Star Wars: The Acolyte Surprise Casting Announcement Confirms a Major High Republic Character's Live-Action Debut

A surprise casting announcement for Star Wars: The Acolyte was made on Saturday morning at Star Wars Celebration. Leslye Headland, the executive producer and creator of the upcoming Disney+ series, appeared at the end of the Star Wars: The High Republic panel, where details about the upcoming Star Wars: The High Republic releases were revealed. Actor Rebecca Henderson joined Headland at the event. Headland then announced that Henderson would play Vernestra Rwoh, a Jedi hero who appears through Star Wars: The High Republic era, in Star Wars: The Acolyte, which is set during the final years of the High Republic era.

Venestra "Vern" Rwoh first appeared in the first Star Wars: The High Republic release, Charles Soule's novel Light of the Jedi. Since then, she has also appeared in Marvel's Star Wars: The High Republic ongoing comic book series and several other Star Wars: The High Republic novels, including A Test of Courage, The Rising Storm, Race to Crashpoint Tower, Out of the Shadows, and Mission to Disaster. Rwoh is the former padawan of the great Jedi Stellan Gios who obtained the rank of Jedi Knight at 15 years old, making her the youngest Jedi Knight in some time. By the time Star Wars: The Acolyte takes place, she should have plenty of experience under her belt.

Star Wars: The Acolyte cast

As Venestra Rwoh, Henderson is part of the Star Wars: The Acolyte cast that also includes Amandla Stenberg (Bodies Bodies Bodies), Lee Jung-jae (Squid Game), Manny Jacinto (The Good Place), Dafne Keen (Logan), Dean-Charles Chapman (1917), Charlie Barnett (Russian Doll), Carrie-Anne Moss (The Matrix), Margarita Levieva (Revenge), and Jodie Turner-Smith (Murder Mystery 2). Turner-Smith recently spoke to ComicBook.com about what it was like filming Star Wars: The Acolyte.

"No matter what it's like, as soon as you walk onto one of those sets, I mean, first of all, when you walk onto one of those sets, you're like, 'Okay, they got money. This is wealthy, this production,'" Turner-Smith said. "But second of all, it just feels, even no matter if you're in a different show, a different movie, whatever, you're just like, 'Oh, I'm in Star Wars.' It's a very cool and surreal experience, and that was definitely another bucket list moment."

What is Star Wars: The Acolyte about?

According to Lucasfilm's official description of the Disney+ series, "The Acolyte is a 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. A former Padawan reunites with her Jedi Master to investigate a series of crimes, but the forces they confront are more sinister than they ever anticipated.

Star Wars: The Acolyte is currently filming. It will debut on Disney+ in 2024.