Star Wars: The Acolyte Adds Squid Game Star Lee Jung-Jae

Breakout star of Squid Game Lee Jung-Jae has reportedly found his first major studio opportunity, with Deadline reporting the actor will be heading to the galaxy far, far away for Star Wars: The Acolyte. Like most Lucasfilm projects, the actual role that the actor is set to be taking on is being kept under wraps, as is much of the plot of the new series. Jung-Jae joins stars Amandla Stenberg and Jodie Turner-Smith in the project, which is being developed by Leslye Headland. The new project will be venturing into uncharted territory for the franchise, as it will be a live-action adventure set long before the Skywalker Saga.

The Acolyte is said to take place roughly 100 years before the events of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace and will explore the early days of the Sith reemergence that would go on to create the Galactic Empire. 

With this new series bringing to life adventures that haven’t entirely been explored before, Headland previously detailed what makes the concept so exciting and how she’ll be drawing on a vast wealth of Star Wars lore to inspire the events of the storyline.

“The truth is that I, as a major mega fan, came to them with this idea. And I said, ‘I think the best place to put this is in an era you guys have not quite explored yet,’” Headland revealed to Vanity Fair earlier this year. “They were very enthusiastic. It wasn’t that they didn’t want to explore that [existing] world, but I think that they already were because The Mandalorian and a lot of the other television projects were really relying on legacy characters.”

She continued, “I was coming at it as a fan who was much more into the RPG that the Extended Universe feeds on. I came hard at that in the ’90s, and then got introduced to [Star Wars:] The Clone Wars. I knew the timeline really well. And I was like, ‘I think if you want to explore Star Wars from the perspective of the bad guys, the best time to do it is when the bad guys are wildly outnumbered. When they actually are essentially the underdogs, for lack of a better term.’ So this would be that era.”

Stay tuned for details on Star Wars: The Acolyte.

Are you excited that the actor has joined the project? Let us know in the comments or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!