmed ahead of the series’ release, rumors of Keanu Reeves joining The Acolyte cast seem pretty unfounded. Still, it’ll be interesting to see if the mysterious new show can live up to its exceptionally high pre-production budget and if it might end up being one of Lucasfilm’s most lucrative projects yet.
Are you excited for The Acolyte? Let us know in the comments below.