Star Wars: The Acolyte Finally Delivers Wookiee Jedi Action

Star Wars fans were thrilled to see Kelnacca in action in The Acolyte.

By Jamie Jirak

Joonas Suotamo first joined Star Wars when he took over the role of Chewbacca from Peter Mayhew, and now he's back as a brand new Wookiee: Kelnacca. Fans were thrilled when they first learned about the new character because it marked the first time a Wookiee was also a Jedi in a live-action Star Wars project. Sadly, Kelnacca died in the show's fourth episode without ever seeing any action. However, the most recent episode of the series, "Choice," was a flashback to the events of Brendok that featured a great Kelnacca scene. The Wookiee was mind-controlled by the witches and forced to fight his fellow Jedi. After the episode dropped, many fans took to social media to celebrate Kelnacca's big moment.

"This duel from the latest episode of The Acolyte was seriously so great," @jtimsuggs tweeted. "The choreography in this show has been nothing short of spectacular, and finally seeing Kelnacca in action was as entertaining as it was terrifying." 

"Seeing a Wookiee Jedi go ham in live-action has gotta be a top 10 Star Wars moment of the decade," @TheSWU wrote. "Wookie Jedi fight was such a delight," @ArmandDoma added. 

"My fave part of Acolyte Episode 7 is seeing a Wookie Jedi use a lightsaber in a good fight, first time in 47 years! They have strength and saber / Force skills, much better than weakling humans. Now I want to see the entire SW franchise with Wookie leads instead!" @kevinwinston praised. 

Leslye Headland Explains Kelnacca's Big Fight Scene:

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(Photo:

Kelnacca (Joonas Suotamo) in The Acolyte

- Lucasfilm)

ComicBook recently had the chance to join a press roundtable with The Acolyte creator, Leslye Headland, and we asked what went into the choreography of the fight considering they had to balance Kelnacca's Wookiee strength with his Jedi skills all while being mind-controlled.

"Wookiees are not obviously against antagonists ... They can be very aggressive, but they have this honor code specifically about extending their claws, which they don't do for anything except climbing," Headland explained. "So what we talked about was that when he was under this particular influence, not only would he be so aggressive against his friends and ostensibly the heroes of the story in a way that felt pretty vicious and unlike his own personality, but that also he would unknowingly make this horrible, horrendous choice that he would never make in under his own will. He would never have done so."

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"I guess technically he would get a pass for that, but I don't think he gives himself a pass for it," she continued. "But the fight was incredible. I mean, that was all Kogonada who directed the episode, Chris Cowan, my action choreographer, and also the second unit director, the actors. Joonas is the only person who fits in the suit. So he did all of his own stunts in fighting. JJ did almost all of his own stunts in fighting. My only contribution to it was the one time when Sol is grabbing his arm and saying his name. I just thought it felt like Sol would try to get through to him emotionally, not just fight him."

The season finale of Star Wars: The Acolyte drops on Disney+ on July 16th. 

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