Congratulations, It’s Twins!

With the ever-growing tsunami of Star Wars content emanating from the Disney+ sector of the galaxy, it’s difficult to remember why we all went bananas for The Mandalorian when it hit streaming in 2020. Yes, I know… baby Yoda. But it was also an exhilarating breath of fresh air to see the franchise return to its spaghetti western-meets-Kurosawa roots, and to experience a story that had nothing to do with lightsabers, or Sith lords, or Jedi.

That would all change in subsequent episodes, of course, when Luke Skywalker comes to a dramatic rescue at the end of Season 2, returning the saga to something growing a bit stale. For a while, getting to see Star Wars without Skywalkers was a cool experience; it’s a big universe, after all.

Fortunately, the House of Mouse buys into that gambit once more in their newest offering, The Acolyte, which takes place during the “High Republic” era, a century before the events of A New Hope. It’s a significant gamble on the part of Disney+ to not rely on the characters with whom we’ve all become intimately familiar through their recent series, and to set it all in a time that all but the geekiest Star Wars fans have no knowledge about. Once again, Star Wars sans Skywalkers seems promising.

At the heart of The Acolyte is a pair of twin sisters who share a tragic origin story, a traumatic event on their homeworld that leads one of them, Osha, to join the Jedi Order. The other, Mae, trains as an assassin hell-bent on revenge against four particular Jedi masters. The first episode is a banger, launching us into the series with a kung-fu tavern brawl right out of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Only, you know, with the Force, not to mention Carrie Ann Moss, returning once more to her prime Matrix fighting form, only this time clothed in Jedi robes instead of skin-tight leather. When the assassin gets the upper hand and manages to actually kill a master Jedi without the use of a lightsaber, we know instantly that this series is going to some dark and unexpected places. It’s a Hell of a start.

The Acolyte has a number of great things going for it. First, the casting is excellent. In addition to Moss, whom we get to see more in flashback sequences, there’s Rue from the Hunger Games (Amandla Stenberg) as twins Mae and Osha, Dafne Keen from Logan as a sharp-witted Padawan, and a brilliant Lee Jung-jae (Squid Game) as Jedi Master Sol. The latter apparently learned his lines phonetically, owing to an unfamiliarity with English. Few foreign actors have been able to pull off that particular trick, but it works for him, and his carefully measured English delivery carries more gravitas because of it. There’s the always-delightful Jake Jortles… sorry, that’s Manny Jacinto (The Good Place), bringing much needed levity here without coming off overly goofy. Oh, and did I mention that there’s a Wookiee Jedi? Yeah, there’s a Wookiee Jedi. 

Another thing to appreciate about The Acolyte: the setting. We’re accustomed to the slightly shabby, lived-in universe that made “A New Hope” stand out from all the other sleek, spotless sci-fi space epics of the time. We’ve grown used to that, to the point that it’s overfamiliar. So, it’s refreshing to get a glimpse into the days of the High Republic, with the Jedi Order at full strength as galactic peacekeepers, and not a little arrogant because of it.

The costumes are different, too. Here, many Jedi favor a brighter color palate and fashionably tailored outfits instead of the drab brown, monastic robes of the original and prequel trilogies. At the height of their power as an order, we see how their presence immediately intimidates the more plebeian, Force-insensitive denizens of the galaxy. I love getting to see the seeds of how that same haughtiness and political maneuvering will grow to eventually blind them to the rise of the Empire, and lead to the sudden, shocking destruction of the Jedi order. 

In the third episode, we’re treated to a wholly new band of Force-wielding characters in the matriarchal coven of coven of witches who mysteriously created Mae and Osha, training them in the ways of the Force, referred to here as an interconnected tapestry of life. There are similarities to the Night Sisters of Dathomir, whom we’ve seen numerous times  in The Clone Wars and Ahsoka. But this particular coven exists as a uniquely fascinating community operating on the fringes of the galaxy, in secret, lest the Jedi discover that they’re training children in the ways of the force. 

The plot of the Acolyte leads us from one uncomfortable question to the next, all couched in the trope of a detective story and murder mystery. What led one twin to embrace the powers of good and light while the other became consumed by anger and revenge? Will the Jedi be able to stop Mae before she completes her murder spree? Why did Osha leave the Jedi Order? Are the Jedi really that good and noble? And, most importantly, what exactly happened during the tragedy that led the twins down opposite paths? 

We’re only four episodes into the series, but The Acolyte is off to a strong start, or at least a different one. And with Star Wars, anything novel is exceedingly welcome these days. Even more intriguing, as the series continues we’ll likely see the introduction of shifting character perspectives that stand to turn the entire narrative on its head. Showrunner Leslye Headland (Russian Doll) notably claimed that a big inspiration for the show was the Kurosawa film Rashomon, which has not one but three unreliable narrators, not to mention some weighty philosophical themes about the nature of truth. If that happens, there’s a chance that this show will explode in water-cooler speculation the likes of which we might not have seen since the first few seasons of Lost.

Will we find out what really happened in that tragic fire? Who is the shadowy Sith Lord training Mae? Why do the four Jedi masters have such burdened consciences? And Hell, are Osha and Mae really twins, or will it turn out to be a freaky Tyler Durden situation? Honestly, I have absolutely no idea, and I am fully here for it. Even Yoda famously said, “Always in motion, the future is.” Or technically, in this case, the past.

I know, it’s complicated. But you know what’s not complicated? A Wookiee Jedi kicking ass. You know I’m not going to miss that.