The show’s title card simply reads The Acolyte. No mention of Star Wars. And in the lead-up to The Acolyte, Disney and Lucasfilm have emphasized how different this Star Wars show is from all the previous ones on Disney+. It is set 100 years before the prequels, in a time period never explored in live-action before. Instead of linking back to the films through preexisting characters and locations from earlier films or shows, The Acolyte introduces an entirely new cast, exploring a galaxy with no Empire, where the Jedi are in power and the Sith are virtually nonexistent. Where all of the previous shows were different blends of western, science-fiction, and fantasy, The Acolyte is mostly a mystery, with a group of Jedis investigating the murder of one of their own.
And yet for all the supposed differences, The Acolyte still looks, sounds, and feels like pretty much every other Star Wars television show. It contains some fun moments, but at least in the first two episodes premiering today, it doesn’t distinguish itself in any meaningful way. Even some of the subplots recall similar elements of other Star Wars productions like The Rise of Skywalker and Ahsoka.
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The idea of introducing totally new Star Wars cast that isn’t beholden to the Skywalker mythology or the demands of existing continuity sounds refreshing and exciting. Unfortunately, The Acolyte’s set of new Jedis and mystery villains, created by writer/producer/director Leslye Headland, don’t really leap off the screen as compelling new wrinkles on old Star Wars types. Maybe the most interesting in the first two episodes is Mae (Amandla Stenberg) who is the title character and the figure hunting Jedi as the series begin. The mystery, then, is not who is the killer, but why. Early episodes hint at a tragedy in Mae’s past and some sort of crime committed by the Jedi against her and her planet, an interesting idea given that the “Light Side” of the Force traditionally play the unequivocal (if often ineffective) heroes in this fictional universe.
If the rest of the season of The Acolyte will uncover some vast conspiracy amongst the Jedi — or perhaps reveal previously undisclosed moral shadings to the evil Sith — it only happens after the two-episode series premiere. The first two installments, which each run a little over 30 minutes, treat the Jedi as they are always treated: As badass warrior monks with incredible fighting skills, boundless wisdom, and few emotional attachments, That includes Master Sol (Squid Game’s Lee Jung-jae) a stoic Obi-Wan Kenobi type who is charged with tracking down Mae after she kills another Jedi Master.
The first two episodes also introduce a cockier Jedi named Yord Fandar (Charlie Barnett) and a padawan name Jecki Lon (Dafne Keen) who serves as the equivalent of Chris Noth to Sol’s Jerry Orbach — or she would if The Acolyte felt more like a detective story and less like a Star Wars show where Amandla Stenberg tries to kill people while the Jedi follow her trail very deliberately.
Carrie-Anne Moss also pops up as another Jedi master named Indara, casting that echoes with her role in The Matrix in some interesting ways. That includes her participation in the series’ opening sequence, an elaborately choreographed martial arts fight. The notion of the former Trinity now standing as a member of the established Jedi Order fighting a mysterious insurgent could be interesting, but it’s entirely left to the viewer to make those connections for themselves.
The fight choreography is solid and the shows look good — or at least as good as pretty much all the Star Wars series look. And that’s just it; it looks like Star Wars. Do you like Star Wars? Do you enjoy the other recent Star Wars TV shows? (At least the ones that weren’t horrible?) Then you’ll probably enjoy this one too.
But you may find, as I did, that there wasn’t much here to distinguish it from those other shows. Headland previously co-created Netflix’s Russian Doll, which had a bold premise, rich characters, and a ton of personality. That was a very memorable show. It stood out in a very crowded streaming landscape. I don’t feel a ton of her unique perspective or voice in The Acolyte, beyond perhaps in centering this story on several female characters.
The Acolyte is professionally mounted and it’s certainly possible that its characters will deepen and its mystery will grow more interesting over time. In the early going, it’s just kind of a shrug. We’ve been lucky to live in a world where there are so many of these Star Wars series lately. But the more we get, the less special each one seems. One of the best parts of Star Wars was the fact that it used to be an event. Back then, it was easy to get excited no matter what the new Star Wars thing was. Now that it’s this series an ongoing, ever-growing entity, I find it harder and harder to work up the same level of enthusiasm.
The Acolyte premieres on June 4 at 9PM ET on Disney+. New episodes premiere weekly. Sign up for Disney+ here.
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