At A Glance
- The Acolyte is the latest in the increasingly growing list of Star Wars shows offered on Disney Plus. It takes place a hundred years in the past, even before the names Skywalker or Darth Vader became known across the galaxy.
One of the best things the people behind the Star Wars franchise have done was to take the television shows in directions that have nothing to do with the Skywalker Saga. That story was handled with the movies. The television shows have since been freed to explore other tales.
Some are adjacent, such as what we see with Andor and Ahsoka, and sometimes they are completely unrelated, like in the Mandalorian or The Bad Batch.
The Acolyte is the latest in the increasingly growing list of Star Wars shows offered on Disney Plus. It takes place a hundred years in the past, even before the names Skywalker or Darth Vader became known across the galaxy.
The show's setting has a lot going for it. The events take place toward the end of the High Republic Era, a golden age of peace, innovation, and expansion. At this time, the Jedi were much more numerous and had a longer reach across the galaxy.
We haven’t seen this time period on screen before, and this works as a good hook for the show right out of the gate. While tackled in other media such as comics, novels, and games, this marks the first time we get to glimpse the Jedi at their peak on screen.
Because of this, The Acolyte makes for an excellent jumping-on point for newer Star Wars fans, as you don’t need the mountain of lore memorized to understand or appreciate what’s going on. Linking the show to the larger universe is Jedi Master Venestra (Rebecca Henderson), Who appears on the show and in earlier comic series set in the High Republic.
The pacing is faster than some of its predecessors, with action sequences accompanying brisk story progression in almost every episode, at least for the first four episodes made available as early screeners. The tone, however, was lighter than I expected, with some attempts at humor that don’t always land.
However, that slight misstep is easy to look past as the story unfolds and the mystery deepens. The series is essentially a manhunt, as Jedi Master Sol (Squid Game’s Lee Jung-Jae) chases after a mysterious Jedi-killer. There’s more to it than that, as we will see as the rest of the series unravels and darker forces are revealed.
The fight choreography is top-notch, yet very different from your usual Star Wars lightsaber duels. It is a blast seeing Jedi in unarmed combat, and the fight scenes bring a touch of oriental martial arts into the galaxy far, far away.
By also being set in a period before the Jedi vs. Sith struggle took up much of the narrative, The Acolyte provides a fresh look at Jedi as the galactic peacekeepers and influencers they were meant to be. It gives more room for world-building, which the show does take on, particularly in variations of how the Jedi can use the Force. There’s a lot to see in this show, making it with adding to your weekly show roster.
The Acolyte is now streaming only on Disney Plus, with new episodes coming every Wednesday, Philippine time.