'The Acolyte,' 'Andor," and 'Ahsoka': Is 'Star Wars' Still for the Kids?

The first trailer for The Acolyte, the latest Star Wars series developed by the Walt Disney Company, just landed on the Internet, and, as one might expect, fans of the franchises reacted with their typical graciousness and restraint.

Just kidding! As is typical for literally any new Star Wars project, opinions were loud, angry, and argumentative. In particular, many enthusiasts on social media immediately began questioning whether or not The Acolyte would “break” prequel canon because it showed a mysterious someone holding a red lightsaber, typically used by the Sith (i.e., the bad guys).

EVERYONE in the acolyte who sees a red lightsaber has to die.
If they don't, prequels canon breaks.

Maul was the first Sith to be seen in 1000 years.

We'll see, maybe it'll be like a Rogue One situation where they all get off'd.

— StarWarsTheory (@realswtheory) March 20, 2024

As we all know, in The Phantom Menace (1999), no less prestigious of a figure than Jedi Council member Ki-Adi-Mundi (Silas Carson) stated that it was impossible that Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) had fought Darth Maul (Ray Park) in the desert of Tatooine, because the Sith had been extinct for a millennium.

Related: ‘Star Wars: The Acolyte’ Already Planning for Season 2

As we also all know, the esteemed Jedi Council member was 100% wrong about that, Qui-Gon Jinn got murked on Naboo, and eventually, Order 66 wiped out most of the Jedi, except when it’s narratively convenient. What really seems to be bothering people on Twitter is how someone with a red lightsaber, presumably a Sith, showed up 100 years before The Phantom Menace, but the Jedi still thought they were extinct.

Naturally, a number of people have already offered solutions or even the extraordinary idea that we wait to watch The Acolyte and see what’s up.

Folks using Ki-Adi Mundi’s line about Sith being extinct to trash #TheAcolyte clearly didn’t understand that the point of that scene was to show that the Sith had already been evading the Jedi, spiritually at least, for a long time.

Also, we don’t know the whole story yet. pic.twitter.com/ldTNGTO2Z1

— 🎥 Adam Hlaváč 💿 (@adamhlavac) March 21, 2024

But the real issue here is not whether The Acolyte is figuratively taking the dreams of George Lucas, crumpling them into a little ball, and tossing them into the garbage (and then burning the garbage can). It’s simply this:

Who Is ‘Star Wars’ Even for Anymore?

The question of whether or not the original Star Wars (1977) was meant for children has been bandied about a million times, which is funny because it’s rather self-evident. It’s a story about space wizards with laser swords and evil bad guys with capes and a beautiful princess. By any reasonable definition, it’s a fairy tale, a genre of storytelling that is traditionally intended for children.

Don’t get it twisted: neither being intended for children nor being a space fairy tale is a marker of quality. Entertainment for children can have depth and nuance, just as entertainment for adults can be pretty dumb. The key to Star Wars has always been that it has always been able to engage with numerous different audiences around the world. George Lucas famously incorporated high art elements like the works of Akira Kurosawa with his own gearhead obsession with fast cars and World War II dogfights, basically his own specific interests.

That bizarre smorgasbord becoming a world-conquering cultural force is a true anomaly, but ultimately, it comes down to Star Wars having an appeal to multiple demographics. But is that the case now?

As the Walt Disney Company tries to figure out exactly how to wring as much money out of Star Wars as it possibly can, it also has been severely limiting its own audience by becoming increasingly insular and lore-based. With every new show that Disney+ rolls out, viewers are expected to know more and more about generations of fictional history and obscure characters.

By its very nature, this is information that the vast majority of children do not possess. So we have to ask, does Star Wars want to appeal to young people? Or does it want to become a fan-service machine for audiences that are inevitably angry at it?

‘Andor:’ The Grimy, Morally Ambiguous ‘Star Wars’

We’ll begin with Andor, the prequel series to Rogue One (2016). The critically acclaimed show stars Diego Luna, reprising the role of Cassian Andor, a young man who becomes radicalized by the violent tyranny of the Galactic Empire to later become a violent “freedom fighter” to whom the ends always justify the means. The series co-stars Stellan Skarsgård, Kyle Soller, Adria Arjona, Fiona Shaw, and Genevieve O’Reilly and chronicles the early formation of the Rebel Alliance and the atrocities of the Empire.

Clearly, the series (created by Tony Gilroy) about Star Wars realpolitik and the spiritual devastation of staring into the void for the service of the greater good is not really intended for children. And that’s fine! At this point, the franchise is vast, and not everything can be as morally clear-cut as a good guy with a blue sword vs. a bad guy with a red sword. But it is clear that Lucasfilm is increasingly leaning into the moral ambiguity of Rogue One as a template for the future of the franchise, as well as training audiences to expect more and more backstory on supporting characters, history, and basically anything except for new adventures.

Again, this is not a criticism per se. If Star Wars never tries to do anything new, we’re just going to get more Starkiller Bases and Sith Lords with weird helmets. But what Andor is showing us is that there is now no Star Wars that does not involve having previous knowledge of at least one prequel film and awareness of who characters like Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly, whose casting in itself was an Easter Egg of sorts).

Here’s the thing: children are most likely not going to have sat down and studied the lore of Star Wars. But that’s who the new shows are being made for.

‘Ahsoka:’ The Gospel According to Dave Filoni

Ahsoka, another one of the newest batch of Star Wars shows, has the same problem. The series, which stars Rosario Dawson as the former Padawan of Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen), is somehow a spinoff of both The Mandalorian and The Clone Wars, the animated series technically created by George Lucas. But if The Clone Wars has a true creative impulse behind it, it’s Dave Filoni, who acted as supervising director on the show.

The Clone Wars lasted for seven seasons and 133 episodes, many of which are key to understanding what exactly is going on in Ahsoka. Like, what was up with the big statue at the end? You’ll have to watch “Altar of Mortis” to get it, because the show is sure not going to tell you. How come the tense relationship between Ahsoka Tano and Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo)? You’re going to need to sit down for hours of the Siege of Mandalore to even know who Wren is. Who’s Grand Admiral Thrawn? You get the picture,

Now that Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy has put Dave Filoni in change of the creative direction of Star Wars, we are just going to go deeper and deeper into the particular mythos he has managed to carve out. That will be refreshing for many Clone Wars fans, who are seeing live-action versions of beloved characters and long-in-the-works continuations of plotlines.

But The Clone Wars premiered in 2008, more than a decade ago. Can we really expect new audiences to get on board with a show that requires that much homework?

Related: ‘The Mandalorian’ Update Casts Doubt on Disney+ Return, Leaves Ahsoka to Lead Mando-Verse

‘The Acolyte:’ ‘Star Wars’ for People Who Don’t Care About ‘Star Wars’

And then there’s The Acolyte, the upcoming Star Wars series from showrunner and writer Leslye Headland.

The series will take place a century before The Phantom Menace (1999), in what is known as the High Republic era, i.e., when everything seemed to be going pretty well for the Jedi and democracy. The series stars Amandla Stenberg, Lee Jung-jae, Manny Jacinto, Dafne Keen, Rebecca Henderson, and Carrie-Ann Moss.

While little is known of the plot, Leslye Headland has already said that the show was designed to be accessible to people who basically don’t care about the franchise, 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.”

Now, it seems clear that The Acolyte is leaning into the darkness already present in Andor and Ahsoka and presenting the Jedi as imperfect people who might actually be bad guys, from a certain point of view, so it might not be ideal for children. But this could be the course correction we need from Lucasfilm; instead of loading new Star Wars shows with references to the past and deep-cut characters, maybe new fans (children, even) could appreciate having something they could enjoy on its own merits.

And, granted, we’ve got shows like Young Jedi Adventures and Skeleton Crew that are clearly targeted toward children, so it could also be that Kathleen Kennedy and Dave Filoni have their own plans about how to kid kids interested in a decades-old science fiction franchise. But if they want audiences that aren’t just interested in legacy continuations, they might want to slow down on making new shows about old things.

Do you think Star Wars has any appeal for children, or has it pivoted to an entirely adult audience? Let’s hear your thoughts in the comments below!