Star Wars: The Acolyte Reportedly Finds Its Star in The Hunger Games' Amandla Stenberg

The future of the Star Wars franchise is expected to be expanded in some major ways on Disney+, with a number of live-action and animated projects set in a galaxy far, far away. Among them is Star Wars: The Acolyte, a live-action series that will be set in the tail end of the High Republic era, a point in time that is currently being explored in comics and novels. The series was first announced to be in the works over a year ago, and with production rumored to begin sooner than later, fans have been curious for any update surrounding the series. Luckily, we got one on Wednesday, with Variety confirming that Amandla Stenberg is in talks to join The Acolyte in its lead role. The news of Stenberg's potential involvement in the Disney+ series was first reported by The Illuminerdi. Stenberg, who identifies as nonbinary, is best known for their breakout role as Rue in The Hunger Games, and subsequent performances in The Hate U Give and The Darkest Minds.

While details surrounding Stenberg's role are currently unknown, we know that The Acolyte will be a martial arts-influenced mystery-thriller that will take viewers into a galaxy of shadowy secrets and emerging dark-side powers in the final days of the High Republic era. The series is being showrun by Russian Doll and Sleeping With Other People alum Leslye Headland.

"Just because my show is technically, yes, 'female-centric', meaning it centers around a female protagonist, I don't think that necessarily excludes men from that space," Headland explained during a previous interview with Fantastic Frankey. "I relate to male characters all the time. I root for Mando. I root for Luke... An inclusive space means an inclusive space. But at the same time, I think that just because something has a female protagonist doesn't necessarily mean it's only for women."

"I kind of see, if Star Wars is a religion... I like to think of my show as a tent revival," Headland continued. "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? What do you think of Stenberg potentially playing the lead role? 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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