Phil Roberts 
Star Wars: The Acolyte is featured on the cover of Empire Magazine’s April issue
The countdown to THE ACOLYTE has begun, and the exciting reveals keep coming. Entertainment Weekly recently shared a first look at Dafne Keen’s character, Jedi Apprentice Jecki Lon, which amazed us all. And today, Empire Magazine has taken it up a notch by revealing its latest issue, which features the upcoming Star Wars show in all its glory.
The series will be available on Disney Plus on June 4th in the States and June 5th in the UK. To celebrate its release, the world’s most beloved magazine is featuring exclusive interviews with the series’ stars and creatives as part of its coverage. Check out the excellent new cover below.
It’s long been a part of the Star Wars mythos, but something rarely depicted in live-action: go back before Order 66 and the events of the prequels, and the galaxy was once flooded with Jedi. The sight of lightsaber-wielders moving en masse was a major moment at the end of Episode II – Attack Of The Clones – but given that Palpatine and a nascent Vader bumped all the other Jedi off shortly after, it’s rarely been seen again. The Acolyte, though, is set to deliver exactly that – the new Star Wars series, from an original idea by Russian Doll creator Leslye Headland, is set 100 years before The Phantom Menace, at the end of the largely-peaceful High Republic era. And it’s a time simply stacked with Jedi.
Which in itself begs a bigger, overarching Star Wars question: if the Jedi were once flourishing and all-powerful, how did they let it slip so badly by the time of the Skywalker Saga, when Darth Sidious violently takes over? That’s part of the big picture at play in The Acolyte. “I was very interested in, how did the Jedi get to where they are in Phantom Menace?” Headland tells Empire in our world-exclusive cover feature. “You’re definitely getting a sense that, with the Jedi, the writing may be on the wall.” With the Jedi firmly in charge, The Acolyte’s early flickers of a looming dark side threat offers a new kind of Star Wars dynamic. “The quote-unquote ‘war’ of this Star Wars is a much smaller, more personal one,” notes Headland. “The war between people, the war between characters.”
RELEASE
Hold on to your seats, folks! The trailer may have sparked some negative reactions from a few fans online, but it is undeniably packed with an abundance of thrilling Star Wars imagery that is bound to captivate and entertain us all for weeks to come. But can showrunner Leslye Headland deliver a classic that satisfies die-hard fans? We’ll find out when the series premieres on Disney Plus on June 4th/5th.
Our team will cover this series comprehensively, providing traditional review coverage and prominent character posters, bios, and teasers. Subscribe to our homepage to get the latest updates from our team.
Meet Phil Roberts! He’s the dedicated owner, daily content manager, and editor-in-chief of The Future of the Force. Phil is a budding novelist who turned his passion toward writing about the franchises he loves back in 2016. He’s a huge fan of all things Star Wars, Batman, DC, Marvel, Star Trek, Indiana Jones, Ghostbusters, King Kong, and the Ray Harryhausen movies. Phil is a BFI-accredited journalist and a distinguished member of the Film Critics Association UK.
If he’s not catching a movie at the cinema, you can bet he’s streaming something just as awesome!
