Force-Fu Is Here To Stay In Star Wars And That’s A Problem
If you were a big fan of the Force-fu that Ezra Bridger showed off in the recent Ahsoka series, you’ll be happy to learn that Carrie-Anne Moss’s Jedi Master Indara will also be showing off the fighting style in the upcoming Star Wars series The Acolyte. If you’re like many fans and think that the fighting style looks just a little bit silly, then this news may be disappointing. Showrunner Leslye Headland recently spoke about Moss’s character to Empire Magazine, saying, “I personally wanted to see someone who had the highest status you could imagine in a Force-fu fight,” adding, “Somebody that would come in and you immediately would be like, ‘Oh, that’s the most powerful Jedi in the room.’”
Force-Fu
For the most part, Star Wars fans are used to seeing Jedis fight primarily with lightsabers, and the Force is more of a supplementary weapon during a battle. But in Ahsoka, we saw the long-lost Jedi Ezra Bridger had to resort to fighting with Force-fu tactics after he was stranded without his lightsaber for a long time. While the fighting style did have a couple of cool moments, it’s hard to say that it’s the preferred way for fans to watch Jedis fight.
That said, as Headland astutely points out, if anyone can look cool fighting with Force-fu, it would be Trinity herself. If The Acolyte manages to make Force-fu look as cool as fight scenes from The Matrix franchise, then maybe more fans would be willing to accept it as a more frequent part of the franchise. Of course, we’ll all have to reserve judgment until we see the fight scene in question.
Is This A Lost Art, Or A Bad Idea?
What’s interesting about Jedi Master Indara using Force-fu is the fact that we didn’t really see the tactic used until Ahsoka, which is strange because The Acolyte takes place over 100 years before that series. You would think that if Jedi Master Indara were using it during the Jedi’s Golden Era, aka the High Republic era, more Force users would utilize the tactic. Then again, The Acolyte does take place near the end of the Jedi’s golden era, so maybe they learned it wasn’t the best way to fight.
Fans Open To New Fighting Styles
In any case, Star Wars fans certainly aren’t opposed to new fighting styles, as there are numerous different fighting forms and stances for lightsaber dueling alone. Force-fu isn’t necessarily an out-there concept, it’s just that it hasn’t been used in a particularly great or interesting way from what we’ve seen so far. If Leslye Headland and the team working on The Acolyte can give fans a really cool Force-fu fight scene, then it wouldn’t be hard to imagine fans changing their mind.
The Wait For The Acolyte Is Nearly Over
The good news is we won’t have to wait much longer to find out if Force-fu is something that should or should not be here to stay. The Acolyte is set to premiere on Disney+ on June 4, 2024. Along with Carrie-Anne Moss, the show will also star Amandla Stenberg, Dafne Keen, Lee Jung-Jae, Manny Jacinto, Charlie Barnett, Jodie Turner-Smith, Rebecca Henderson, Dean-Charles Chapman, and Joonas Suotamo.
