Credit: LucasfilmStar Wars has always been about politics, despite protestations to the contrary, but its newest project seems to be pushing the envelope.
While the original Star Wars trilogy was basically George Lucas‘ hazy vision of both the Vietnam War and the American Revolution, and the more recent Disney+ series Andor is a pretty direct Cold War allegory, the upcoming show The Acolyte is a little more difficult to figure out… until you find out the code name it was produced under.
Related: ‘Star Wars: Rebels’ Season 5 is Coming to Disney Plus
‘Star Wars’ Projects Are Frequently Given Fake Names
For most of the history of the franchise from a galaxy far, far away, Star Wars projects have been given code names while in production in an attempt to keep plot points under wraps.
Famously, Return of the Jedi (1983) was known as “Blue Harvest” and advertised with the tagline “Horror Beyond Imagination.” Attack of the Clones (2002) was “Jar-Jar’s Big Adventure,” Rogue One was “Los Alamos,” Solo was “Red Cup” (for unimaginative reasons), and more recently, The Mandalorian was known as “Project Huckleberry.”
Now, it has emerged (per Forbes) that The Acolyte was produced under the name “Blue Stockings.” Aside from what seems to be a reference to “Blue Harvest,” it is also echoing an 18th-century literary society, of all things.
The Blue Stockings Society
Specifically, the Blue Stockings Society, a British proto-feminist organization formed around 1750. At the time, even women of high society (which included most members of the society)were discouraged from pursuing education and literary pursuits.
The Blue Stockings Society has often been considered a predecessor of later feminist movements like the suffragettes of the 19th century, which certainly makes it seem like Lucasfilm is strongly indicating the tone of The Acolyte.
‘The Acolyte’ Is a Female-Led Show
Credit: A24
The Acolyte is part of a new wave of Star Wars projects that forefront women both in front and behind the camera. It was created by Leslye Headland and stars Amandla Stenberg, Dafne Keen, and Carrie-Anne Moss as Jedi (among others) and is being prominently publicized as having a heavily different tone than other Star Wars projects.
Leslye Headland recently called it the first Star Wars story not to involve wars, while Amandla Stenberg described it as being a show that makes being a Black nerd safe. Given the chosen code name for The Acolyte, it is difficult not to conclude the show will have a very different perspective than previous installments in the franchise.
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