WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD
There are essentially three types of Star Wars fans.
There are those who watch all the films, occasionally purchase a LEGO set or
Hasbro figure, casually catch up on the live-action Disney+ shows, and cherry-pick
the animated shows if they watch them at all. Then there are the die hards, who
not only watch everything – live-action or otherwise – but read the comics, play
the games, pore over the novels, and dedicate sizable space in their homes to
their collections. Lastly, there are the fans who claim that Star Wars
died when Disney purchased the franchise 12 years ago, and whose Star Wars
content consumption mostly consists of hate watching the new stuff, critiquing
it online, and then rallying around YouTubers who are doing the exact same thing
but are monetizing it. I have my thoughts about that third category still
considering themselves “fans” of something they don’t really like anymore but
hey, you do you.
I’m mostly in that middle “die hard” category, but it’s admittedly
difficult keeping up with everything these days because there’s so, so much of
it. But no matter where you find yourself in the fandom, you’re likely spending
a lot of time discussing the new Disney+ series Star Wars: The Acolyte,
which has sparked debate about everything from “wokeism” in the Star Wars
galaxy to whether or not there can be fire in space (there can be, for the
record, based on virtually every Star Wars project since 1977). But we’re
not going to get into any of that because I feel like I’ve done it enough on X.
So, here’s the question: Is The Acolyte good?
Yes.
But just as Yoda warned Luke before he entered that
mysterious cave on Dagobah in The Empire Strikes Back, much of what will
shape your opinion of The Acolyte depends on “what you take with you.” If
you’re open to a slow burn murder mystery set 100 years before the films featuring
Jedi you’ve never heard of before, you’ll probably have a good time – at least
based on the two episodes we’ve seen already. If you’ve already decided that
you don’t love present-day Star Wars under Disney, I don’t see The
Acolyte changing your mind.
Star Wars’ High Republic era has been at the center
of Lucasfilm’s publishing efforts for the past three years, spanning adult
novels, junior publications, comic books and audio dramas. Featuring Jedi who
have yet to succumb to Palpatine’s machinations, it’s a near-Arthurian take on
the Jedi as the ultimate peacekeepers in the universe, battling threats ranging
from greedy pirates to evil plants. Yep, evil plants.
What I like most about The High Republic – from which I have
mostly just read the adult novels – is that there’s a sense that any character
at any point is in danger, which is something you just don’t get from the
stories-between-the-movies print material featuring the movie characters we
know.
This unpredictability spills into
The Acolyte in a
meaningful way from the very beginning, when Carrie-Anne Moss’ Master Indara is
killed in battle with a mysterious warrior, who we later learn is Mae, the twin
sister of former Jedi Padawan Osha (both played by Amandla Stenberg), who left
the Jedi Order years earlier after struggling with the loss of her family. Osha,
working as a ship mechanic, is wrongly believed to have killed Indara, and is
pursued by her former master, Sol (Lee Jung-jae), along with Jedi Knight Yord
Fandar (Charlie Barnett) and Padawan Jecki Lon (Dafne Keen) to be brought to
justice. It’s revealed that Mae is alive and is targeting four specific Jedi
who were stationed on her homeworld, including Sol himself, blaming them for
her mothers’ demise. As the series’ titular Acolyte, Mae is guided by a
mysterious dark warrior with a crimson lightsaber who likely has motives of
their own.
Showrunner Lesley Headland (Russian Doll) injects the
dark narrative with some humor, mostly courtesy of the self-serious Yord and Mae’s
poison-making lackey Qimir (Manny Jacinto), who might be more important to the
story than we know. Thus far, I’m finding that I’m having fun with The
Acolyte, and although I admit that it’s moving at a slow pace so far, with
the excellent action scenes being few and far between, I have the feeling that
it’s about to pick up with the reveal of Jedi Wookiee Kelnacca at the conclusion
of the second episode.
As for performances, Emmy Winner Lee was a clear stand-out
for me, which was doubly impressive considering that he learned English
specifically for this role (via
Radio Times). There’s a lot of Qui-Gon Jinn’s calm power in this character,
and considering Qui-Gon was one of the best parts of the prequels, I’m all in
on Master Sol.
But there is some definite room for improvement. Some of the
makeup effects left me a little cold – looking more Trek than Wars
for certain characters – and the dialog lacks the quotable crackle of classic Star
Wars, feeling more like Law & Order: Trial by Jedi at times. I’m
hoping this will naturally improve as the series delves deeper into the
mythology.
But to go back to why this show – and Disney
Star Wars
and Marvel projects in general – might not be gelling with certain audiences is
that we aren’t really given the chance to miss these worlds. The Original
Trilogy set a cadence of one movie every three years, which the Prequel Trilogy
followed 16 years later. But since
The Force Awakens in 2015, we’ve gone
from one movie every year to a new TV season every few months. With multiple
movies and Disney+ series each year, the MCU has similarly lost some of that
necessary mystique that kept anticipation high between theatrical releases.
Could the apparent apathy among some sectors of
Star Wars fandom be because
a new release doesn’t feel special anymore? Or is it that the franchise’s shift
from pure, theatrical experiences to a steady stream of serialized TV shows has
cultivated a perception of
Star Wars being less than premium?
Or, considering that the two-episode premiere’s 4.8 million
viewers earned The Acolyte the biggest Disney+ debut of 2024 (via
Variety), it’s possible that the show’s most vocal critics are in the
minority, and this perceived negative sentiment is as manufactured as the series’
review-bombed Rotten
Tomatoes audience score.
Regardless, The Acolyte still feels premium to me,
and I’m looking forward to absorbing this series with an open mind when it
resumes this Tuesday night on Disney+.
