To dive deeper into the trailer, check out our chat with Leslye Headland all about it.
The Acolyte, a Star Wars show dubbed "Frozen meets Kill Bill" by showrunner Leslye Headland, has received its first trailer ahead of its highly anticipated Disney+ premiere.
The near-two minute trailer, below, opens with scenes reminiscent of the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy as we see the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, though even before the days of Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace. Taking place during The High Republic — an era set 100 to 200 years before the prequels so far only explored in novels and comics — the trailer shows Jedi training in their sparkling white robes representative of this era.
It then cuts to scenes more akin to the Original Trilogy, however, as we see what's now a Star Wars mainstay: the cantina. Headland's fresh take on Star Wars comes soon after though, as we see the striking action inspired by director Akira Kurosawa and martial arts films.
Other scenes show several Jedi on screen at once, weilding the yellow lightsabers also iconic to this era, and the premise of The Acolyte is revealed: someone is hunting Jedi. The show isn't taking a traditional route here though, as Headland has made clear it's told from the perspective of "the bad guys", meaning the Sith.
This dynamic is exemplified towards the end of the trailer, where Jodie Turner-Smith's character says the line: "It's not about good or bad, this is about power and who's allowed to use it."
The Acolyte was announced in 2020 but further details didn't emerge for a while. Amandla Stenberg was announced as the lead in 2022, and Squid Game star Lee Jung-Jae was confirmed as a main character soon after.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.
