The Acolyte will feature Vernestra Rwoh in live action as casting confirmed at Star Wars Celebration

The Acolyte
(Image credit: 2023 Getty Images)

Vernestra Rwoh is coming to live action in upcoming Disney Plus series The Acolyte. At Star Wars Celebration, it was confirmed that she will be played by Rebecca Henderson during the High Republic panel.

Rwoh is a Mirialan Jedi Knight from the High Republic era and a fan-favorite from her appearances in books and comics. Henderson is a Canadian actor known for her roles in Russian Doll, Inventing Anna, and Westworld. 

At the panel, showrunner Leslye Headland explained Rwoh will be a good representation of where the Jedi are going between the High Republic and the Prequel Trilogy. She also teased that she's at a crossroads, and will go from the idealism of the Jedi in the High Republic books to the more restrictive dogma of the Prequel Trilogy  over the course of this series. Sounds intriguing... You can see the first image of her in the tweet below.

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During the Lucasfilm Studio panel on Friday, GamesRadar+ were treated to a new exclusive look at The Acolyte. Introduced by the showrunner Leslye Headland and cast of the upcoming Disney Plus show, this featured some younglings being trained by Lee Jung-jae's mysterious Jedi. Elsewhere in the footage, evil seemed to be lurking around every corner, including Jodie Turner-Smith's sinister-looking character.

The Acolyte will debut on Disney Plus in 2024 and according to Headland will be "Frozen meets Kill Bill", which sounds like quite the combination. The series will be set in the High Republic era. The logline for the series suggests it will follow a former Padawan and her old Jedi Master investigating a string of crimes.

The cast also includes Amandla Stenberg, Dafne Keen, Carrie-Anne Moss, Dean-Charles Chapman, Margarita Levieva, Charlie Barnett, James Henri-Thomas, and Manny Jacinto.

This isn't the only news that's been announced at Star Wars Celebration either. The biggest talking point is Daisy Ridley returning as Rey in a new feature film set 15 years after The Rise of Skywalker, as well as the announcement of some other new movies from Dave Filoni and James Mangold.

Elsewhere, we also got our first look at the Ahsoka trailer, and some exclusive footage from Andor season 2 and Skeleton Crew. You can keep up to date on all the new releases from the galaxy far, far away with our guide to the upcoming Star Wars movies and TV shows through the link. 

Fay Watson
Deputy Entertainment Editor

I’m the Deputy Entertainment Editor here at GamesRadar+, covering TV and film for the Total Film and SFX sections online. I previously worked as a Senior Showbiz Reporter and SEO TV reporter at Express Online for three years. I've also written for The Resident magazines and Amateur Photographer, before specializing in entertainment.