The Acolyte, the next Star Wars show set to be released, has already given audiences plenty to be excited about. The Acolyte is set to change quite a bit about the typical Star Wars formula, starting off with its setting in the Star Wars timeline. Since The Acolyte is set in the High Republic era, it presents a completely new story, and the first time live-action Star Wars has ever departed from the Skywalker saga. The confirmed details about The Acolyte released so far have further indicated that it will be a new take on the franchise, but that’s not the only reason to be excited.
Though it’s different from the Skywalker saga, The Acolyte also serves as a prequel to The Phantom Menace. That means it will likely have major implications for the entire franchise, and could be key to the future of Star Wars movies. It seems the entire galaxy hangs in the balance in The Acolyte, which is enough to make the upcoming Star Wars show exciting in its own right. There are 10 other major reasons to be excited for The Acolyte, though, and they paint a thrilling picture of what’s to come for Star Wars.
While there are a few prequel Jedi who could return in The Acolyte, like Yoda or Plo Koon, they won’t be the main focus of the show. Instead, The Acolyte has introduced a cast of almost entirely new characters for the show. The characters of Star Wars are one of the franchise’s most beloved aspects, and adding more of them is an exciting prospect. One of the few characters who wasn’t created for The Acolyte is Vernestra Rwoh, but her involvement in the series is still exciting, since she will be the first character from a High Republic novel to make the jump to live-action.
The addition of so many new characters in The Acolyte is also exciting because it will help it stand out from most of the Star Wars content that has been produced. Because they’ve been created specifically for this show, and because it takes place 100 years before The Phantom Menace, none of the main characters of The Acolyte have a direct link to the Skywalker saga. That means they won’t have to fit into Anakin, Luke, or Rey’s story as a side character, and can instead show truly new parts of the Jedi Order and the galaxy as a whole.
Star Wars has a history of getting creative with its iconic weapons – lightsabers – and The Acolyte is poised to continue the tradition. The High Republic was a time when Jedi could experiment with their equipment, which resulted in some truly unique lightsaber types and variants. The Acolyte has already set itself up to introduce at least one in live action, in the form of Vernestra Rwoh’s lightwhip. It could easily introduce many others, like the lightspear or lightsabers, and it could also feature the return of lightsaber types that aren’t often featured, like the switchblade or lightsabers with a crossguard.
In addition to the lightsabers themselves being unique, The Acolyte will also show little-seen lightsaber colors. The trailers and posters alone have highlighted everything from the more standard blue and green to more unusual variants like yellow and pink. Having such a wide variety of weapons on display will help each Jedi in The Acolyte feel unique, and it serves as a very exciting aspect of the show in its own right.
Lightsabers weren’t the only piece of Jedi technology that looked different during the High Republic, though. The starships Jedi used were also very different, and The Acolyte will bring the Vector to live-action. The Vector was a type of starship used commonly throughout the High Republic era, and it differed greatly from the more modern Jedi starfighters seen in the prequel trilogy. They were sleek, fast, agile, and they had very few additional features like shields. Vectors even required their pilots to insert a lightsaber to activate its weapons system, to make sure deadly force was carefully considered before it was used.
The differences between Vectors and starfighters also speak to an interesting difference between the High Republic and prequel-era Jedi that The Acolyte could explore. Because they were designed for utility and with the Jedi’s peacekeeping duties in mind, Vectors symbolized the entire High Republic era. Jedi starfighters, on the other hand, were made for war, which reflected the role the Order played in the Clone Wars.
The Skywalker saga depicted a very specific version of the Jedi Order, and The Acolyte will paint a very different picture of the organization. In the main Star Wars timeline, the Order shown in the prequel trilogy was at the very end of its life, and it had all the problems and baggage that eventually led to its destruction. While they were still in power, their strength had greatly diminished, and they had all but lost track of their core values. They were also enmeshed in a brutal, deadly war that forced Jedi to be primarily warriors and commanders.
In the High Republic, however, the Jedi were in their prime. They essentially controlled the galaxy unopposed in an era of relative peace, meaning Jedi could devote themselves to areas other than combat, like scholarly study or technological innovation. They were also much closer to the Order’s founding principles, and acted primarily as true peacekeepers rather than as tools of the Republic. The Acolyte could show a side of the Jedi Order never before seen in live-action by virtue of being set during the High Republic, which is a very unique opportunity.
The Acolyte has been billed as a murder mystery where Jedi are the victims, but there’s another interesting secret the show is keeping. At the end of the latest trailer for The Acolyte, the newest Sith Lord in live-action Star Wars made their debut wearing a black helmet with a toothy grin built into it. Currently, the identity of that Sith Lord is just speculation, but it could be anyone from a Sith Lord never seen in live-action before to a brand-new one created for the show. Finding out whose face is beneath the helmet will surely be an exciting aspect of The Acolyte.
Part of the reason a new Sith Lord other than Darth Sidious is so exciting is because of how unpredictable they will be. Throughout the Skywalker saga, Sidious has more or less been a known entity. He can always be relied on to do exactly what’s in his best interest, and he’s always the embodiment of pure evil. A new Sith Lord doesn’t have to fit into a previous characterization, even if it is an already established person. Everything about them, from their personality to their agenda, could be a surprise.
Since it was announced, The Acolyte has been hailed as one of the most dark and mature stories ever told in Star Wars, which is particularly exciting. Star Wars has always dealt with mature themes, from Palpatine’s political machinations and Darth Vader’s slaughter of the younglings in the prequel trilogy to The Last Jedi‘s discussions of failure. While the franchise hasn’t been afraid to tackle heavy topics, it has never gone about them in quite the same way as The Acolyte will.
The Acolyte is a murder mystery and conspiracy story, which should add a thrilling level of intrigue. Those are genres that allow for a darker tone than Star Wars is used to, though it has been done before. The most notable example of such a story structure was Fives’ death in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which saw him trying to uncover a conspiracy. Because of the way his story was told, Fives became one of the most tragic characters in the entire franchise with one of its darkest endings, and The Acolyte could take it even further.
There have been prominent Jedi who were aliens ever since Yoda made his debut The Empire Strikes Back, but aside from him and Ahsoka Tano, they’ve never really served as the main focus of any live-action Star Wars story. In the prequel trilogy, for example, the alien Jedi on the High Council took a back seat to the humans, and mostly acted as side characters. Part of the reason for that is that George Lucas wanted to keep the focus on human Jedi to make them seem more sympathetic, but that sentiment has been changing recently.
The Acolyte has already debuted several alien Jedi and indicated that they’ll be massively important to the show’s story. There’s the Mirialan Vernestra Rwoh, as well as Dafne Keen’s Theelin Jecki Lon, both of whom have been prominently featured in The Acolyte‘s trailers and artwork. There’s also Master Kelnacca, the first Wookiee Jedi ever seen in live-action. With so many non-human Jedi, it’s clear that The Acolyte will show an excitingly diverse Order.
Another one of The Acolyte‘s main differences from the rest of Star Wars comes from its focus. In the past, Star Wars has been almost exclusively interested in the Jedi and their allies, with dark side users acting only as antagonists. The Acolyte, however, has promised that the Sith and the dark side will be a major part of the show, and part of the story will even be told from their perspective. That could allow for major insights into not only how the Sith work, but how they view themselves and their effect on the galaxy.
In addition to the Sith, The Acolyte has promised to provide an entirely new perspective on the Force. A major theme of the show as illustrated in its trailers is power: who gets to wield it, and whether they should. That will likely lead to someone challenging the Jedi’s authority, which will likely be Mother Aniseya and her Force cult. Ideas of the Force outside of the Jedi and Sith are rare to find in Star Wars, with only the Nightsisters of Dathomir acting as prominent examples, so Mother Aniseya will be a welcome addition.
Since The Acolyte will partially tell its story from a Sith perspective, it also has a unique opportunity to completely revolutionize the narrative surrounding them. Throughout the Skywalker saga, the Sith have simply been an organization that embodies evil: the perfect villains. The Acolyte, however, is taking a different approach to them. As showrunner Leslye Headland said, “I am always attracted to amoral – or immoral – characters, and finding the humanity within the villains,” which means the Sith could become much more sympathetic.
The Sith are as old as Star Wars, yet they haven’t been explored in live-action Star Wars nearly enough. The Acolyte could fix that mistake. By showing a new side of the Sith, The Acolyte could be able to use them in a much more nuanced and complex way. It would also work perfectly with the show’s goal of critiquing power, as a more sympathetic Sith would be better able to contrast the Jedi and be an alternative to them.