Star Wars: The Acolyte was developed explicitly with actor Amandla Stenberg. Showrunner Leslye Headland's message to Stenberg? "No pressure."
In a recent interview with Magazine C, Stenberg revealed how Headland pitched the concept of the upcoming Star Wars Disney+ series, The Acolyte, with the 25-year-old The Hunger Games actor in mind.
"All the artwork was conceptualized with my face, and Leslye was like, ‘So I’ve been working on this for about three or four years for you. I don’t know what I’m going to do if you don’t do it. No pressure,’" Stenberg told Magazine C. "So I was sent to the moon, of course."
In a previous interview, Headland revealed the series — which Headland has described as "Frozen meets Kill Bill" with Kurosawa influences — is a mystery thriller that focuses on the perspective of the Sith's battle against the Jedi. Headland also teased the series featuring more Jedi than any other Star Wars film or TV show. Stenberg will star alongside Squid Game star Lee Jung-Jae.
"I have a really, really heavy load in this show, an abnormal load,” Stenberg said. “The crews are so hardcore, they’re so hardworking, and it’s very kind of hierarchical and competitive, and people work their asses off. It’s very different, I think, than what I’ve experienced on most American sets.”
Although Stenberg couldn't reveal much about The Acolyte, she did divulge the series takes place in the High Republic era of Star Wars canon before The Phantom Menace.
"In the context of the Star Wars universe, it’s a time of great peace, theoretically,” Stenberg said. “It’s also a time of an institution, and it’s a time in which conceptions around the force are very strict. And I think what we’re trying to explore within our show is when an institution has a singular conception of how power can be used…we try to provide a lot of different perspectives and answers to that question. The idea is to kind of honor the ethos of Star Wars and ideas around the Force and also challenge them, hopefully harmoniously."
While it's no doubt exciting to play the starring role in the upcoming Disney+ series, Stenberg says she felt "a little more trepidation" than she thought she would undertaking the series' swath of backstory and its die-hard fans. As Magazine C notes, this wouldn't be the first time Stenberg braced herself for racist online hate campaigns from pop culture fandoms. When she starred as Rue — a role that catapulted her into the pop culture zeitgeist — Stenberg also recounted the racist online hate campaigns she endured from the movie's press tour to release at the age of 12.
"When I reflect on it, I don’t remember being very upset about it. I remember feeling that I don’t give a flying fuck what these racist people think of me," Stenberg said. "I think bigots don’t really bother me."
The Acolyte is slated to release some time later this year.
Isaiah Colbert is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow them on Twitter @ShinEyeZehUhh.
