Nonetheless you do it, it’s about to get a bit extra sophisticated due to “The Acolyte,” a brand new Star Wars tv sequence that premieres on Disney Plus on Tuesday. The hook? It takes place earlier than something we’ve seen in Star Wars live-action historical past. 1999′s “Star Wars: The Phantom Menace” is not the start of the story. “The Acolyte” is.
The eight-episode sequence facilities on the hunt for an murderer who’s creeping her manner throughout a galaxy far, far-off with the intention of murdering a selected set of Jedi. To make issues worse, this murderer may need ties to the Sith, the dark-side lovers who’ve supposedly been useless for a millennium.
The present is filled with the standard Star Wars tropes — lightsaber battles, bar fights, philosophical questions concerning the Pressure and even some Pressure-sensitive twins. Nevertheless it additionally shuffles the deck of what we all know Star Wars to be. Since “The Acolyte” takes place many years earlier than “The Phantom Menace,” it pulls the Star Wars franchise even additional away from being largely a household story concerning the Skywalkers and their fated position in saving the galaxy. Together with the opposite newish installments within the Star Wars mythos (“Rogue One,” “Andor,” “The Mandalorian” and far more), “The Acolyte” deepens a saga containing a galaxy’s price of heroes and villains.
Alternatively, Star Wars has at all times been within the strategy of rewriting itself.
Since George Lucas put pen to paper, the timeline has at all times been somewhat complicated. The unique movies, launched within the ’70s and ’80s, are episodes 4, 5 and 6 of a nine-episode saga. The late-’90s/early-2000s prequels had been components one, two and three. Disney acquired the franchise in 2012, and its newer animated reveals, spinoff projects, comics, novels and flicks have all labored to reshuffle the timeline.
It will get complicated quicker than you possibly can say “midi-chlorians.” So right here’s what to anticipate from “The Acolyte,” and a rundown of its adjustments to a narrative that retains increasing in each course.
What’s ‘The Acolyte’ about?
“Earlier than the Empire. Earlier than the Menace. There was an acolyte.”
That’s the tagline for the brand new Disney Plus present, which depicts the Jedi on the peak of their powers.
The sequence focuses on a former Jedi named Osha, who has been framed for killing a slew of Jedi. (It’ll prove she has one thing in widespread with the assassin.) The present facilities on the order’s investigation into the deaths.
You may wager it has one thing to do with the Sith, the evil cohort to which Darth Vader, Emperor Palpatine and different Star Wars baddies belong. The murderer serves an unidentified and (in true Star Wars vogue) masked “grasp” who appears to embrace the darkish aspect and carries a crimson lightsaber. That’s about all we all know.
Normally, the present makes an attempt to indicate what the Jedi had been like of their prime and the way they tackled threats earlier than the likes of Anakin Skywalker got here alongside.
When does ‘The Acolyte’ happen?
“The Acolyte” occurs roughly 100 years earlier than the prequel trilogy begins. That is the “Excessive Republic” period, when the Star Wars galaxy was comparatively chill. No Dying Stars right here!
“We’re a time interval the place there’s peace all through the galaxy,” showrunner Leslye Headland advised Entertainment Weekly in July 2023. “It was very difficult and attention-grabbing to make a Star Wars with no warfare in it.”
How does ‘The Acolyte’ hook up with the Star Wars motion pictures?
We do not actually know. But.
Headland advised Den of Geek that the larger Star Wars lore performs a task within the present. She talked about that some Sith who’ve appeared in video video games and books influenced the present’s villains.
“I actually toyed with using Darth Bane or mentioning Bane. We don’t do it within the first season,” she mentioned, referring to a legacy Star Wars character identified by followers because the creator of the master-apprentice “rule of two.”
There may be one scene in “The Phantom Menace” that impressed a few of the present, in line with Headland. In that film, when Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) advised the Jedi council a few Sith assault, the clever Grasp Ki-Adi-Mundi replied, “The Sith have been extinct for a millennium.” Mace Windu agreed, including, “I don’t imagine the Sith might have returned with out our realizing.”
Headland advised Den of Geek that particular second implied that there was some current data and historical past with the Sith, an concept that’s being explored in “The Acolyte.”
Are there any comics or books to learn first?
Sure, when you’re making an attempt to be a superfan. When Disney purchased the franchise, it wiped away the Star Wars “expanded universe” tales (novels, comedian books) from the official canon. Nevertheless it has since stuffed within the Excessive Republic period in novels, comics, manga, audiobooks and animated initiatives. “The Acolyte” is the primary time {that a} live-action present will discover the characters and ideas from that point interval. The truth is, a Jedi named Vernestra Rwoh (Rebecca Henderson), who first seems within the 2021 Excessive Republic novel “Mild of the Jedi,” reveals up in “The Acolyte’s” opening 4 episodes. And Kelnacca, a Wookiee Jedi, is reportedly getting his own Marvel comic this fall.
Some normal familiarity with that timeframe actually will supply die-hards some extra context. It’s a largely peaceable time within the galaxy, save for tensions between the Republic and a bunch of villainous house pirates known as the Nihil and the nightmarish Drengir, an amorphous alien species. You may get all this from the early Excessive Republic novels like “The Excessive Republic,” “The Rising Storm” and “The Fallen Star,” in addition to comedian e-book sequence like “Eye of the Storm” and “The Excessive Republic Adventures.” Audiobooks like “Tempest Runner” and “The Battle of Jedha” present much more context.
However for probably the most half, you’re good and received’t want prolonged data of the Excessive Republic period going into “The Acolyte.”
“I’d say this can be a recent entry level,” Headland advised The Holo Files, a Star Wars-centric information outlet. “It might positively elevate the present in case you have had the expertise of immersing your self in that stunning world, however you actually don’t have to have learn something or know any references to it.”
OK, so what’s the brand new Star Wars viewing order?
To paraphrase a sure Pressure guru: Order issues not. Be happy to look at Episodes IV, V, VI, after which I, II, III, adopted by the sequels and no matter Disney Plus marathon binge you need. You do you. (Though that would destroy “machete order.”)
However when you’re going to embrace “The Acolyte” as a full-on Star Wars present and venture, you then’d watch this present earlier than “The Phantom Menace.” Meaning the story of Jar-Jar Binks, Qui-Gon Jinn, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Padme, Anakin, Watto — all of that — is not the kickoff level for Star Wars. As a substitute, your first step into the bigger world begins with high-level Jedi being attacked by a Pressure-sensitive murderer.
Chronologically, you’d transfer from this to the prequel trilogy, then some animated reveals, adopted by “Andor,” “Rogue One” and “Solo,” earlier than you hit the originals. After a quick break within the Mando-verse (“The Mandalorian,” “Ahsoka” and “The Guide of Boba Fett”), it’s time for the sequel trilogy. However you felt about it.
