The Acolyte - Premiere - Review

For over 47 years now, stories from the world of Star Wars have almost entirely been connected to the Skywalker Saga, that is Episodes 1 to 9. Those that are not connected have been nuked by Disney, but before then they were games, books or comics, never anything to just watch and enjoy. That is what makes The Acolyte so special, this the first original non-Skywalker Saga production to be released and with that comes a lot of expectations. Does the opening of this new series deliver a tale worthy of Star Wars, or is it nothing more than highly produced fan-fiction.

**** Spoiler Warning ****

Starting the show off with the death of a Jedi was clearly a calculated move, it not only gave the remaining Jedi a reason to get involved, but it instantly raised the stakes for the viewer. Sadly casting Carrie-Anne Moss as that Jedi is a move that reeks of ‘Palpatine Returned’ and not in a fun mystery way. Whenever a show casts a big name actor and only one big name actor, I call it stunt casting, and it always ends the same way, they die. Sometimes they last almost a full season, but most of the time its within the first episode and in this instance it was the latter and even worse, it was made all the more obvious by the trailers and tv spots that Lucasfilm insisted on releasing in the lead up to the release. Stunt casting serves a single purpose, throwing a known name on the screen and then hoping people stick around and it’s a stupid move, using an unknown actor in the role of Jedi to be killed, would have achieved the same end, but unknown actors don’t bring in the viewers.

While I have issues with stunt casting, clearly, the rest of the cast did fill out their roles quite well, from the calm and clearly passionate Master Sol by Lee Jung-jae, to the overly ridged Yord Fandar by Charlie Barnett. The actors each brought their characters to life with ease, there wasn’t anything that stood out as out of place. Amandla Stenberg carries the episodes though as both the heroine and the antagonist, in her dual role, which is honestly another shocker that was spotted far away. The concept of twins is not an issue, the ‘my sibling died so I must get revenge’ plot line is fairly generic, so I hope that the show can do more with it in the long run. The mystery of Mae and Qimir’s master could honestly be something astounding, and given the complete unknown of the current setting, there is no telling where they are going. The problem with a mystery based show is that not revealing enough clues makes it hard to convince people to stick around and revealing to much, can undercut any big reveals coming up. Right now I am on board for the new characters, though perhaps not so much Vernestra Rwoh, and while I am keen to discover where the story is going, it isn’t the strong draw I was hoping for.

As this is set around 100 years before the events of The Phantom Menace, that means that there was a lot of room for a visual design refresh, though not as extreme as The High Republic at its prime. The High Republic about 200 years before The Phantom Menace has a look that is more gilded than anything, so this was always going to be a blend between that and what we know about Star Wars. While we did get an establishing shot of Coroscant, with a lot less buildings, the other locations were all new for the series. Olega, the main location of the second episode did give me Ferrix vibes, lots of folks around just living and it felt good. The prisoner transport ship that Ohsa was on, had a cool design and even the Trade Federation ship looked different enough to feel new. I did spot a few issues that stood out as weird, but that would just be nitpicking for the sake of it, for the most part everything looked great.

The final aspect I wanted to touch on was the score, every now and then I heard some familiar tones that made me think of Star Wars, but for the most part this felt all new and it was so weird and refreshing at the same time. No matter the content, movies, tv shows both live action and animated, and videogames, the music of Star Wars has the same vibe across each. The Mandalorian had this new sense at times, but far to often they brought back some themes of past characters, at least when it made sense. As the only character alive in the time period of The Acolyte is Yoda, the only theme that might make the jump to the show is Yoda’s theme, which is incredible, but I hope it stays away. The new music is unique, interesting and unknown and I love it.

The premiere of The Acolyte had a lot of expectations to live up to, both as a new Star Wars show, but also as the first official media not set within the Skywalker Saga. While it hasn’t established itself as a ground breaking show in the same vein as The Mandalorian did upon its release, it has enough going for it that it is worth a watch. Right now the story is treading some predictable ground, but the new characters are more than making up for that and with some larger mysteries still to be discovered, there is a lot to hope for with this show.

The Score

8.0

The Pros

The characters are strong, none feel like they are missing anything to grand

Visually there is enough familiar to ensure you know its Star Wars, but much more new to get excited over

The Cons

Casting Carrie-Anne Moss to kill her off within the show’s opening moments is just stupid

The story is using some familiar tropes that are not quite as engaging as I think they were hoping for