Star Wars Series The Acolyte Set 100 Years Before Phantom Menace

Upcoming live action Disney+ series The Acolyte is aiming to do things a little differently. Instead of setting the show during the same time period as countless other Star Wars offerings (The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, Ashoka, Obi-Wan), it takes place about 100 years before the first Star Wars prequel, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.

This time frame is known as the High Republic, a period of peace throughout the galaxy. Showrunner Leslye Headland recently detailed The Acolyte on Entertainment Weekly’s Dagobah Dispatch podcast.

"The Acolyte stands out because it is the earliest in the Star Wars timeline that we have ever been in live-action. We are toward the end of the High Republic, leading into George's prequels, so we are looking at a time period where the Jedi are at the height of their power."

This time period immediately sets it apart from the bulk of Star Wars stories. Where these typically place the plot against a background of widespread galactic conflict, here, there’s peace throughout the galaxy. There are no armies and no space battles - it’s Star Wars without the wars.

That means, for practically the first time in a Star Wars story, the good guys outnumber the bad. Here, the villains are the underdogs, and The Acolyte aims to play with this inversion of norms.

"Star Wars is always about some version of the underdog versus the institution," says Headland. "And I just thought it was very interesting to do a show about the bad guys and to set that during that time period made the most sense. So it's kind of almost flipped. We have more Jedi than you've seen in any of the of the Star Wars content, but at the same time, you see more morally ambiguous characters than you've seen in other Star Wars content."

In The Acolyte, the story focuses on these villains as they explore the dark side of the Force. This puts them at odds with the Jedi, who represent the larger governing institution.

The Acolyte features Lee Jung-jae (Squid Game), Amandla Stenberg (Bodies Bodies Bodies), Manny Jacinto (The Good Place), Dafne Keen (Logan), Dean-Charles Chapman (1917), and Carrie-Anne Moss (The Matrix).

It's expected to hit Disney+ sometime in 2024. In other news, what’s happening with that Lando series on Disney+?