The Acolyte: The Prequel-est Prequel Series is Star Wars Without the Baggage
By John Kirk
Rating: B-plus
If this show is the first time someone has ever seen anything to do with Star Wars, they should absolutely freakin’ enjoy The Acolyte. But if a die-hard fan (like me) is watching this, they may have a few issues.
Of course, that gets into the conundrum of maintaining the integrity of a franchise while attracting new viewers at the same time, and that’s a difficult line to walk. In the case of The Acolyte, that becomes very evident.
Sigh … talk about the Fandom Menace.
The story is set in the days of the High Republic (About 100 years prior to the events of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace). A lone assassin is bent on revenge, seeking out four Jedi Masters as the targets of her vengeance. We meet Osha (Amandla Stenberg) a mechnik (human starship mechanics, who perform the tasks that astromech droids do in the Star Wars we are all familiar with – remember R2D2?). Osha is somehow involved in this affair.
Yeah, that’s pretty much all I can say, given how much of the story I was able to see.
Carrying on canonical stories that are already established in a franchise appeals directly to the established fan-base. Yet, for streaming companies like Disney, success means bringing in new viewers.
In this case, Disney knows they already have the market of generations that includes those who first saw Episode IV in 1977, and their kids who saw it later and had to piece together the entire franchise, including all of the supplements.
For a work of fantasy entertainment, there’s a massive chronology of Star Wars to assimilate.
The choice to place this story 100 years prior to anything in the established canon is actually quite clever. It allows the writers/producers of this particular series a wide latitude of story elements to play with.
Of course, the danger to this is that, because it is a prequel, it instantly becomes canon. And that is what drives diehard fans crazy as they try to reconcile this series with what has already been established.
The Acolyte is a very solid story. It teases plenty in terms of the original history of the Jedi order and the political structure of the galaxy under the High Republic. Remember, the whole starting point for Star Wars is that the galaxy has been thrown into disorder from the time when things were at peace. This is the time of the High Republic. The Sith were but a shadow of a memory and the Jedi Order was the peace-keeping force in the galaxy.
In fact, if there’s a cool fan feature that stands out in this series, it’s seeing the Jedi operate in groups as opposed to single or partnered operatives. Multiple light-sabres instead of just one or two is as nifty as a fan could hope.
Oh, they have uniforms, are respected on whichever planet they land, and ARE also expected to obey a set of rules, which adds so much to the lore of the Jedi. Let’s face it: when we are introduced to the Jedi in Episode IV, they are a disbanded, unpopular and forgotten Order. It’s exciting for fans to see them in their glory.
But where The Acolyte fails – AND succeeds - is that it is completely disconnected from the franchise by the fact that it precedes it. Setting a story so far in the past gives writers the power to create something new. But with that power comes responsibility. How will it affect the established canon and, to an extent, how will that be received by the generations of fans? Given the history of this franchise: there are a lot of fans AND a lot of expectations.
It's difficult to get – and communicate - a full perspective on this series, given the number of episodes we were allowed to prescreen. But there’s no complaint as regards the performance or the storyline. The Jedi Order behaves exactly as Star Wars fans would expect.
The fact that there is a Wookie Jedi is more than just cool, it also expands the Jedi Order in terms of its openness to all races in the galaxy. That makes sense. It’s also in line with Episodes 1 to 3 where we saw different races in the Jedi Order.
The performances in The Acolyte are completely in line with what you would expect of Star Wars characters. They are supposed to be larger than life and they exceed what we want our heroes to be. That’s because Star Wars is fantasy – NOT science fiction. Many folks assume that Star Wars falls into the category of sci-fi because it has space travel, laser weapons and robots. But none of these things are governed by any sense of rules, and that’s what sci-fi is about. Again – check with a fan.
In Science Fiction, there is an established convention that whatever happens must be governed by some sort of scientific explanation. Even if it is the most theoretical type of sci-fi, there is still an expectation that the rules of physics, even in a conventional sense – must still be obeyed.
Star Wars is lucky in that it doesn’t have to obey that stricture. But it DOES have to obey the rules it sets for itself. Fans are very keen to that distinction, and when new viewers ask questions about this series, it will be the fans they will ask.
The Acolyte is probably the first streaming series where newcomers to Star Wars will thoroughly enjoy the experience. Seeing Jedi in their prime, not understanding the relationships between the Sith and Jedi, or even seeing the galaxy in a state of revolution … none of it matters. This is the galaxy as is. It’s a story set in a galaxy far, far away … without any of the baggage that Star Wars stories traditionally carry.
Star Wars is an epic cultural phenomenon. It has an established history – which ranks it high in cultural perspective. To rate an individual series in the light of what has come before requires some degree of canonical understanding.
However, this series has managed to succeed in terms of storyline, character representation and canonical importance by staying behind all that. It is seeking to tie the franchise together and that at least is something, along with the entertaining storyline, that fans can appreciate.
The Acolyte. Series stars Amandla Stenberg, Lee Jung-jae, Manny Jacinto, Dafne Keen, Charlie Barnett, Jodie Turner-Smith, Rebecca Henderson, Dean-Charles Chapman, Joonas Suotamo, and Carrie-Anne Moss. Star Wars: Acolyte streams on Disney+ on June 4.