Star Wars Series The Acolyte Officially Has a Lead Actor
The Dark Side just got more powerful.
The Star Wars offshoot series, The Acolyte has found its principal actress. Today, the series took to Twitter to officially announce the arrival of Amandla Stenberg in a way sure to please its ever picky fandom. Along with a caption inviting their followers to give Stenberg a big welcome, those behind the account also shared a photo of the actress decked out in a matching red and black outfit that makes the viewer lock eyes with Darth Maul. Next to her, is a life-size creation of R2-D2 which Stenberg is leaning up against. You can see the post below.
Taking audiences back to many years ago, somewhere around 100 years prior to the events of The Phantom Menace to be exact, Star Wars: The Acolyte is rumored to focus on the darker side of things. If so then, with Stenberg as the main character, she may very well be bound to the more evil side of the Force. The series plans to delve into the days when the High Republic was on a downhill trajectory and the Sith were thought to be nothing more than a tale lost in the past.
As for casting announcements surrounding the rest of the members of The Acolyte, mum’s been the word. Production is eyeing a start date some time in October meaning we should be hearing more about who else will be joining the cast in the very near future. Leslye Headland will serve the production as its writer and showrunner. A project close to her heart, Headland has been more than dedicated to the new series as she’s been chipping away at it for at least two years already. No official release date has been set at this time.
As for The Acolyte’s big reveal, Stenberg, at only 23 years old, has raked in an impressive number of credits already. She bursted onto the scene, breaking hearts and wowing everyone with her performance as Rue in 2012’s The Hunger Games. Her acclaimed reception in the film would carry her to nab the role of Macey Irving in the Fox drama series Sleepy Hollow as well as the starring role of Halle Foster in the Craig Robinson led sitcom, Mr. Robinson. In between those two projects, she got animated and voiced the blue bird Bia in Rio 2. Since then, she’s only moved up, gaining praise for her talents in Everything, Everything and The Hate U Give. Most recently, she appeared in the Netflix limited series, The Eddy and the musical turned film, Dear Evan Hansen.
A Star Wars fan herself, Amandla Stenberg took to Instagram to celebrate the big news today. In her post, which shared the same dark-side representing photos the Twitter post did, Stenberg said that she was “so excited” to have been given the green light to make the big reveal. “Honored is an understatement,” the star wrote, lending even more faith to the newest member of the Star Wars family. We absolutely can not wait to see what Stenberg and the others have up their sleeves for the series. With other projects as of late focusing on the good side of things, like the recent hit that was Obi-Wan Kenobi, it’s going to be really exciting to see how those behind production tell the tales of the dark side.
