Star Wars: The Acolyte Reveals Full Cast as Filming Begins

By Jamie Lovett

Production on Disney+'s upcoming Star Wars series The Acolyte has officially begun. Disney+ also officially revealed the core cast of the series. Described as "a mystery thriller," The Acolyte takes place in the waning days of the Star Wars galaxy's High Republic era, as dark-side forces begin to emerge from the shadows. The plot sees a former Padawan reuniting with her Jedi Master. Together, they begin investigating a series of crimes that lead them to a more powerful evil than they ever could have anticipated. Lucasfilm will film its next new Star Wars series for the streaming service in the United Kingdom. 

Lucasfilm also officially announced the show's cast. It includes Amandla Stenberg (The Hate U Give), Emmy Award-winner Lee Jung-jae (Squid Game), Manny Jacinto (Nine Perfect Strangers), Dafne Keen (His Dark Materials), Jodie Turner-Smith (Queen & Slim), Rebecca Henderson (Inventing Anna), Charlie Barnett (Russian Doll), Dean-Charles Chapman (1917) and Carrie-Anne Moss (The Matrix).

Leslye Headland (Russian Doll) created The Acolyte and is its showrunner and executive producer. The Acolyte's other executive producers are Kathleen Kennedy, Simon Emanuel, Jeff F. King, and Jason Micallef. Rayne Roberts and Damian Anderson are producing the series. Headland will direct its pilot.

"A lot of those characters haven't even been born yet," Headland told Vanity Fair as part of a larger feature about Star Wars' future on television. "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?'"

She continued, "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. 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."

The Acolyte will stream exclusively on Disney+. Reports suggest it will debut sometime in 2024. 

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