THE DARK AND THE LIGHT: THE ACOLYTE'S GALACTIC SAGA

Get The Dark is an ecstatic, utopian utopia hidden from the puritanical, unyielding eye of the Light Structure that rules the galaxy – everywhere but your own planet I won’t spoil The Acolyte, but my first viewing experience left me longing for it to evolve into a calibration tale. The early episodes expertly establish the politics, culture and symbolism of this new setting. On one side, there’s the Light Structure, a 'conservative' regime that governs almost every planet in the galaxy with a strict political, moral and religious code – attested by the ubiquitous presence of stormtroopers, obedient citizen zombies and high-tech banal reformist missionaries. On the other side, bathed in shadows, beckoning from beyond the orbit of your planet, lies the mysterious Dark: a transcendent, utopian nirvana, free from the puritanical, rigid and shallow authoritarianism of the Light. I won’t spoil The Acolyte, but my first viewing experience left me wanting it to morph into a calibration tale: an evocative setup would thrive on elaboration. The early episodes are packed with tantalising details about the politics, culture and iconography of this new world.

BRINGING THE FORCE BACK WITH THE ACOLYTE

Bringing the Force back into the world, The Acolyte, the most recent expansion of the Star Wars universe, arrives on Disney+ later this year, and promises to carry both fans and neophytes alike deep into uncharted territory. As the countdown to release begins, Lucasfilm is facilitating these early days of anticipation with a thrilling sneak peek at the show’s all-new characters and the murky moral world they inhabit. It’s time to explore what lies beneath the surface of The Acolyte and its new cast of characters – a new world brought to life by some of the best people in the business.

DISCOVERING THE FORCE WITHIN THE ACOLYTE'S ENSEMBLE

The vast gap between those periods gives The Acolyte a temporal focus that’s largely untouched in Star Wars lore, providing a blank canvas for creators and fans alike. The character art Lucasfilm released to coincide with the show’s reveal deliberately harks back to the glossy allure of the 1990s trading cards, offering a tantalising if opaque look at the faces that will guide us through this new corner of the galaxy.

A GLIMPSE INTO THE GALAXY’S FUTURE AND PAST

Set towards the end of the High Republic era, about 100 years before The Phantom Menace, the series traffics in the residual months of an age of the Force where the dynamics are markedly different. At Star Wars Celebration Europe, in addition to meeting the series creator Leslye Headland, fans were also introduced to a Wookiee Jedi they hadn’t previously seen, foreshadowing the show’s dive into the era’s mess of Force-endowed people.

THE FORCE AWAKENS IN JEDI AND SITH ALIKE

The footage itself promises fans that the light of the Jedi Order will get brighter, while the shadows where its chief enemies, the Sith, lurk, are getting darker. The teaser takes us from temple to marketplace, over several worlds, where the Force seems to whisper to us to suggest that politics, power and betrayal will all be central to the show’s storytelling.

THE DUALITY OF THE FORCE EXPLORED

At the centre of The Acolyte’s story is the eternal push and pull between the Light and the Dark side of the force. The trailer features clips of Jedi in calm meditation, only to cut from that serenity to hints of the power of the Dark side’s users. It is this duality that allows the characters to tread a path that becomes muddy with questions over good and evil, power and destiny.

UNVEILING THE SHADES OF CHARACTER WITHIN

Peel back the surface of the promotional material for The Acolyte, and you can uncover a series of mosaics, in three dimensions: the character Mae (played by Amandla Stenberg) is a black box, it says; then the shadow-shrouded Jedi Master (played by Lee Jung-jae) is a white box; and so on. Many of the characters had to remain obscured in this way, Crouch explained, because their stories are part of a tapestry, centred not on them but on the galaxy as a whole. Surely, though, each individual was like a vehicle holding the galaxy together – ripe with potential stories of struggle and ambition and maybe even redemption.

THE LIVING FORCE: UNDERSTANDING ITS ROLE

At the centre of the drama of The Acolyte is the Force, the foundation of the Star Wars mythos – whose existence is fundamentally dichotomous, both creating and destroying. This power is never fully comprehended by its human users, and that becomes both a facet of their humanity, and of their weakness. The show will make the mythos fresh again by creating new ways to tell the story of this energy.

ABOUT FORCE

The Force is the galactic energy field that has always sustained the Star Wars universe. It’s described as being an energy field created by all living beings, surrounding us and penetrating us, holding the galaxy together. The Force has two sides in the galaxy: the Light Side, used for knowledge, understanding and defence of the individual, encouraging peace and love, and the Dark Side: accessed by aggression, anger and fear, provoking hate and anger which leads to chaos and destruction. With The Acolyte we’ll expand upon the multiple facets of the Force, making connections between the past and the future, and adding to the mystique of the enigmatic power that’s brought joy to a legion of generations.