Star Wars: The Acolyte Adds Jodie Turner-Smith to Disney+ Series Cast

Jodie Turner-Smith is going to the Dark Side of the Star Wars galaxy in The Acolyte. The Queen & Slim and White Noise actress is joining Amandla Stenberg (Bodies Bodies Bodies) in Lucasfilm’s live-action Star Wars series from Leslye Headland, the Emmy-nominated co-creator of Netflix’s Russian Doll. Described as a mystery thriller, Star Wars: The Acolyte will take audiences into a galaxy of shadowy secrets and emerging Dark Side powers in the final days of the High Republic era. Turner-Smith’s role, which is being kept under wraps, was first reported by Deadline Hollywood. 

Turner-Smith is a three-time NAACP Image Awards nominee for her role in Queen & Slim, where she starred opposite Daniel Kaluuya, and the titular role in the Sony Pictures TV series Anne Boleyn. Following roles in such series as The Last Ship, Nightflyers, and Jett, she next appears opposite Adam Driver (the Star Wars sequel trilogy) in the Noah Baumbach-directed White Noise and the Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston-starring Murder Mystery 2, both for Netflix. 

The Acolyte, set before the Fall of the Jedi era on the official Star Wars timeline, takes place roughly 100 years before the events of Episode I: The Phantom Menace — a time when the Sith are believed “extinct for a millenium.”

“A lot of those characters haven’t even been born yet,” Headland previously told Vanity Fair. “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?’”

In this “Age of Enlightenment,” Headland added, “The Jedi uniforms are gold and white, and it’s almost like they would never get dirty. They would never be out and about. The idea is that they could have these types of uniforms because that’s how little they’re getting into skirmishes.”

The female-fronted Star Wars series consists of eight episodes and will stream exclusively on Disney+. The Acolyte joins a lineup of live-action Star Wars shows that includes The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and the upcoming Andor, Ahsoka, and Skeleton Crew. A release date is TBA.