New ‘Star Wars’ Prequel Series Announced as ‘The Acolyte’ Burns Money

Lucasfilm has announced that a new Star Wars prequel series will premiere this summer, even as it spends massive amounts of money trying to make The Acolyte succeed.

Amandla Stenberg stands outdoors, wearing a chainmail-like top with metal armor plating. They are looking upwards with a serious expression. The background features greenery with blurred palm leaves. The scene appears to be set in a forest or jungle environment. — Credit: Lucasfilm

The Star Wars franchise is currently at a crossroads. Twelve years ago, The Walt Disney Company purchased Lucasfilm from founder George Lucas for an estimated $4 billion, acquiring the rights to enormously popular and presumably profitable IPs like Star Wars and Indiana Jones.

Since then, it has released Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023), heavily promoted as Harrison Ford‘s final performance of the character, which became one of the biggest cinematic bombs of the year. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019) made a billion at the box office but was still the lowest-grossing entry in the Disney sequel trilogy and the third most expensive movie ever made.

Adam Driver as Kylo Ren wielding his signature double-hilted red lightsaber in the 'Star Wars' Sequel Trilogy. — Credit: Lucasfilm

The Acolyte, the most recent live-action Star Wars series to premiere on Disney+, reportedly cost $180 million for an eight-episode run, far outstripping the cost of more popular series like The Mandalorian and Ahsoka. In short, Lucasfilm is burning a whole lot of Disney money while the very slow development of The Mandalorian & Grogu and the New Jedi Order movie with Daisy Ridley trudges forward.

In the meantime, the studio is doubling down on the High Republic era in which The Acolyte is set, but for a much more family-friendly series: Young Jedi Adventures. Lucasfilm has announced that Young Jedi Adventures season 2 will hit Disney+ streaming and Disney Junior on August 14, with half of the 25 episodes of the YA-oriented animated series included.

Young Jedi Adventures follows a group of Force-sensitive younglings in the High Republic era, approximately 200 years before Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999), as they train to become Jedi Knights. The official description of season 2 reads:

Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures follows Jedi younglings Kai Brightstar, Lys Solay, and Nubs as they study the ways of the Force, learn from Jedi Master Yoda, explore the galaxy, and help citizens and creatures in need. In Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures Season 2, the younglings will continue their training and embark on even bigger missions across the galaxy. Helping to lead the younglings on these missions is Master Zia’s new Padawan, Wes Vinik, and his astromech R0-M1.

The first season of Young Jedi Adventures was well-regarded by critics and currently holds 80% on Rotten Tomatoes. In particular, the child-friendly and light tone of the series has been praised, particularly as the franchise increasingly moves in darker directions with mature series like The Acolyte and Andor.

Star Wars is going to be taking some pretty big risks in the next few years, with the first feature films in half a decade headed for theaters and projects like the much-anticipated game Star Wars Outlaws in the works. Hopefully, a few lighter projects like Young Jedi Adventures will keep audiences satisfied for now.

Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures stars JeCobi Swain, Juliet Donenfeld, Dee Bradley Baker, Emma Berman, Trey Murphy, Nasim Pedrad, Gunnar Sizemore, and Piotr Michael as Master Yoda. Michael Olson acts as showrunner and executive producer alongside supervising director and co-executive producer Elliot M. Bour.

What upcoming Star Wars project are you looking forward to the most? Comment below!