Star Wars spin-off The Acolyte will be the franchise's first Sith-led series, star Dafne Keen has revealed. The Disney Plus show will be set in the High Republic era, around a century before the events of The Phantom Menace.
"I can tease that it's a prequel!" Keen told TechRadar. "No, I mean, as you know, it's set 100 years before the prequel movies, and it's kind of an explanation of how the Sith infiltrated the Jedi. It's a Sith-led story, which has never been done before."
The Acolyte has a star-studded cast, with Amandla Stenberg and Squid Game's Lee Jung-Jae in lead roles. Rounding out the line-up is Keen, The Matrix's Carrie-Anne Moss, Jodie Turner-Smith, Manny Jacinto, Rebecca Henderson, Charlie Barnett, and Dean-Charles Chapman.
The show, a mystery thriller, will see a former Padawan and her old Jedi Master on the case of a string of crimes, which leads to them encountering sinister forces.
"I actually was very intrigued by why George Lucas had started us at that particular point," showrunner Leslye Headland has said of The Phantom Menace's influence on the show. "I kind of wondered, but what happened to lead up to this? That's kind of where my Star Wars fan brain went was like, 'How did we get here?' And why are the Jedi like this? When they are in power, why are they acting this way and how is it that they're not having the reaction that you would think they would to Anakin's presence and what Qui-Gon Jinn is saying about how passionately he feels about training him and bringing him into the fold."
The Acolyte doesn't have a release date just yet, but next up on Star Wars' live-action release slate is The Mandalorian season 3, which is due to release on Disney Plus in February 2023. In the meantime, check out our guide to all the upcoming Star Wars movies and TV shows for everything else coming soon from the galaxy far, far away.
