Little—too little!—is known about Leslye Headland’s Star Wars series, The Acolyte, other than that it stars Amandla Stenberg, and it’s set about fifty years before The Phantom Menace, in the last days of the High Republic era.
But now we’ve got one more tidbit of information! Deadline reports that Jodie Turner-Smith “is finalizing a deal” to join the series.
This is not Turner-Smith’s first time in (fictional) space, though hopefully her character here will have a better time than her character did on Syfy’s bananas Nightflyers (pictured above). She also starred in the movie Queen and Slim and the series Anne Boleyn, and appeared on True Blood and The Last Ship.
The Acolyte is described by Lucasfilm as a “mystery-thriller,” and may look at the darker side of the galaxy: Before Darth Bane imposed the Rule of Two—limiting Sith to one master and one apprentice—”acolyte” was a Sith term for someone who had just begun their training. Perhaps Turner-Smith will lead Stenberg down a dark path, or perhaps she’ll be a Jedi foil to a young Sith. No one knows, and no one is saying; as usual, Lucasfilm didn’t comment on the news.
Either way, the idea of an original Star Wars series from the co-creator of Russian Doll remains incredibly promising. The Acolyte is expected to begin production this fall.
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Nona the Ninth
