Lucasfilm Reveals Star Wars: The Acolyte Has Begun Production & Confirms New Cast Members

Lucasfilm's newest Star Wars project, The Acolyte, has officially begun filming, announcing the production by revealing a behind the scenes look and announcing the core cast.

Lucasfilm’s newest Star Wars project, The Acolyte, has officially begun filming, announcing the production by revealing a behind the scenes look and announcing the core cast. In recent weeks, news has been ramping up on Lucasfilm’s latest projects, with Andor and Tales of the Jedi being released late last month inspiring new interest in the franchise.

The official Star Wars Twitter account took to the bird app this morning to announce the cast, confirming Logan and His Dark Materials star Dafne Keen has joined the cast. The announcement also stated that Carrie-Anne Moss, last seen in Lana Wachowski’s long-awaited sequel The Matrix: Resurrections and providing the voice and performance capture for the character Tilda in the video game Horizon: Forbidden West.

Keen and Moss join an already decently stacked cast, featuring the likes of Amandla Stenberg (Columbiana, The Hunger Games) and Lee Jung-jae (Squid Game). Also announced were Jodie Turner-Smith (Queen & Slim, Without Remorse), Manny Jacinto (The Good Place, Top Gun: Maverick), Rebecca Henderson (Grand Theft Auto V), Charlie Barnett (You, Chicago Fire), and Dean-Charles Chapman (Game of Thrones).

The Acolyte is based off an original story by Leslye Headland, who is most famous for creating the Netflix Comedy series, Russian Doll, a series in which both Charlie Barnett and Rachel Henderson starred.

What Is The Story Of The Acolyte?

The Star Wars Twitter account also revealed an official synopsis for The Acolyte:

A former Padawan reunites with her Jedi Master to investigate a series of crimes, but the forces they confront are more sinister than they ever anticipated.
From the Star Wars website

Following the previously announced story synopsis, it seems The Acolyte really has quite a story to tell. Initially, Lucasfilm stated that the series would “take viewers into a galaxy of shadowy secrets and emerging dark-side powers in the final days of the High Republic era.” Headland told audiences at this year’s Star Wars Celebration Anaheim that the show would take place one hundred years prior to Star Wars – Episode One: The Phantom Menace, separating the show from the overall storyline of the previously established Skywalker Saga.

The show also marks the first time that a Star Wars project has told a story set within the High Republic era outside of comics and novels. While we do not yet have names for the characters each actor or actress will be playing, the show definitely promises a story that will be unlike any Star Wars story we’ve ever encountered before.

Unfortunately, the series isn’t slated to premiere anytime soon, as the principal photography has only just begun. Fans looking forward to the upcoming show will have to tie themselves over by watching Andor, the prequel to Rogue One, currently streaming on Disney+. They won’t have to wait much longer for more Star Wars content, as 2023 also brings the long-awaited third season of The Mandalorian as well as the premiere of the Star Wars: Rebels and Star Wars: The Clone Wars spin-off series, Ahsoka, which is set to premiere in Spring of next year.

Fans of Star Wars’ animated shows don’t have to wait much longer for their side of the galaxy far, far away, as Dave Filoni’s anthology series Tales of the Jedi premiered on Disney+ late last month. All six episodes of that series are currently streaming, and in Early 2023, fans can satisfy their hunger as The Bad Batch returns for season 2 on January 4th, kicking off a promising year of Star Wars content.