Leslye Headland Says Adding a Jedi Wookiee Into The Acolyte Came From Her Love for ‘Solo; Cast Talks Unprecedented Levels of Diversity, and More

The Acolyte showrunner Leslye Headland and lead actors Amandla Stenberg and Lee Jung-jae spoke to Entertainment Weekly after the big Studio Showcase panel at Star Wars Celebration, and the conversation just aired on the most recent episode of the Dagobah Dispatch podcast.



In it, Headland speaks about the opportunity to create a new era in live-action that takes place before the prequels, and how the real challenge of the series came from doing a Star Wars series where there is no war. She added that it will feature the most Jedi we've ever seen, although we kind of assumed that already, given that of the dozen or so cast members we know of, almost all have been announced as Jedi. And yet, there is one Jedi that stands out in particular.



It was announced during Celebration that Joonas Suotamo, who has appeared in previous Star Wars films as Chewbacca, will be playing a Jedi Wookiee named Kelnacca. As Headland explained, she was immediately captivated by Suotamo's performance in Solo: A Star Wars Story, and wanted to have him in the show. That's where the idea of a Jedi Wookiee came from:

Star Wars The Acolyte at Star Wars Celebration London 2023



No footage from The Acolyte has been shown to the public yet, so all we have to go from at this stage are descriptions from people who attended the  panel at Star Wars Celebration. There, a short teaser was shown to the people in the room, and one of the biggest takeaways was the fight scenes. As Headland explained to Entertainment Weekly, these are fight scenes like we haven't seen in Star Wars before; she also teased other novelties that the new series will introduce, like morally ambiguous characters:

Another aspect of The Acolyte that will be heavily featured in the press junket interviews going into the series' release next year is the strong effort made by showrunner Leslye Headland and Lucasfilm at large to put together an extremely diverse and talented cast, in unprecedented ways for Star Wars and even Disney at large. The lead of the series is a Black, non-binary queer actor, while their co-star is Korean and has not said a word in English about The Acolyte since he stepped on the Celebration Stage. And the same goes for most of their supporting cast members. Stenberg talked about how this was extremely satisfactory for her:

Star Wars The Acolyte



And she wasn't the only cast member to express these feelings. Entertainment Weekly also talked to fellow actors Dafne Keen, Jodie Turner-Smith, Manny Jacinto, and Charlie Barnett in a conversation that hasn't aired yet, but snippets of which were published on their website. Said the Spanish-born actress Dafne Keen:

Jodie Turner-Smith added that this was 'one of the reasons that I chose to step into the world', then saying how special it was for her to see such a big show centered around women:

Barnett, a Black and homosexual actor who plays a Jedi Knight in The Acolyte, commented:

Manny Jacinto talked about how Lee Jung-jae playing the first Asian Jedi in the series will be a huge moment in pop culture:

Production wrapped in May of this year, as planned, and if the SAG-AFTRA strike doesn't severely affect the post-production process (be it because of pickups or ADR sessions), it should arrive within the first half of 2024 on Disney Plus.







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