Disney+’s New “Star Wars” Series “The Acolyte” Unveils Premiere Date

A new Star Wars live-action series is set to blast off on Disney+, as Leslye Headland’s The Acolyte has revealed its release date.

Courtesy of a new poster for the series, we now know that the latest in the expanding universe of Star Wars on the streamer is coming on June 4. It’s welcome news for fans of the seminal sci-fi franchise and the multitalented Headland, who has promised fans something very different with her new series. As Tony Gilroy’s excellent Andor functioned as both a Star Wars installment and a heist thriller, Headland’s series is being billed as 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.” The series is centered on a former Padawan (Amandla Stenberg) who reconnects with her Jedi Master to investigate a series of crimes, leading them both into a confrontation with darker forces than they even knew existed.

Stenberg is joined by a fine cast, including Lee Jung-jae, Manny Jacinto, Dafne Keen, Charlie Barnett, Jodie Turner-Smith, Rebecca Henderson, Dean-Charles Chapman, Joonas Suotamo, and Carrie-Anne Moss.

The Acolyte is set during the High Republic era of the Star Wars timeline, which means it takes place before the events in the films. The Acolyte promises to offer something rarely explored in the Star Wars galaxy: scrutiny of the Jedi order and how they operate. Headland has said that her series shares this trait with Rian Johnson’s 2017 film The Last Jedi, which found a disillusioned Luke Skywalker believing the Jedi Order caused their own demise through their excessive pride.

In a conversation last year with Collider, Headland discussed the way the Jedi have been explored in the past and how Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy supported her desire to explore a more nuanced look at the Jedi Order, presenting a picture of the Jedis that was rich enough to amplify the choices Stenberg’s former Padawan makes:

“But I think when you think you’re going to tell the story about bad guys, and the Jedis might be the antagonist to those Jedis; I think that makes people nervous. But it didn’t make Kathy nervous. And I will say that in that room when I pitched her, it was probably one of the most exciting things because it felt like a conversation and less like I was up for a job. It felt much more like, ‘Okay, but what are you going to do about this? And what are you going to do about that?’ And so I was able to fold in what I know about Star Wars, and what I love about Star Wars, into what she’s always pushing for, which is, ‘What’s the emotional throughline?’”

There is plenty going on in a galaxy far, far away, including James Mangold’s vision for a Biblical epic-style Star Wars he’s referring to as Star Wars Zero, the return of Daisy Ridley as Rey in a brand new Star Wars movie from Oscar-winning documentarian and Ms. Marvel director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, and the upcoming series Skeleton Crew.

Featured image: L-r: Amandla Stenberg, Lee Jung-jae, and director Leslye Headland on the set of “The Acolyte.” Courtesy Disney+.