‘The Acolyte’: Full Empire Magazine Coverage Drops, With New Images and Character Details
New images for Star Wars: The Acolyte have been revealed in the latest issue of Empire Magazine, along with plenty of interesting bits of information from the outlet in their massive coverage of the series. Snippets from their big article have been making their way online over the past week, but with the issue now available, more images and quotes are available for us to dissect. (Credit for the pictures to r/StarWarsLeaks.)
The series is described as a mystery thriller, and Leslye Headland is already on record talking about how it will be a slow build, with each episode adding more information and keeping the audience guessing. But co-lead Lee Jung-jae, who plays Master Sol in his first major role since his Emmy win for Squid Game, added that “it’s going to get even more intriguing and gripping, because
of that detective genre.”
His Padawan is Jecki Lon, played by Dafne Keen, who describes her as “Jedi David Bowie”. Jecki is apparently “much more competent” than Jedi Knight Yord Fandar (Charlie Barnett). The two are seen in the header image, in a snowy environment, seemingly investigating something. She added:
“But he’s a Knight, because he’s older. So there’s this really interesting dynamic of him being a little bit useless, and her being like, ‘You need to step your game up,’ which was really fun to play.”
We also got a new shot of the confrontation between Jedi Master Indara (Carrie-Anne Moss) and Mae (Amandla Stenberg), an assassin, as seen in the first trailer. Moss told Empire what it was working with Leslye Headland:
“I felt that a few times in my career with some of the big things that I’ve done — Memento, The Matrix — where you’re talking to the filmmaker and you just go, ‘Oh, they totally get it.’ They know it so well that I trust them.”
Speaking of the devil, we also got a new behind-the-scenes shot with Stenberg and Headland, who directed the first two episodes, in what seems to be the outside of the tavern where Mae and Indara Force-fu-fight it off. This was shot in Shinfield Studios, in the UK:
The character of Mae was apparently inspired by Kill Bill‘s Gogo, but there are more references to draw from, as Amandla Stenberg explained:
“One of my references was Gogo from Kill Bill. I’ve always loved that character. We also thought about Joan of Arc, Ethiopian tribes, Renaissance garb. There was something very tough and very feminine about it at the same time. We wanted this character to feel both disciplined, and have a sense of freedom and an expressiveness to her.”
Headland has also said multiple times that The Acolyte will have a focus on female villains, and that it will be a Sith-led story, and so on. Now, she insisted once again that she wanted to tell a story from the perspective of the bad guys:
“I was driven to write a story that essentially was from the perspective of the bad guys. I write that way with my other work. I am always attracted to amoral — or immoral — characters, and finding the humanity within the villains.”
Below, we have a new look at perhaps one of the most intriguing characters from The Acolyte so far. Jodie Turner-Smith plays Force Witch Mother Aniseya, who belongs to a different coven than the Nightsisters of Dathomir. She said about them:
“They’re really trying to preserve their beliefs, and their powers, and their independence.”
Below, another look at Jecki Lon training inside the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. It appears that this is the same room as the training room seen in the Star Wars prequel trilogy, just given a different set of aesthetics befitting the fact that this show takes place one century prior to the events of The Phantom Menace. Amandla Stenberg, as a fun fact, took a nap on the set of the Jedi Temple. Now, here’s the question: what was she doing there?
Here, we have a widescreen shot of Amandla Stenberg looking ahead at a town. “Mae gazes upon a world of shadowy secrets,” reads Empire‘s caption of the image:
Below is another behind-the-scenes shot of Headland with Lee Jung-jae, an actor who rose to international prominence following his breakout role as the lead of the Netflix series Squid Game. The Acolyte marks the first time he has been involved in an American production, which he also learned English for.
More Yord Fondar below. Barnett also teased to Empire a trip to a Wookiee planet, though interestingly, it will not be Kashyyyk. As some readers might know by now, there’s a Jedi Wookiee in the series, Master Kelnacca, played by Joonas Suotamo, who appeared in the sequel trilogy and Solo as Chewbacca.
Barnett was also a bit unsure about what he could and couldn’t share, as this time it goes even beyond the usual Star Wars secrecy. There’s a mystery built into the narrative, as we mentioned, which forces the actors to choose their words very carefully. “I don’t… I mean… She must have… Oh God, am I giving too much away, talking about this shit?,” said Barnett at one point. Stenberg also ran into a similar issue:
“Fuck. I literally am scared now. I will just say that, er, er, er, she is gritty, and dangerous. And it’s exciting. Shit!”
Star Wars: The Acolyte is set to premiere on Disney Plus on June 4, at 6pm PT / 9pm ET / June 5 at 2am BST, with the first two episodes, and a weekly release schedule for the remaining six episodes after that.
Grant has been a fan of Star Wars for as long as he can remember, having seen every movie on the big screen. When he’s not hard at work with his college studies, he keeps himself busy by reporting on all kinds of Star Wars news for SWNN and general movie news on the sister site, Movie News Net. He served as a frequent commentator on SWNN’s The Resistance Broadcast.
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.
