Star Wars can he succeed in projecting himself elsewhere than in the same period of the chronology, again and again? In novels and video games, like comics, the franchise created by George Lucas has demonstrated its ability to explore other eras. In films and series, less. All the plots were concentrated in just a few decades.
But all that may be changing for good. Firstly because for the first time in history, there will be a film which will take place millennia before the Skywalker saga. Then, due to the arrival on June 5, 2024 of a live-action series on Disney+. This is placed a century before The Phantom Menacethe first film in the timeline.
The Acolyte hid his game well
It is never easy to give a definitive opinion on a work that you have only half seen. This, especially since a real break occurs at the very end of episode 4: events accelerate and the tension increases a notch. A turning point about which we will know nothing: Disney did not want to show more, to preserve the surprise – and avoid any leaks.
Where to watch the series The sidekick ?
The Acolyte is broadcast in France exclusively on Disney+. You can subscribe on the streaming site from €8.99 per month or €89.99 per year or with Canal+ offers, from €34.99 per month.
We therefore remain with the first four episodes which serve above all to set the stakes (suspicious murders concern the Jedi order, which commissions a Jedi master to lead the investigation) and to do some exposition work so that we can get to grips with it. the whole gallery of new protagonists – both good guys and bad guys.
This presentation is all the more useful as the series contains a surprise which has long been kept secret. It was not revealed at the end of May by Leslye Headland, the showrunner of The Acolyte. We will not reveal the details here. All we can say is that it involves American actress Amandla Stenberg.
The person concerned was officially chosen to play Mae, a young woman who finds herself on the wrong slope. To put it in one sentence, you will see this actress through two different prisms. It is on this particularity that the whole series develops, with a plot which thwarts the main predictions, and finds its depth.
Previously, Leslye Headland has often expressed her love for the saga Star Wars. We perceive this attachment in the way she built this project. We indeed find motifs already established in the saga – this may seem like a lack of audacity for some. Others may see it as good knowledge of the lore.
We will give two examples, without mentioning the protagonists concerned:
There is this heroine who left the Jedi order, on her own decision, while she was in training (like a certain… Ahsoka). Or this dilemma of the Jedi order in validating the enlistment of a recruit at an already “advanced” age and marked by the loss of his family (like… Anakin). The kind of trauma that can lead to the dark side.
Beyond inevitable winks and references to Star Wars slipped here and there (which are however not excessive compared to other series, for what we have seen so far), The Acolyte will interest fans by showing the daily life of the Jedi order. The only regret is that the problem of making them speak with enigmatic expressions or sentences remains.
We will remember two moments in particular. The first shows a little of how the Jedi order operates as police and justice auxiliaries of the Republic. Have they not been said to be the guardians of peace and justice? The second revolves around the difficulty of recruiting a child into the Jedi order, of tearing him away from his family.
Back to the past
The Acolyte does not shine with its cinematography, which could be described as shot-shot. No shot really caught our eye and the staging is standard at best, lazy at worst. We are far from the refinement of a series like Andor. Even Ahsoka And Obi-Wan Kenobi proposed some daring achievements.
It is rather on the narrative framework that The Acolyte offers complexity: we are not sure of Christopher Nolan, but the story is not completely linear: there are back and forth between the past and the present, to explain the trajectory of certain characters. And then the series opens with a real surprise for the fate of a leading character.
Finally, how can we not emphasize it: The Acolyte leaves plenty of room for women.
The main cast includes many actresses: Amandla Stenberg (Mae), Carrie-Anne Moss (Indara), Dafne Keen (Jecki Lon), Jodi Turner-Smith (Aniseya) and Rebecca Henderson (Vernestra Rwoth). This is obvious with the episode centered on a caste of witches. No damsel in distress here, but heroines with their dynamics, their motivations.
In certain aspects, The Acolyte could have made us think of the Arcane series; in fact, you will see that it is also about two little girls, two sisters, who find themselves facing issues that are beyond them – and that everything seems to be in conflict. Just like Vi and Jinx. Given the quality ofArcanathis is a good sign for The Acolyte.
