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Credit: Inside the MagicThe Star Wars franchise has seemed to be losing a little steam in the last few years, but the first trailer for the upcoming series The Acolyte has fans excited. There’s only one catch: Leslye Headland, the creator of the show, is pretty explicit that it wasn’t made with them in mind.
It is probably fair to say that since the Walt Disney Company purchased Lucasfilm in 2012, the Star Wars franchise has been hit-and-miss. While the sequel trilogy of films starring Daisy Ridley and Adam Driver grossed billions, they also faced increasing rejection from fans with every entry, with The Rise of Skywalker (2019) universally being seen as the weakest of the three.
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On the Disney+ side of things, Lucasfilm scored a huge hit right out the gate with The Mandalorian, which initially promised to detach itself from the increasingly worn-out Skywalker Saga and center on a gritty new character played by Pedro Pascal (plus an adorable puppet). However, as the seasons have gone on, The Mandalorian has drifted into Luke Skywalker fan service and acting as a back-door vehicle for Ahsoka and The Book of Boba Fett.
Given that Kathleen Kennedy has appointed The Clone Wars chief Dave Filoni as the new creative head of Star Wars, it should not really be a surprise that the franchise is increasingly centered on his favorite themes and characters. But it does make it a bit daunting for anyone who wants to get into a new Star Wars series without some deep-cut knowledge of Force gods and renegade clone troopers.
In that sense, The Acolyte could be a great entry point for new Star Wars fans, especially as series creator Leslye Headland has said that the show was not made for hardcore franchise fans but, instead, to be appealing to everyone.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Leslye Headland revealed that she had extensively mined the Star Wars universe for cameos and references, but the show was not intended to hinge on deep knowledge. She said, “You see a lot of cameos of alien species that I don’t think I’ve seen in post-Disney live-action, meaning a Zygerrian Jedi and a half-Theelin, half-human Jedi. So there are species that you will see, but they aren’t necessarily like, ‘Oh, it’s that guy from that movie. Oh, it’s that character from Return of the Jedi: Special Edition (1997).’ It’s more like references to Star Wars that I think will excite fans, but they aren’t specifically named characters that exist there. ”
While that might seem like Leslye Headland is constructing a show for longtime fans, she is clear that’s not the case. The writer continued, saying, “[Y]ou could definitely watch this series without knowing anything about Star Wars, but if you are a Star Wars fan, you will notice all of the things that we’ve put in there.”
Star Wars fans are arguably some of the most canon-obsessed audiences out there, but the line between “reference” and “fan service” is thin and often debated. It is extremely notable that Headland also specifically hired at least one writer who was not a fan of the series and knew very little about the franchise. She said:
“I just thought it would be good to have the perspective of a person that had literally never seen Star Wars until she was in the room. And she said to me, ‘Why do you want me in this room? I’ve never seen Star Wars. I have no idea. I think there’s a dog in it, but I don’t know anything.’ And I was like, ‘First of all, you’re an incredible writer, but that’s why I want you here. I want you to be questioning narrative. I don’t want myself, who’s a lifelong fan, to just be relying on particular references in order to create emotional beats. I want those emotional beats to be earned and checked by someone that isn’t super familiar with it.'”
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We’ll have to wait and see whether The Acolyte will achieve the critical acclaim of Andor or the relative indifference of Obi-Wan Kenobi, but, at the very least, it’s clear that it’s a show that’s open to newcomers.
The series is scheduled to stream on Disney+ on June 4 and will star Amandla Stenberg, Lee Jung-jae, Carrie-Anne Moss, Dafne Keen, and Manny Jacinto. Reportedly, the plot will take place in the days of the High Republic, approximately a hundred years before The Phantom Menace (1999), and involves a Jedi Master investigating a mysterious series of crimes.
Are you excited for The Acolyte? Let’s hear your expectations in the comments below!