‘The Acolyte’: Hanelle M. Culpepper Directed Two Episodes, Including Finale; Jason Micallef and Potentially Jocelyn Bioh Wrote for the Series
We have one more name to add to the directing roster of The Acolyte, as it’s been confirmed that Hanelle M. Culpepper directed two episodes of the upcoming series.
The news comes to us from Culpepper’s LinkedIn page (hat tip r/StarWarsLeaks), where she posted that she helmed both episodes 6 and 8 of the first season of the show; since the season is assumed to have eight episodes, this would also mean that she directed the finale. In addition, she also provided the writing credits for her episodes, mentioning that the sixth episode was written by Leslye Headland and someone named Jocelyn, while the finale was solely written by Jason Micallef.
No last name was provided for Jocelyn, and neither has such a name appeared in any Acolyte reports, but a quick search through the WGA directory found a writer/producer named Jocelyn Bioh who had previously worked with Headland on Russian Doll, so we’ll go on a limp and assume it’s her who worked on the show as well.
Culpepper is a prolific TV director that has worked on other genre shows like Westworld season 4, Apple’s The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey, the first three episodes of Star Trek: Picard, three episodes of Star Trek: Discovery, including the premiere, among many other shows. Bioh has written an episode of Spike Lee’s She’s Gotta Have It, and Hulu’s Tiny Beautiful Things. Finally, Micallef, who is also an executive producer on The Acolyte, doesn’t have any IMDb writing credits since his 2018-created show Heathers, which aired in select European countries through HBO Europe and later in the US on Paramount Network.
With this, the credits for The Acolyte just became a bit more clear. Culpepper is the fourth director we know of that worked on the show. Showrunner Leslye Headland directed the pilot (and possibly some other episode), while Kogonada and Alex García López directed at least one episode each. Besides Headland, we only knew about Charmaine DeGraté having been a part of the writers’ room for the show. We can now add two more names to that.
The plot of the show is set 100 years before The Phantom Menace, and follows a group of Jedi as they investigate an emerging threat to the galaxy. Our lead character is played by Bodies Bodies Bodies star Amandla Stenberg, and since Headland has said in interviews that the series will be focused on how the Sith infiltrated the Jedi order and will be led by female villains, we assume Stenberg’s character may not be one of the good guys.
It was revealed recently that the show will also feature the first trans actor to play a role in the Star Wars franchise, as Abigail Thorn will be playing a character named Ensign Eurus, according to the actress’ agency. It is obviously unknown how large the role will be; it could range from someone lurking in the background to a key character to an entire subplot throughout the series.
The Acolyte is currently in post-production after wrapping principal photography in May, and is targeting a 2024 release date.
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as movies from Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
