Star Wars: The Acolyte Timeline and New Details Confirmed

The future of the Star Wars universe is flourishing on Disney+, with a number of live-action and animated series set in a galaxy far, far away. One of the most intriguing series to hit that roster has been Star Wars: The Acolyte, a live-action show that will be set during the downfall of the High Republic era. While the High Republic is currently being explored in novels and comics, The Acolyte will bring it to the mainstream, and a new report from Vanity Fair shines light on how work on the series is going. According to their reporting, writing on The Acolyte is “largely complete”, with the show now in its casting phase, with The Hunger Games‘ Amandla Stenberg reportedly in talks to star.

In the report, The Acolyte showrunner Leslye Headland, who is best known for co-creating Netflix’s Russian Doll, described the series as a mystery thriller set in a prosperous and seemingly peaceful era. She also confirmed that the series is set roughly 100 years before the events of The Phantom Menace.

“A lot of those characters haven’t even been born yet,” Headland explained. “We’re taking a look at the political and personal and spiritual things that came up in a time period that we don’t know much about. My question when watching The Phantom Menace was always like, ‘Well, how did things get to this point?’ How did we get to a point where a Sith lord can infiltrate the Senate and none of the Jedi pick up on it? Like, what went wrong? What are the scenarios that led us to this moment?’”

“We actually use the term the Renaissance, or the Age of Enlightenment,” Headland added. “The Jedi uniforms are gold and white, and it’s almost like they would never get dirty. They would never be out and about,” Headland says. “The idea is that they could have these types of uniforms because that’s how little they’re getting into skirmishes.”

This echoes comments that Headland previously made during an interview with Fantastic Frankey. , comparing her series to a “tent revival” within the Star Wars lore.

“I kind of see, if Star Wars is a religion… I like to think of my show as a tent revival,” Headland revealed. “You can come over if you want to. We’re going to be talking about some cool stuff. There’s going to be some things we haven’t discussed in the canon yet. There are going to be some characters you don’t know about. I would love you to join us. I would love you to be interested in it. If it’s not your thing — the cool thing about Star Wars right now is there’s so much you can align yourself with and get invested in, but if you don’t like it, that’s fine.”

Are you excited to see Star Wars: The Acolyte? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below! If you haven’t checked out Disney+ yet and you want to give it a go, you can do that here.

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